If only UK players had put in the effort you did…

Little tidbit about Horn. I got to the game about 5:30 PM way before amny fans did.

Horn came out and greeted, chatted with USC fans in the stands for about 30 minutes. He’s really making an effort to connect with their fans.

I can’t imagine how I would have reacted watching the game you described Tru. I really have no confidence that Gillispie possesses the ability or desire to reflect on his coaching style. His continuing stubbornness in making necessary changes to adjust to how different teams play is just mind-boggling.

At this point I seriously question whether he has the coaching talent to win a national championship or even get to a Final Four no matter how much talent he has. At some point in March you always face a team that does something that requires some kind of adjustment to your basic game plan and Gillispie has yet to show he can and will do that.

A sobering analysis tinged with sadness. No anger. It seems that this is where we all need to be at this point in this season and in the second year of a new coach’s tenure. Disappointed but not despairing.

BCG may not have put his players in a position to succeed last night, but the previous UK coaching staff did not put Gillispie in much of a position to succeed either. All of our upper classmen besides Jodie Meeks are not UK quality players and very inconsistent. And inconsistent players yield inconsistent results on the court. That’s why Perry Stevenson plays great one game, then disappears the next 3. Solid and consistent play from upperclassmen are the key for any college basketball team to be successful. And this UK team lacks that type of play.

With that said I’m not saying BCG does not deserve some of the blame – he does. But to assess the current state of the program and it’s disfunction, one has to assess when that disfunction began. To me, the UK program has not been the same since Chuck Hayes departed the program in 2005. It was in these years when recruiting really began to suffer, and because of this, the program has slid into mediocrity.

The lesson we should all learn from this current situation is that recruiting is the life blood of any successful college athletic program and can’t be taken for granted. All the successful programs recruit the best players. I believe BCG is trying very hard to get the UK program back to getting these type of players. It shows with the class coming in next year. However it could take 2 more good recruiting classes to get the UK program back to challenging for SEC and NCAA titles (unless Patterson and Meeks stay for another year, that will help). But I’m not sure UK fans have that much patience. As for me, I’m reserving judgement on BCG until he has “his” players in the system. I think we owe him that much.

It seems as though everyone has given up on this year. Yes it looks bad now, but on Saturday everyone was full of joy. This team and the way they play is a roller-coster. I do feel that Meeks and Patterson will play pissed off on Saturday, and the rest of the team will feed of this.

This season is not lost. This team is capable of hittin another high. UK must win 2/3 and one SEC tournament game to get in, but this is feasable. As a true fan I back my plaers, my coach, and maintain hope. Jumping ship right now does no one any good.

Keep the Faith,

Lane

No, BCG should have another year, but lets call out the asst. coaches and what they are doing to help teach the young’uns in practice. We should be seeing marked improvement consistently in our other players and that isn’t happening. Miller, Liggins, Harrison, Harris, Galloway, Stephenson are all so inconsistent that we are asked on another blog who will be the 3rd person to step up and we shouldn’t be asking that question this late in the season. I wonder if any “teaching” is going on in practice or are we relying on just being “schooled” by VMI, Vandy, MSU and USC. We are a two trick pony in a five trick circus and unless the others “pony up” we will not get a 10 seed in the “NIT” pick tournament.

Your commentary is absolutely dead on. Regarding the practices, Barry Booker & Dave Baker commented last night on how great Kentucky looked at the shoot-around earlier yesterday. So, what happened between then and last night? Did some alien team invade the blue jerseys? I was so disappointed last night that I had to leave the room for awhile in order to keep my cool. When the match up is poor, the players seem to give up, give in, and give out.

He was fired after only 2 years I beleive. BUT, there is one big differecne, his team had 4-5 NBA lottery picks. He had tons of talent and could not produce. UK does not have tons of latent right now, but they are heading in the right direction. So many fans complaiend that Tubby could not recruit or win in the tournament, but these same fans expect BG to come in (with the minimal talent recruited by Tubby) and win. NO, BG needs to have time to reruit his own kids. As I have said, one more year, pending Meeks and Patterson come back. If so, we should see signficant improvment next year. If at this time next year, UK is still inconsistent and losing games they should win, then I will start to question BG, but not until then.

Lane

I appreciate the fact that most people are still showing support for the coach and players and are not overly criticiizing them. They are our Cats and they still deserve our support.

This will be lengthy but I ask that you please bear with me.

First, I waited until Tru posted his Post Mortem, and, Tru, it was worth the wait, your words not only give insight into the situation but also perceptiveness into to your passion and, indeed, love for UK basketball. It mirrors that of most of us I think.

Second, as a preamble, after the victory over Arkansas I posted on why I didn’t feel better about a double-digit road win without Patrick Patterson and gave some of my misgivings. After the win over the Vols I cautioned regarding FEAR: False Evidence Accepted as Reality, fools’ gold, if you will, and stated that such play was not presumptive against better coached, better prepared, better motivated teams such as the likely to be Gamecocks, and listed the ongoing deficiencies as I perceived them.

Now to the basic 1, 3, 4: UK does not at this time have an adequate — and I use the term literally — performer at either of those positions. To support that statement I offer the following:

Requisite traits of a point guard (1): Leadership, dribble penetration, passing/faking, 1 on 1 moves (offense & defense), perimeter shooting, conditioning. No UK player has all those and most have few. Will Liggins in the future? Problematic.

Requisite traits of a small forward (3): requires most athleticism of all positions, quick, strong, ability to slash, strength to post up, create own shot yet pass as well, perimeter shot, defend both larger and smaller players. No UK player has all those and most have few. Darius Miller is the player that comes closest but not now, future is problematic.

Requisite traits of a power forward (4): size and strength are mandatory, able to play back to basket or facing basket, ability to hit midrange shot, rebounding prime responsibility, defense of larger players, protect the paint. No UK player has all those and most have few. Actually Patrick Patterson is the player most physicall and mentally fit for this position but alas must be used at the 5. Should he remain a Cat and Daniel Orton meet expectations the problem might be addressable.

Therein lies the basis of Cats problems and Coach Gillispie’s dilemma. Please note that the title is Basic As 1, 3, 4, not Simple As 1, 3, 4, because it is quite a bit more complex with Gillispie’s enigmatic ideas and seeming obstinacy being factors. However IMO once the serious talent inadequacies are addressed the other difficulties will fall in line.

     We should have had 2 jets waiting outside after the game. One to bring our players home and one to take BCG back to Texas! Whether you beat around the bush and say we should give him a chance the fact of the matter is he can not coach. I’ ve said it all along, wins or losses are determined by how well I guys play only. BCG can not make adjustments, he can not give guys tools to succeed and he can not motivate these players. Players play yes, like soldiers fight, but there has to be a general to create and make sure his subordinates follow a GAME PLAN!

     There is not a more devoted UK fan on this blog than me, I love Kentucky basketball above all else yet the fact of the matter is we have made a mistake. Yes we! The only difference in myself and some of the other people here is I am willing to say it now as apposed to 2 years from now. Who do we get you ask? Let’s find a young coach who needs this opportunity who is running a sound, systematic team that maybe hasn’t won alot because he can not get talented players to come to his small school. Don’t say we can not take that kind of gamble because if you think BCG was anything more than a gamble when we hired him you are either seriously dillusional or smoking something illegal!

BCG does nothing more than throw OUR guys to the wolves everytime he takes the floor andi am sick of it. There are those who have said some of us are happy when we win and want to complain when we don’t. I am calling B.S. I think we look uncoached and terrible everytime we take the floor. Unless someone has an outstanding game we are going to lose. And don’t get me started again on how everyone has career nights against us. BCG is asleep at the wheel people, how long do we have to put up with this? I realize it has been a short amount of time, but it has been long enough to see he can not cut it at the greatest mens college basketball program in existence.

I am a huge sports fan and played multiple sports through my teenage years, including some high school basketball. I was one of the shorter players, so I had to bust by butt to be on the court and play steller defense. I rarely blamed my coaches for a lost, or thougt the coach was the main reason we ever one a game.

So here is my opinion, in general, in the sports world (college and pro) I feel that coaches ger way to much credit for wins and way to much credit for loses. BG can not take shots or make passes. He can not defen a player either. The players must take accountability for their play. Yes, BG needs to take accoutabiltiy for things he does, but at the same time, he can tell a player to do something, but weather they listen is out of his hands. Those who don’t listen must be punished. Any way, this was too long-winded. The point is, the coach is not the end-all-be-all of weather we win or lose, nor should the credit be that way. It is the players who play and so forth.

Lane

Several questions here and other places on sitting Meeks in latter portion of game. Leach posed the question to Gillispie in the post-game. Gillispie’s first response was rather abrupt, a moment later he congratulated Leach for doing a good job and asking the question, saying he (Gillispie) knew it would come up. Gillispie said something to the effect that Meeks missed some defensive responsibilities and, although he usually doesn’t give up on games, this particular game was over and Meeks probably wouldn’t have made a lot of difference. As, I think, reported earlier, Gillispie stated that he asked Patterson if he wanted to come out of the game and could understand if he said yes, but he didn’t. Gillispie also brought up the concept of selfish play especially when it comes to getting Patterson the ball in good positions and times. Many underlying issues it appears.

when they say that UK is becoming a “football school” rather than a basketball power.
That’s not all bad !!!

Are some you of still trying to compare BCG with tubby? He’s new, this is his second year, he didn’t get a good recruiting stance last year…the factors weigh against him. He only has 2 players that are original UK-type material, another 2 that can be good when they want, and the rest don’t play or are inconsistent when they do. It’s too early in BCG’s coaching career at UK to determine whether he’s worthy of being our coach. But from the looks of it, we’ve got good things coming for us next year. As for this season, lets go wtih the flow, support our Cats and our coach, and make sure we stick with them besides giving up like I know numerous Louisville fan’s do whenever T Will doesn’t have a good game.

Next year will be a different story.

True whats going on with A.J. is he off the team?

have to do with UK’s current situation? Who cares about Pitino? He hasn’t been at UK in over a decade.

Bottom line is BCG needs time to get “his” players in the program. We are 19-9 and 8-5 in the SEC. We still have a shot to win the SEC East. And UK doesn’t even have a true PG on this team. If you would have told me before the season started we would be 19-9 and 8-5 in the SEC at this point with a shot at winning the SEC East I would have been happy. With UK’s current roster, I didn’t expect to win the SEC East this year.

Yeah we played bad the other night, but so what? A bad loss does not define a season. Get over it.