Can the Cats turn it around?
Of course they can.
Billy G. can make it happen.
But, as I wrote this morning, this team has problems. And you have to wonder if Gillispie’s stubborness and his constant playing of head-games doesn’t contribute to the problem. This team is playing with a definite lack of confidence. And playing with one eye to the bench can’t help. Kentucky fans used to cringe when a player made a mistake under Joe B. Hall, because they knew the offending player was headed straight to the bench. It’s the same thing now. Bad shot. Bench. Missed assignment. Bench. Only Patrick Patterson and Jodie Meeks are allowed to play through mistakes. Is it any wonder then that the younger players haven’t quite developed as most thought they would. That’s this team’s biggest problem.
That said, the SEC is not the Big East. Florida is a good team, but a beatable one. The Gators arrive in Rupp next Tuesday. This weekend is UK’s bye weekend. Thus the Cats have seven days to prepare. I had a tight deadline last night, so didn’t get to listen in on the player interviews. So I didn’t know that Patrick Patterson reported the post-game lockerroom was not a pleasant place. A “heart-to-heart” meeting or a full-scale confrontation took place. And that might be a good sign.
Gillispie is a sarcastic sort. It’s the way he pushes. It’s the way he coaches. To play for him, you better have, as Tom Petty says, “Rhino Skin.” (You need rhino skin/Or you’re gonna give in/To the needles and the pins/The arrows of sin) If the team is winning, the team can see the method to the madness. let it roll off your back. If it’s losing, things can snowball.
After the game, a friend, a huge Kentucky fan, said she kept thinking of another Petty song during the second half.
“Free-falling,” she said.
Billy Gillispie loves practice. He has seven days of just that to try and halt UK’s fall.
The only way they get past the first round is to have a coach who can adapt during a game. Billy G does not appear to be that coach
If you are trying to talk me off the ledge, it isn’t working.
Mainecat,
Do you know anything about BCG’s history at Texas A&M?
I still like this team a lot, but, boy, it’s a good thing that the league is down. I like our “a” team: jodie pat perry deandre and darius. I like to win games. I can’t win games, though, when jodie pat and perry are intimidated by a rancidly aggressive opponent and play like sophomores; I can’t win games, either, when deandre and darius play like fresh men. yet they’re still green, and, painfully, so is this squad.
REALITY CHIZZECK
15 turnovers is unacceptable and an improvement.
CONTEXTUALIZE
deandre is 3 for his last 4 from 3 and has now made a 3 in each of the last 4 games; he had a 12-game streak with 0 3s.
let us keep in mind, too, that this team has one senior; and remember the leadership lost from the departures of ramel and joe, two guys who had seen it all.
team or “team”: 0 assists from the starting five last night.
good feelings feeling better sunday morning as long as donovan is duly bounced out of Rupp saturday night, ears ringing.
Yes, we can still turn it around. It was Feb. 12 last year that we had our early St. Valentine’s Day Massacre at Vandy. I thought things could not get any worse than that but last night proved me wrong.
People keep saying wait until Billy G has his own recruits. Well I count at least 5 that are on scholarship plus several walk ons that were recruited by him. He has 2 of the best players in the SEC, if not the nation.
I just don’t see him making in game or in season adjustments. If you look back at the games this season, you can see that we are very predictable in our offensive sets and defensively. There is a lot more that could be run that could get Meeks and Patterson better shot opportunities.