North Carolina Tar Heels (5) 72 @ Kentucky Wildcats (1) 73: Postmortem

I couldn’t figure out why Davis was guarding Zeller, it was clearly not going well. Maybe there were some things happening away from the ball that made that assignment work, but when Zeller had the ball Davis really couldn’t stop him alone.

For the 3’s, there were some open looks that just didn’t go down, and I kept waiting for them to run plays to get Lamb some open looks. Finely they did late in the second half and “voila!” By-the-by: Lamb is now shooting 50% on 3’s this season.

MKG is a man’s Man. That is all.

Okay, no it isn’t. K-G was absolutely beastly in this game – maybe the most physically dominant player in the game. He just could not be kept away from the ball.

Vargas gave the Cats exactly what I thought he could on the defensive end. I really, really, really would like to see him get ~10 mpg. I think he has earned them. He is playing hard defensively and working for every rebound. His Defensive Rebound % is over 30 – that’s Kenneth Faried territory. Those are the things Cal keeps mentioning that Wiltjer needs to do to get more minutes and Vargas is doing them in spades.

Just a great, great game.

When Davis blocked that shot I came out of my seat. Scared the crap out of my wife and sister :-). I drank coffee during the game, I’m celebrating now!

I find essentially nothing I disagree with. I’m simply delighted to get this win against such a quality opponent. At 38 in a row at home, folks are going to have to admit Cal can coach. Or decide that Coach K has similar weaknesses.

Kidd-Gilchrist made some outstanding plays today. That spin move ha made on the and-1 was pretty impresssive.

I’m a snake

how the game was played opposite of what was expected.
UNC cannot shoot the ball that well again. It was amazing and there isn’t much you can do about it when a team is shooting like that. One player yes, but a team, no way.

Glenn, there was some disagreement above, but I think you were right that in the first half there was some poor transition defense for the 3. There also seemed to be some confusion in the half court regarding who should rotate. Poor shot selection in the first half by UK, but boy did they play excellent half court D (inside the arc) and did they work.

Someone said it, but to reiterate, the wrong people were shooting 3’s for the Cats.

Earlier I made a post about terrible officiating. I retract that statement, because it is too harsh. However, I have noticed this year that the smiley face under the basket isn’t working as intended. It seems to me that players are in the arc and jumping out as someone drives to the basket. What happened to Lamb and MKG in the first half I have noticed in several other games this year. Untended consequences I guess.

That was a ball game. Man was it something. The maturity they exhibited. Now it was at home, but still…

Cal did a masterful job coaching today….goodness.

How often do hyped events actually meet the expectations? Or as The Bard stated:

"Oft expectation fails, and most oft where most it promises;

My prognostications were not quite equal to my expectation: I thought UNC would win and mostly due to their greater experience — but I’m overjoyed at being wrong. I was more accurate in saying that MK-G and Teague would be key with Gilllie sure to improve his performance against St. Johns and Teague would have to hold his own versus Marshall — both occurred. I disagree that UK’s shot selection was all that bad in the first half, a bit quick maybe but most were not closely guarded. It is tendentious to judge 3-point attempts as poor selection when they’re not made, e.g. Lamb’s late key 3 from the corner was not all that great and more than adequately defended but it went in, ergo a “good” shot. Conversely not all the Heels’ 3’s were great choices but they found the net and look “good”.

A couple of other interpretations: considering the dearth of experience this team has a remarkably high basketball IQ, lack of experience does not trump size/length and athleticism on defense and by the end of season this could be UK’s best defensive team and, finally, I totally agree with awarding the game ball to Gillie but IMO the person most responsible for the victory is Coach Calipari, he clearly bested Coach Williams.

BTW, since my DVR is inop, does anyone know if there is an archived on-line anywhere?

I would welcome the rematch in New Orleans. I know I’m completely biased on this, but between these two teams, I see much more “upside potential” in our young Cats. They still seem a little out of control at times and can use better shot selection and cohesiveness on offense. I don’t think we’ve seen this group “firing on all cylinders.” Scary thought, huh? UNC seems like they’re already there – basically the same team as last year’s Elite Eight team. Another year of experience will surely help them, but they’re already starting out as a group that knows each other pretty well. It helps that our Freshman have been playing together since the spring, but college ball is a whole new beast for all of them.

I’m very happy for all the “tests” they have passed so far this year: tough Kansas team under the bright lights in New York; seasoned tournament team in ODU playing rock ’em sock ’em style; “trap game” with the Johnnies as the newly cristened #1 team; and today against a team seeking revenge for the tournament expulsion last year. Now we have their first true road game coming up. B-town is going to be a BRUTAL environment (having gone there 2 years ago – they take no prisoners, and now at least they have a college-worthy product to put on the court).

Can’t wait to see what these guys do with 30 or so games under their collective belts.

at least the Tarheel fans were complaining about it as much as we are. I guess that could mean that is was evenly bad. LOL

Lot of 2nd guessing about the playing time of various players, or in some cases the lack there of.

Also they seemed to take exception to Cal’s post game comments, finding them demeaning. I didn’ hear Cal’s remarks, but I found that surprising, the usual script praises the opponents and then explains how the teams "we’ made are attributal to the youth of the team, and then a couple of remarks on the good plays that helped us pull out the win. With a possible reprise of how much they will have learned from this tough game with good opponent. Did he change formats today?

I would simply be remiss if I didn’t comment on what an unbelievable game this was. This is probably one of the couple best games I’ve ever seen during the regular season (especially in December). With all due respect to Ohio State there is little doubt in my mind that we were watching the two best teams in the nation playing. I also agree with the statements made that UK is further from their potential than Carolina is (which is scary). I feel like if this game were played ten times UK would win 8 simply because carolina can’t rely on hitting 61% from three point range. I think I was most proud of the way this team kept their composure and never let up throughout the game. I think I fell in love with this team yesterday….

MKG. love the player, AND the name. After last nights game, he deserves the nickname GILLY THE KIDD.

Just a GREAT college basketball game. I haven’t read all of the posts in this thread and I am sure it’s all been said already. I will say this UK team is growing and improving at a very fast pace. They already are scary good….and it will only get better. Just hope and pray for no injuries because there isn’t a lot of debth. But from what I have seen in college basketball so far,there isn’t a team that can match the talent of this team in players 1-6. I will also say that after watching UNC play 3 times this year they are vastly overated. They will win a lot of games because the ACC is weak and they will get a great seed in the NCAAT and they will play close to home like every year,so they are a FF threat. But I just don’t see the overwhelming talent that so many see with that team.

We have to wait a whole week for another game…

I do not find this game in espn3.com. I could not watch the game as I was far away from home. Can someone please post a link to the game?

From an IU perspective, I would say that we definitely have a chance at beating UK. I understand that UK is definitely one of the most dominant, if not the most dominant team in the nation. However, IU not only is a very well-coached team, but it is also very athletic and now has a new component: Cody Zeller. Cody is already better than Tyler and might be a tough matchup for Anthony Davis (I hope). Yes, Mo Creek is out again, but if he wasn’t injured, it would make the team deeper.

Also, the team definitely feeds off of the crowd’s energy, and Assembly Hall might be one of the loudest basketball arenas in the nation when it is fully packed. It also has, and this is true, it has THE LARGEST STUDENT SECTION IN THE NATION.

Either way, it will be a great game, and GO HOOSIERS.