Welp. This is the post I didn’t want to have write yet but here we are. Kentucky is upset by 14 seeded Oakland and this feels worse than the St. Peter’s loss for me. This whole season kind of felt like a Last Stand for John Calipari in terms of his relationship with the fans and in the end he was overrun.
Kentucky Was Terrified
For the third year in a row Kentucky came in to a Tournament game and look absolutely petrified of the moment. Credit to Oakland who called their shot all week. They came into the game and played completely unafraid. It is embarrassing look for Kentucky and is all to familiar. Other than Antonio Reeves and Tre Mitchell no one can feel great about their performance or even their approach to the game.
Reed Sheppard was literally running away from open shots for the first 30 minutes of the game. When he finally hit an open three you could almost see the relief. For whatever reason a team that was built around extremely confident players came into this game the complete opposite.
Defensive Fundamentals
This plagued Kentucky all year and it ultimately ended their season. We know this team can defend because we’ve seen them do it but there was never a commitment to it beyond “funnel drivers to Ugo and hope he blocks it”. Last night you could see poor defensive stances, ball-watching, refusal to fight through screens, gambling for steals (and missing), and other fundamental goofs. It wasn’t just one guy, everyone who touched the floor for Kentucky last night had multiple breakdowns like this.
To me that is a coaching failure. Kentucky just never locked in on that side of the ball during the season. Part of it is probably all the injuries but Cal has had elite defensive teams and that used to be the one thing everyone in coaching circles recognized was his bread and butter. This team never seemed bothered enough on that end of the floor and they are now going home because of it.
Antonio and Tre Showed Up
There will be a lot of weeping and gnashing of teeth in the coming months, so I wanted to end on a slight positive. Both Antonio Reeves and Tre Mitchell did their best (on the offensive end) to keep Kentucky in the game. They fought their tails off in what will be their last college game. Both guys have had accomplished careers and they deserved to go out better than that. I know BBN is a mixture of sad, mad, and angry (deservedly) but I hope we can make sure those guys can feel a little love before they start their next journey.
What Does It Mean
Oh boy. From my perspective I think there needs to be a change. This thing is going to turn incredibly toxic if Cal runs it back with the same tired cliches. Kentucky fans won’t buy back in, this team was the one everyone bought back in for and nothing changed. Most of this team is going to leave for the NBA, a few will transfer, and we just can’t bring a whole new team into this kind of environment and expect them to develop into a contender.
I know the financials are difficult, but Mitch must figure it out (and then his position probably needs to be evaluated if I’m honest). The program can’t really do this for another year. That realization makes me incredibly sad. I believe John Calipari is a good man. He’s had a storied career that has been a tremendous positive for CBB. It sucks that this is how it probably has to end. Should be an interesting few weeks in BBN.
Go Cats.
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