John Clay's Sidelines

Photo by Pablo Alcala.

In his post-game press conference, Billy Gillispie put the blame on himself for UK’s 73-70 loss to LSU saying that when Ramon Harris was hurt, he subbed “the wrong” guy. He also mentioned UK’s 10-point lead. Here’s the quote:

“I made a critical, critical, critical substitution in that time when we had a 10-point lead and played the wrong guy. Ramon was hurt. I thought he knocked his shoulder out of place, or closed his shoulder out of place, or something, so I subbed. That was what had gotten us in the position we were in in the first place and that’s what got us in the end. Bad mistake by me.”

To be honest, in the press conference and in the media room afterward, we were not sure what the coach was talking about. Did he mean when UK was up 54-44 and Ramon Harris was clutching his chest? That’s when UK was up 10 points. But that didn’t really have anything to do with “in the end.”

But I’m home now, and after watching the tape, I think the substituation Gillispie was talking about happened with 34.5 seconds left in the game.

In fact, when Harris was hurt, with 11:05 left, the UK lineup on the floor was Darius Miller, A.J. Stewart, Perry Stevenson and Kevin Galloway. UK scores to go up 54-44. There is a timeout with 11:05 left and on the TV feed Harris can be seen clutching his chest. In fact, on the Liveblog, I received several comments from readers about Harris, many of them asking me if Ramon was ok. But my seat is on the opposite end of the floor, by the LSU bench, I couldn’t see Ramon. When they come back from the timeout, Patterson and Meeks are back in the game replacing Harris and Stewart. I doubt seriously that either Meeks or Patterson is “the wrong guy” that Gillispie is talking about.

In fact, Harris returns to the game and plays for quite awhile. But with 34.5 ticks left, and Kevin Galloway at the free throw line, Gillispie turns to the bench and motions for Stewart to go in. You can see Harris looking over to the bench while Galloway is shooting the free throws. Sure enough, Stewart comes in for Harris.

And it is Stewart who participates in the mix-up with Galloway when the defensive switch is not made and Tasmin Mitchell makes the shot with 9.4 seconds left to put LSU up 73-70.

But was it A.J.’s fault? Afterward, Galloway put the blame on himself, saying he should have switched and he didn’t. Here’s the quote:

“Defensively, we’re supposed to switch four, and I didn’t hear switch, and I didn’t feel the screen so I didn’t switch, and that was my mistake and they got the wide-open three. He called it out – he didn’t say he didn’t call it out — I think I just blanked out and I just zoned out and blanked out and was trying to stop my man from scoring.”

Watching the tape, Galloway did not “feel the screen” because there is too much room between him and Mitchell, the screener. They never touch. Galloway is guarding Thornton. Stewart is guarding Mitchell. Thornton has the ball. He dribbles around the top of the key. Mitchell makes like he is setting screen. Stewart obviously thinks it’s a screen and therefore switches from Mitchell to Thornton. But Galloway doesn’t feel the screen so he stays with Thornton. That leaves Mitchell wide open for what turned out to be the winning shot.

But a similar thing happened with 1:48 left, as Gillispie alluded to in the post-game press conference. UK is leading 64-63. Thornton has the ball and is being guarded by Darius Miller. Harris is guarding Mitchell. The ball is between the circles. Mitchell sets a screen on Miller. There is contact. Only Miller doesn’t switch. He stays with Thornton. Harris thinks there’s a switch and goes to Thornton, leaving Mitchell wide open. The ball is passed back to Mitchell who takes a shot from the right of the key.

The shot misses, but no body blocks out Thornton. The guard makes his way into the open lane, with Miller trailing. Thornton goes right between Galloway and Patterson to follow in the miss, while being fouled. The free throw makes it 66-64 Tigers with 1:48 remaining.

It sure looks like the fault on that non-switch belonged to Miller, and Gillispie mentioned his team’s immaturity and not following mistakes. It’s those sort of things, the things not seen by fans and media that often determine playing time. Of course, on the flip side, you have to say that freshmen have to play through those kinds of mistakes to learn for the future.

So was Gillispie throwing Stewart under the bus? Yes, and no. He never mentioned A.J. by name, only that he subbed the “wrong guy.” He also said that UK didn’t switch on the Mitchell shot with less than 10 seconds remaining but it looked like Galloway was the one who didn’t switch. Maybe Stewart didn’t yell out switch as he was supposed to do. Galloway said Stewart did yell switch, though of course he could have been covering for Stewart.

Who knows?