Transcript
Matt Jones (0:01)
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Looks like Vegas may have known something with that move to six and a half on the spread. But there are really two ways to look at this game. You can look at the first 30 minutes, you could look at the last 10. I'm going to spend I think most of the time talking about the first 30 because that was really what made the game. But I will say in the last 10, Kentucky showed a lot. One thing I am positive about is that they made that a game down the stretch and they made it a game when I think most, I thought we were about to get lose by 25 and they made a game and you know, with, with three minutes to go, had a shot. So I like the heart. I thought the team played with effort all night. I mean I, Billy, I stayed in the gym for the first half and then left, left it after left before halftime, a couple minutes before halftime just because I, you know, you get a sense and the arena there was super loud. I mean that, that, that was, that was a heck of an environment. But I, I did think Kentucky played with effort. I agree with what Mark Pope said. They played with a lot of dumb effort, a lot of it. But the problem occurred really for me in on offense in two stretches there's a period I think we went up like 13 to 8 maybe and then we were down, I don't know, 27 to 10. So there was a run there where I think they maybe went on like a 19 to 2 run. And Kentucky shot selection on offense was so terrible during that Period. I mean, very little movement, bad decisions, wrong guys taking shots at wrong spots. And during that period, Louisville's getting out in transition and Kentucky had no chance. The transition defense for Kentucky tonight was about as bad as I've ever seen Kentucky do it, especially in those first 30 minutes. I mean, they would get, they would get back on defense in transition and they would get out of sorts. And then Louisville didn't necessarily get a ton of layups or, you know, off transition, but like one or two passes in Kentucky would be completely discombobulated and you'd get a wide open three. And that happened over and over and over. And the stat that decides the game is Louisville has 20 assists and six turnovers, which considering the pace they play, to only have six turnovers and scored 96 points is pretty amazing. And two of them were offensive fouls. So like four, four turnovers is, I mean, kudos to them. That's pretty impressive. But we had, you know, we had 14 and then they have 20 assists and we have 14. So you're, you're, you're losing right there. You don't have to tell me any other stat. If you tell me that one team has 20 assists and six turnovers and the other one's 14 and 14, I mean, you know who wins the game right there. But I was really disappointed with the defense, honestly. 32 minutes, last eight minutes, they played pretty good defense. We got some help with all the free throws they missed at the end, but just terrible. Wrong guy. I mean, guys got switched and either a, they went under the screens. You gave these great shooters open looks going under the screens. That's just a work hard thing. Switches were late. Two guys going with one player leaving a guy open, I mean, they did not communicate well. They let themselves. And most of that I put on the players. Now one thing I would put on Pope is that. And they changed this in the last eight or 10 minutes, but they let them switch Mikhail Brown and the kid from Xavier on to low play after play. And I like low. I think Lowe's good. We'll talk about him in a minute. But his weakness is defense. And it's going to be defense. It's going to be all year. Like, he's not, he's not a great defender and you got a scheme around that. You cannot let Mikel Brown, who is awesome, who is going to be an NBA star, in my opinion, you cannot let him get switched off on low over and over and over. That's what Chucky Hepburn did to low last year. When he was at Pitt. So, I mean, Louisville knew what they were doing and we stopped that in the last eight minutes by. Not by, you know, basically saying low would always take the switcher. But I don't know how it took so long for that to happen. That was a real. That was a real issue throughout the game. Mikhail Brown's first half was unbelievable. But as good as he was, that's not why we lost. We lost because we gave other guys open looks and they knocked him down. Fundamentally, going forward, I'm a little concerned about the makeup of the team and here's why. For Kentucky to be good this year, I mean, like, really good. I think they're good now, but to be really good, they got to get great play from the point guard. I think that's going to be mostly low, but Aberdeen can do it too. And I thought in general they gave that until the final three and a half minutes when I do not think low was good. Aberdeen was great. Aberdeen was great the entire game, most of the time playing off the ball, but even on the ball, he was excellent. He's. He's better than I thought. And so he. He's going to be a rock. So you got to get really good point guard play. I think Kentucky got that 80% of the game. You've got to get away, has got to be away. Always got to give you 14 to 17 every night, rebound play, defense, OA just does not look right to me. Now, I know he still had, what, 12 points, but he shot the ball poorly. He's taken different shots. He's not going to the basket. He's not. He's not doing the things, drawing contact, the things he did last year. And I know his shots never been great, but it looks off, off. I watched the team warm up, shooting threes. I got there really early, so I sat and watched them and they didn't shoot well during warm ups. And away in particular, I mean, with no one on him, was shooting poorly. And I thought, man, I hope he doesn't shoot like that during the game. He just doesn't look right to me now. He's coming off an injury. Maybe that is part of it, but I don't know. It just. He just doesn't look like the away we had last year. And I've said this a lot, he cannot be our best offensive player. If he is our best offensive player, we're not going to be very good. But he has to at least do his thing every game. And it just. He just hasn't looked right to me at the start of this season. But more fundamentally, when we play teams like Louisville, I don't know about the bigs, how we're doing it right now. Our starting lineup, in my opinion, might be the worst lineup that we put out there some because we put three guys on the floor right now who can't shoot. When you put away Diabate and Garrison on the floor together, I mean, you can tell me all you want, oh way and Garrison can shoot, but unless always making them, Diabate cannot shoot. And I worry. Listen, Diabate is a great player. He hustles, he is a good defender. But I don't know if he's a Mark Pope 4 because he gets that open look in the corner and it. I don't know who feels like that's going in. And I will note, as much as I love the kid, when we made the run at the end of the game, he wasn't really in. He didn't really play those last eight minutes and I think it caused. It's hard to score with him on the floor if you're going to put Garrison on with him. So I don't think you can play those guys together. I think they're going to have to figure out a different rotation. Maybe you play Diabate with Moreno or you play. I think we're going to have to play four shooters and a big sum and I don't think that's how this roster is built. But that's when we look the best. We look the best. When Cam Williams came in and you were running three of low, Aberdeen away and Chandler, Cam at the four, Moreno or Garrison at the five, that's when we looked the best. That's when we made a run. And I don't know what that means for some of these other guys. I thought Yellowch played well in the first half. Maybe he could have played a little more in the second. I'm not sure. But you just. Right now it feels like a lot of pieces that just don't really fit and we do not have a great player. I don't think we have a great player. I think we got a lot of really good players, but I don't know if we have a great player. In a situation like that. It becomes imperative that you have the right guys in. In the right sequences. And it just didn't feel like we had that for a lot of the game. So going forward, we're not going to play too many teams that are as efficient offensively as Louisville. I look at our schedule, probably Alabama is The only one we're going to play that'll be as efficient offensively as them. And it was an amazing environment. I mean it was. That is one of the better non conference road environments I've been to. So kudos to them for that. I've been in that arena a lot. Not in the last few years, but even back in the old days, like they would have good environments. But I thought for whatever reason they seem particularly amped tonight. But our defense has to be better and our shot selection in periods of time has to be better. And I do think Mark's got got to be better in. In figure in like game planning this stuff. Kelsey Kelsey was better prepared for 30 minutes. Now I do think Mark adjusted and I actually think Mark, he got low to where he didn't have to guard these penetrators at the end he took out Diabate. I thought in the last 10 minutes, but it took too long. That took too long. And from moment one it was clear what Kelsey's game plan was. Get in transition, get low, isolated and make Kentucky's bigs have to guard their guards. And we weren't able to do any of those three things. And it feels like it took Pope a long time to counter all that. And then when we did, we played pretty well, but by that point it was too late. Couple things down the stretch. Low was not good down the stretch. I still like him being in there. I mean, I think sometimes we take for granted with him and Aberdeen how much movement they create. Lowe's got to be bet he can't like jump up and then not have anyone to pass to. And you know, he took a couple, four shots. I didn't like his transition three, but go back and look at the plays when he wasn't in and look how stagnant we look. So I still like him, but he's got it at the end of games. He can't. This hit and pit where you have to take every shot at the end of games, create the shots and then kick out. And if you go back and look at the play where he got fouled when it was a four point game, Billy, I don't know if you saw it. Well, you're listening on the radio. But they called the foul. But he was kicking it out to a wide open. Colin Chandler in the corner. I wish they hadn't called that foul.