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Welcome everyone. It is the local Toyota dealers KSR post game show the Cats with a an extremely disappointing loss at home 8678 to Georgia, their second home loss in the SEC this season and a loss that, as we'll talk about in just a couple minutes, I think will have major ramifications for Kentucky even if they do finish the season. Well, this was, I think, a game where Kentucky made way too many mistakes to win. And the mistakes, in my opinion, were the exact mistakes that Kentucky has made all season long. The same issues that have plagued them all year showcase themselves in this game. And I think it's probably like six things, but the sixth one to me is the biggest issue, so I'll finish with that. The first is these first halves in general. I'm going to give you some stats that are pretty amazing. I mentioned this this morning. Kentucky now has been losing by 12 points in at some point in the game in 13 of its 19 games against major conference opponents. That this year, that's over 66% of Kentucky's games when they have played a team from a major conference. Okay, not even necessarily good teams, just teams from a major conference. They have been trailing by at least 12 points. 13 and 19. They have been trailing at halftime, Billy, in 15 of the 19 games. That's unbelievable. 15 of the 19 games Kentucky has played this year against major conference teams, we have been losing at halftime. That is atrocious. I mean, atrocious. That is I. That stat, it is almost shocking how bad that stat is. So when you keep giving yourself a deficit to come out of, there are going to be games that even if you start playing well, you're just not going to be able to do it. And this was one of those. And the reason gets to my second point, which is consistently this year against teams that they can't do it against, they do not guard the three point line. Well, I don't understand looking at Georgia. The only way Georgia is going to beat you tonight, and Georgia's not bad, but you're at home, they're small. Samto and his backup are really the only bigs they have and they actually play the best when they have four guards out there. The only way they're gonna beat you is if they hit threes. That's how they're gonna be. And we do not guard the three. Well. Now granted they're like 290th in the country in threes. They. They actually don't shoot the ball very well, but they take a lot of them and then they get out and transition. Those are the things that they really like to do. But for the second straight game, Kentucky has played a team that doesn't shoot threes great, but has given them wide open looks at it by playing poor defense. And then they don't adjust. They never adjust during the game. Georgia's threes, they hit a few in the first half, but in the second half, every. We started playing pretty well offensively in the second half and every time we made a run, they had somebody to hit a three. You play, you play against teams that are this much smaller than you, and we back, way back off the shooter and just let these guys take shots. It drives me crazy. Or we don't fight through screens and we give shots, which gets me to my third thing. Earlier this year, I thought effort was an issue in every game. In SEC play, especially recently, I think they've been pretty good at giving consistent effort. But they have these moments in games where, to quote Mark Pope, they take plays off and they do, they take plays off. Almost every player on the team has possessions where they take plays off. The only couple of exceptions. I don't feel like Moreno takes a lot of plays off. I think Aberdeen rarely does. But most of the other guys will take plays off defensively. And when they do, we get burned. And you saw it in that run at the end of the first half. Kentucky, if you were to go back and watch those plays, because I did. At halftime, you can find on nearly every possession a player who either can't guard or is taking a. Is like taking the possession off. And Mark, to his credit, said it after the game, but it happens. You can watch it. And that lack of consistency on defensive effort kills us. Fourth, we missed too many free throws. We were 12 of 20 from the free throw line. We're shooting Billy 69% from the free throw line in SEC play. Not good enough. That's not good. And it's not just, it's not like our bigs or our guards are missing them. You know, it's not just that, like Modi Bate gets fouled and he's not a good free throw shooter. Everybody misses. I mean, at one point in the first half, we were one for four from our, in what should on paper be two of our best free throw shooters away. And Noah, you can't miss those. You can't miss those in, in, in big games. And we. 12 of 20 is not good enough. When you're in a game that's going to come down to the, to the wire. Turnovers The. I mean, you could probably say that if you just saw one stat. The stat that defines the game is Georgia had 20 assists and seven turnovers, and we had 13 assists and 13 turnovers, which means we didn't share the ball. And we were sloppy with the ball where they shared the ball. And we're not sloppy. The only reason we were really even in the game is that Colin Chandler shot the ball amazing and away carried us for a few stretches. That's the only reason we're in the game. I mean, those two guys, not for those two guys, we get. We get run off the court on our home court. So the sloppiness and turnovers have been an issue all year. And then I think sixth is. And to me, the most important thing was Pope's substitution pattern, specifically at the end of the first half. I. I'm a big numbers guy. Like, I believe numbers don't lie. I believe. I believe in the idea of analytics. Not only do I believe in it, I think if you look at the coaches and the. And the programs in the. In the NBA and college basketball, really every sport that master it, if you look at the best teams, that they've also mastered analytics. So I'm for it. But I admit that I don't understand the way Mark uses analytics. Not that he shouldn't use them, but I don't understand. It's like he and I see the same numbers and it feels like we come to completely different conclusions. It is objectively true that if you have been down at halftime 15 of the 19 games against power Conference teams. Billy, wouldn't you say you need to adjust what you're doing in the first half? Yes. I mean, to me, that is like. It's obvious. We are 10 and nine in games against Power Conference teams, which, by the way, isn't good, but we are 4 and 15 in the first half. So that would tell you we've got to do better in the first half. And yet he just keeps doing the same thing we play. It's almost like we. We live in a. Let's distribute equally during the first half minutes. And it never works. And I. I don't want to read that. Like, I'm not. I'm not trying to be, like, harsh, but numbers to some extent are numbers. The plus minus for this game, only two players had a positive plus minus. Colin Chandler and Mo D'. Abate. Colin Chandler was plus one. Diabate was plus two. Yellow Vic was minus one. Aberdeen was minus two. Garrison was minus two. Moreno and Away are minus five trick Noah's minus 13 in eight minutes of action. Jasper Johnson is minus 16 in 14 minutes of action. If you go back and look at that run we had, our two worst defenders in my mind are yellow Vich and Jasper yellow. Vic can sometimes be good guarding, sliding his feet, but he gets lost off the ball and his help defense is bad and Jasper just does not. I mean, Jasper's just a bad defender, at least at this point in his career. And they played those guys together and there was a 9, 0 run. And then after the game, Mark is asked about substitution patterns and he said, well, the numbers show us that if we play guys 36 to 38 minutes a game, they will be tired and their performance will go down at the end. All right, I believe him. But I'd like to Billy, see it happen. Because what I have seen happen is we play, we don't do that and we fall down in the first half. If we play away, Aberdeen and Chandler, huge minutes and at the end they kind of wear down. So be it. But I know what doesn't work is the substitution pattern that we've seen. 4 and 15 at halftime. So I don't understand how Mark can look at those numbers. And he said about Jasper specifically, I thought he did really well and played really well for us tonight. Well, he was minus 16 in 14 minutes. No offense. I'm not criticizing the kid, I'm criticizing. What are you seeing? Like, how are you looking at those numbers and coming to those conclusions? Two for eight from the field, minus 16. I don't understand. So I. It is without question a problem that in the first halves during the Mark Pope era, Kentucky has been bad. They've just been bad. If I told you we were 4 and 15 in the first half, I don't care what school you're coaching at, that's a disaster. And you're at Kentucky now in the second half. They've played for the most part, really well. But that is, you lose games like tonight because you got down so much in the first half. The deficit at halftime is why we lost tonight. And then at the end of game, we had some chances. Chandler had two open threes. Can't criticize him for missing him because he was five or six before that. But they were open and just didn't go in. Or six of seven before that. Two open looks, just missed away. Had to drive to the basket. He was there. He had 28. Another huge night scoring for him. Just. Just dribble it off his foot. Three big opportunities by your two best offensive players and it just didn't happen. But the reason we were in that situation is all that stuff that happened in the first half. So, you know, now Kentucky has put themselves in a spot. I said after the game we're 17 and nine, but we're not certain to make the tournament. I think we will, but we're not certain. We have five games left. We will be the underdog in four of those five games. We'll be the underdog Saturday at Auburn. We'll be the underdog at A and M, will be the underdog at home to Florida, and we'll probably be the underdog at home against Vandy. Although that one, maybe it goes the other way, but we're probably the underdog. We'll probably be a favorite at South Carolina. We should win that game. And if you win that, but if you lose the other four, you'd be 18 and 13. I think that would get you in, but I'm not certain. You probably at least would need to win one in Nashville. And by the way, if we lose four or five, we might be playing on Wednesday in Nashville. So this was a huge game. I thought if you won tonight, you're in the tournament and we didn't. And now you go to Auburn Saturday and you're probably looking at it and saying, you know, you need to steal that one. And maybe they will. I mean, they, they are perfectly capable of going to Auburn and winning. But the problem so far in the Mark Pope era has not necessarily been the fact that we can't go to Auburn and win. We went to Arkansas when we went to Tennessee. And the problem is we can't keep losing to Georgia and Missouri at home. Georgia's won three of the last four games against Kentucky. They hadn't done that since the 20s. Wow. Since the 20s. I was encouraged by how they played against Florida. But one of the things Drew said I do think has some validity. We can't just accept that like this stuff happens. No, it doesn't. You don't lose. You really shouldn't lose any home games at Rupp. But if you're good, you shouldn't lose to anybody at Rupp. That's not great. And, and you certainly shouldn't lose twice to mid pack SEC teams at home. And that's what we've done. And that's very disappointing. And at some point I hope Mark Pope, who is a immensely smart guy and is a good coach at some point, these numbers that he always talks about, it's not just about looking at the Numbers, it's what you do with them. And I just don't see how a coach can justify the way we play in the first halves of these games. And when asked about it, refer to numbers. I just don't know what set of numbers he's looking at because the one I'm looking at is 4 and 15 in the first half this year. 8-59-2802287. It's a big loss. It's not the end of the world. They can still come back from this, but there are some possibilities. They're now in play that I thought when we beat Tennessee at home were kind of off the table. Now I think, unfortunately, they're back on. We'll take a break. Be right back. It's the local toy dealers KSR postgame show. Welcome back. It is the local Toyota dealers KSR post game show. There's a video. I can't just be bummed all night. You got to play this video, Billy, of Mick Cronin talking about the Michigan getting asked a question and maybe being the biggest jerk I've ever seen on an answer. I saw him like kick out his own player. But this is the post game press conference. You're saying. Yeah, just, just, let's just Google Cronin, Michigan State student section. And we got to play that. Make sure there's not a cuss word. But then I just want you to hear like, that may, that that may be one of the biggest jerk answers I've seen a coach do ever. Like, see if you agree. If we play it. All right, this, it's a late night show and we lost a disappointing way. So this is one of those shows where like, a lot of people probably said, you know what? I'm going to bed. And I understand that. So if you called, this is a good chance to get in and probably a good chance to let me have me let you talk longer than I normally would. So that would be nice. Who's up next? Or Jack? Go ahead, Jack.