Miami (OH) RedHawks, 70 @ Kentucky, 72 -- Postmortem

Look, I know all of us would’ve liked a larger margin of victory,but in the end it was a great victory and an even better learning experience for this team. Say we did what we were supposed to do and blew them out by 20. Sure it would’ve looked good and probably felt better to the fans but a win like this is invaluable to a young team like ours. The way we fought back and won was incredible. That being sad let’s take out all of our frustration on Sam Houston on thursday.

Tonight, my son had his first bball game and I took my phone in so I could casually look at the score to see how much we would win by. Then I saw it with 17 points in favor of MofO. I was like “oh crap, not again”. I was angry for a bit then I was like Tru, “we won’t lose this game”. Although I did get really angry at the end that we weren’t up by ten. Again, I didn’t not see the game but just kept up on the scoring updates. When my blood pressure shoots up, my eyes start seeing dots. I was seeing alot of those. We won though and I am so happy. I am with alot of people………..we are in the mindset of winning and that is what it comes from…..that is the difference between four years and today………..we have confidience that we will win. I did watch the last few minutes on my DVR when I got home and you could just see the determination in their eyes. That is the attitude that you want these guys to have. I have said in the past that we will lose a few before conference and I stand by that but there will be no head hanging. We have swagger and that is what we need for a deep run in March. I am looking forward to it!

game by quite a few. Give Cal and Strickland credit for getting Cousins fired up. I do think Dodson has to be on the floor as much as possible. You have to have his outside shooting.
I don’t understand what has happened to PP’s free throw shooting. This game should convince these guys that they have to turn up the defensive pressure. If they do, we will be very happy Cat fans by the end of the year. It certainly was an exciting game. I know I was exhausted after it.

I felt he played well down the stretch..took some big shots and drained them. Hopefully that will help his confidence.

when orton got bloodied up? i’m watching a replay of the game tomorrow, and i don’t want to skip over it.

are talking so much smack about this game.

Your statement about the crowd being “so into the basketball game, so animated, so determined to push the Wildcats over the top” immediately reminded me of the first game of the Pitino Era against the Ohio Bobcats. I was fortunate to be able to go to the game (courtesy of tickets from my die-hard UK b-ball fan Grandmother). Rupp rocked the entire game with UK winning a close one at the end (albeit, not nearly as dramatic as the Wall punctuation mark).

It faltered a bit when we weren’t pulling away with 3 or 4 minutes left. But there was a calmness. We are going to have one hell of a team when this all comes together. You can see it through the sloppy play. Thus, the Zen, I think

Before checking the inter-tubes for the postmortem, my wife and I were discussing the Zen thing this morning over coffee. We both felt the exact same way and she even used the word Zen.

The time-out called because Wall seemed lost with the ball with a 2 point lead and less than a minute on the clock, the missed second free throw leading to the Miami 3-point to tie the game, etc….. it all seemed almost too perfect. Not beautiful basketball, but a perfect lesson.

The shot by Wall with 0.5 on the clock to win the game truly was the exclamation point. Not sure what lesson the team was supposed to garner from it, but maybe that part of the curriculum was for the fans. A reminder that a new era has arrived in the Commonwealth.

Here’s another way to look at this.

That was Miami’s superbowl. It was a fluke — 15 three’s, come on!!!!. UK’s D was to blame for a bit of that, of course, but D only goes so far when a team is “on” and is well coached.

We’ve seen this for years. One kid gets hot and could easily fart a three. Winburn had his career game last night. Good for him. He’s just one in a long line of David’s, though.

The difference last night? We absorbed the 3 point slingshots and won.

There will be more David’s, but we can relax a little more with this team. Much, much more than the previous four years where last night would have been a loss, without a doubt.

And… Miami makes only their usual 1/ 3 of three’s — UK wins by 30 or more.

It was great to see a Kentucky team capable of reeling a team back in after spotting them eighteen points. It was also nice to see that our guys don’t have that hesitation to shoot that they’ve had over the past few years. They were sloppy, but what would you expect from two guards who were playing grade school basketball four years ago. I think this game was a good learning experience.

Not that I’m complaining, but why wasn’t UK called for a foul when Miami heaved the ball from 3/4 court at the buzzer? We clearly mauled him – shouldn’t it have been 3 free throws?

And more Dodson, please.

They were hitting NBA 3s and challenged 3s all night. They also played great defense. Charlie Coles had them fired up and they played hard.

The last two years, this game is a loss.

This game is far more valueable, than a blow-out win. For the players, and the coach…

Did anyone else watching last night think back to the Crispin brothers from Penn State?

It wouldn’t have been just a loss, it would have been a blood-letting. And don’t forget that this year’s team with a coach whose initials are BCG wouldn’t have had players named Wall, Bledsoe, Cousins, or probably Patterson. I’ll take an ugly win over a pretty loss any day, particularly when the team, coaches, and even fans learn something along the way.

Last night. More than a few, we got some home cooking. I agree that we would have lost that game last year, but we’re going to need a better developed offense than Wall running in the lane and throwing it at the rim if we’re going to be a legit top 10 team this year. Talent alone seemed to get us through last night, wasn’t impressed with the game plan and the inability to take away the three pointer Monday. Bledsoe needs to be stronger in the paint, too many lost balls trying to force it inside. I think we missed Hood last night. Good to see Cousins come alive at the end of the game.

I watched the game via espn360 with my 10 yr old son, and even down big, I never expected to lose the game. Even my wife who is a duke (blasphemy) fan commented ’they’ll still win’. This is in no way a slight to Miami, who was unbelieveable, but speaks of the renewed confidence we have in our Cats. So glad we have a team to be confident in again, even though we are still SO rough. Thanks Coach Cal for giving us a great and fun team to watch. Looking forward to a great season!!

and I want to be sitting in front of my TV! But work is calling me, so I have it on in another room, where like a fire burning in the fireplace, it just makes me feel good to know that college basketball is on.