Wednesday, January 15, 2014

Arkansas 87 - 85 Kentucky (Overtime)

Three years ago, when UK lost at Arkansas in overtime, I was furious at our players and thought that their repeated habit of losing close games showed that they had no heart.  They then went to the Final Four, thanks to close wins over Princeton, West Virginia, Ohio State, and North Carolina.

Two seasons ago, when UK lost at Indiana on a last second buzzer-beater, I worried that this boded ill for the remainder of the season.  The Cats went on to win the National Championship.

So I'm not going to panic about this game.  In fact, the hours and hours I spent tonight watching the officials blow fouls and look at the monitor has helped to bond me with this team in a way I didn't feel before.  I thought the Cats played extremely hard, under conditions that I thought were extremely unfair.  (I think another UK player just got hammered driving to the basket -- oh, no call.)  The Cats made not one but two last-second three-pointers to keep their chances alive, and they battled on every single possession.  If Willie Cauley-Stein had been allowed to fully participate (he was fouled out in only 18 minutes of play), I'm very confident that the Cats would have won.

Kentucky is still not a very good team defensively -- but they did play pretty good defense down the stretch, and their numbers would have looked even better if Arkansas hadn't been bailed out with one questionable foul call after another.

In short, this is not the time for UK fans to despair over this team.  The Cats just played 85 minutes under very difficult conditions in both Nashville and Fayetteville, and they played hard the whole time.  The effort is there, and I think the talent is there as well.  We still have to go through a lot of difficult games before the end of the season, but I think we are on the right path.  Based on the effort the Cats have shown in their last two games, they deserve our support.

As for the officiating, I will repeat that SEC fans would not put up with this sort of nonsense in football.  No one would suggest that Arkansas should get away with offensive holding or pass interference in a football game just because they are at home.  The game should be called fairly, no matter where it is played.  Some day I hope that same principle is applied to basketball.  But today, unfortunately, was not that day.

Unfortunately, this loss puts enormous pressure on UK to win its next game, a home game against Tennessee.  I'm pretty sure the home team will not get special treatment in that game, so we will just have to do our best against a very good Tennessee squad.

22 comments:

  1. 5,100 people on the UK message board. What a team. What a Commonwealth.

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  2. It is literally true that the officials tonight got more screen time on ESPN than Willie Cauley-Stein, who is arguably UK's best player.

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  3. Randle had 20 points and 14 rebounds. He was a joy to watch all night.

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  4. Aaron Harrison had 16 points in only 24 minutes (he was, of course, in foul trouble). I really like his game.

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    1. I didn't get to see this game last night, but I noted when I got online this morning that my wife had changed her Facebook status in support of Harrison at about 11 Central last night. That must've been when things were hot and heavy.

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  5. James Young had 23 points and 6 rebounds. I thought this was one of his best games.

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  6. This is a pretty fiery team -- Young, Randle, and the Harrison twins are all very excitable players. I thought that really helped tonight -- there were a bunch of times they could have given up, but they just kept fighting.

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  7. The loss drops UK to 16 on Ken Pomeroy's site. We are still projected to go 14-4 in the SEC. Pomeroy has a category called "Luck," which is basically the difference between your actual record and your expected record, given your stats. We are now 329th in the country in "Luck," which reflects the fact that we are 0-4 in games decided by five points or less.

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  8. Here is how Calipari's other UK teams did in terms of "Luck":

    2010: 43 (Wall and Cousins were great in close games, until they played West Virginia)
    2011: 284 (all those close losses in SEC road games)
    2012: 84 (they only lost two games, period)
    2013: 193 (bad luck was not their main problem)
    2014: 329 (0-4 in games decided by 5 points or less)

    So we are due for some close wins.

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  9. Oh, I almost forgot about the late-game play where Arkansas pushed Andrew Harrison over the mid-court line and the officials called an over-and-back, thus giving the ball to Arkansas.

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  10. Oh, and the play where Polson beat the Arkansas guy to a key offensive rebound -- but they called a foul on Polson, giving Arkansas two free throws.

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  11. Oh, and the blocking call on Willie Cauley-Stein with 9 seconds left in regulation that was clearly a charge.

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  12. Oh, and a foul on James Young when an Arkansas guy had just bumped into Young and Poythress, knocking the ball out of bounds.

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    1. So it should have been our ball, but instead Arkansas got two more free throws.

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  13. Wait, I think the officials are having another conference. Which one of them will talk to ESPN?

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  14. I can just imagine what would happen if Alabama's football team came to UK and was hit with a barrage of mysterious offsides calls and bogus claims for pass interference and roughing the passer. And I can just imagine the reaction if the explanation was given that "home teams just get calls like that."

    Why is college basketball different?

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    1. Also, why are the NC2A selection-committee meetings closed?

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  15. Quote from the UK message board (in a thread complaining about the officials): "If I owned a pig, I would kill it tonight."

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  16. Oh, and the foul on Randle with five minutes to go in the first half. Randle is on the free throw lane waiting to rebound. He has two Arkansas guys on either side of him. When the rebound comes, the two Arkansas guys put Randle in a sandwich, both crashing into him. The officials call a foul on Randle.

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  17. I like the mood on the message board tonight. It's a fighting mood, with lots of folks complaining about the officials, and others fighting over other issues. This is the first time since the 2012 National Championship that I feel like the fan base is starting to circle the wagons and get angry with the rest of the world, instead of moaning about our own team.

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