1. What a great game by the UT team -- it goes without saying that anytime you beat KY, you have to beat them and the refs, but I'm not going to leave it without being said. More on that later. First, JP Prince and Scotty Hopson deserve top billing. What a monster game by both of them. There should be a multiplier when judging a player's performance against KY. Something like 1.2 or 1.3 because of all the BS fouls that are going to be called on the player and the beating the players will take without a call being made on KY. Hopson and Prince played huge. Hopson was aggressive and strong. Prince was everywhere. Kid hits a couple of 3s, hits a bunch of FTs (to the extent any UT player ever shoots a "bunch" of FTs against KY), and hustled his rear off.
2. Chism is always going to struggle against teams as huge and athletic as KY because he is really the only player we have right now who is comparable to Cousins, Patterson, and Orton. So it's basically 1 on 3. Plus, as mentioned above, he gets called for nothing fouls and gets hammered on the other end. I don't think he played his best game by a long shot. He was smart to stay out of foul trouble -- I noticed a couple of plays where he played it smart (unlike at FL) -- but he took some really bad three point shots. I also think part of it was on the rest of the team by not going to him enough in the post. Patterson, Cousins, and Orton attempted 15 free throws -- Chism didn't attempt a single one. Come on!
3. The officiating was scandalous. If you need one series to encapsulate how big of cheaters Doug Sirmons and Tony Greene are for KY, remember the Cousins dunk early on where Maze had his forearm on Cousins' back, but didn't shove him with any force. The call was a foul. Next time down the court Cousins comes from behind, pushes Maze in the back to the floor, gets the rebound and scores and the refs swallow their whistles. And, as usual 8 out of 10 charge/block calls went KY's way and 6 of those 8 were BS calls. The absolute JOKE was Greene calling Chism for a block when he stood still as Cousins got the feed into the post and proceeded to run over Chism. Chism never moved from the time the ball was fed into the post until Cousins flattened him. The SEC leadership has absolutely no integrity by letting Tony "Kentucky" Greene and Doug "Go Cats" Sirmons continue to officiate games in this league. The only way to explain the charge called on Walls at the end is Tony Greene's hypocrisy only goes so far and he actually does eventually get embarassed at his gross bias. 27 Fts to 17 and 4 of those were when KY intentionally fouled. So KY basically shoots twice as many FTs in Knoxville. When will the SEC address this black eye on the conference?
4. Brian Williams is playing some inspired basketball. I thought his rebounding and defense was solid and his passing and moving without the ball on offense continues to improve. I like the kid, but I do hope that we get Moses Abraham and he and Hall are our Centers next year. I just think Hall has so much potential when he gets stronger and more experienced.
5. Calipari continues to not impress me with his coaching. Relying on freshmen like Wall and Cousins so much in games like this doesn't make sense. Patterson and Miller are clutch (in fact, Miller -- well, and Tony and Doug -- is the only reason KY got anywhere close in this game). Cousins gets away with committing 3-4 times the number of fouls in a game than are actually called against him. When Tony and Doug and the rest of the SEC Rupperees aren't available in March to protect him, things could get interesting.
6. TBA was rocking today -- hopefully Moses liked what he saw. That kid could be a real beast in the low post for us next season.
7. Bobby Maze continues to play exactly like you need your PG to play heading into March. He was strong with the ball, hit at least one outside shot, and generally made good decisions today. He had 5 assists to 1 turnover in this game. Maze is playing like an NCAA PG right now. Goins also was strong with the ball and had a lot of energy -- one of the better games Goins has played in the last several.
8. It's good to see Tatum back in the swing of things and his outside shot looks really good. He took a couple of terrible outside shots, but was strong into the lane a couple of times as well. He got frustrated with the Rupperees, which is understandable; I'm impressed that most players in this league are able to maintain their composure in the face of the constant screwing taken when playing Kentucky.
9. Greg Anthony actually said he thought UT had an outside shot at a #3 seed. I don't know about that. I think we'd have to win out and get to the SEC tournament championship game to have a shot at a #3 seed. This team should not have lost at UGA or FL or to Vandy at home. It's a shame, but they've had a lot of adversity with the arrests and Chism's and Tatum's injuries.
10. This is the time when momentum is very important. Hopefully these guys will take this and play with energy in these last two regular season games.
2. Chism is always going to struggle against teams as huge and athletic as KY because he is really the only player we have right now who is comparable to Cousins, Patterson, and Orton. So it's basically 1 on 3. Plus, as mentioned above, he gets called for nothing fouls and gets hammered on the other end. I don't think he played his best game by a long shot. He was smart to stay out of foul trouble -- I noticed a couple of plays where he played it smart (unlike at FL) -- but he took some really bad three point shots. I also think part of it was on the rest of the team by not going to him enough in the post. Patterson, Cousins, and Orton attempted 15 free throws -- Chism didn't attempt a single one. Come on!
3. The officiating was scandalous. If you need one series to encapsulate how big of cheaters Doug Sirmons and Tony Greene are for KY, remember the Cousins dunk early on where Maze had his forearm on Cousins' back, but didn't shove him with any force. The call was a foul. Next time down the court Cousins comes from behind, pushes Maze in the back to the floor, gets the rebound and scores and the refs swallow their whistles. And, as usual 8 out of 10 charge/block calls went KY's way and 6 of those 8 were BS calls. The absolute JOKE was Greene calling Chism for a block when he stood still as Cousins got the feed into the post and proceeded to run over Chism. Chism never moved from the time the ball was fed into the post until Cousins flattened him. The SEC leadership has absolutely no integrity by letting Tony "Kentucky" Greene and Doug "Go Cats" Sirmons continue to officiate games in this league. The only way to explain the charge called on Walls at the end is Tony Greene's hypocrisy only goes so far and he actually does eventually get embarassed at his gross bias. 27 Fts to 17 and 4 of those were when KY intentionally fouled. So KY basically shoots twice as many FTs in Knoxville. When will the SEC address this black eye on the conference?
4. Brian Williams is playing some inspired basketball. I thought his rebounding and defense was solid and his passing and moving without the ball on offense continues to improve. I like the kid, but I do hope that we get Moses Abraham and he and Hall are our Centers next year. I just think Hall has so much potential when he gets stronger and more experienced.
5. Calipari continues to not impress me with his coaching. Relying on freshmen like Wall and Cousins so much in games like this doesn't make sense. Patterson and Miller are clutch (in fact, Miller -- well, and Tony and Doug -- is the only reason KY got anywhere close in this game). Cousins gets away with committing 3-4 times the number of fouls in a game than are actually called against him. When Tony and Doug and the rest of the SEC Rupperees aren't available in March to protect him, things could get interesting.
6. TBA was rocking today -- hopefully Moses liked what he saw. That kid could be a real beast in the low post for us next season.
7. Bobby Maze continues to play exactly like you need your PG to play heading into March. He was strong with the ball, hit at least one outside shot, and generally made good decisions today. He had 5 assists to 1 turnover in this game. Maze is playing like an NCAA PG right now. Goins also was strong with the ball and had a lot of energy -- one of the better games Goins has played in the last several.
8. It's good to see Tatum back in the swing of things and his outside shot looks really good. He took a couple of terrible outside shots, but was strong into the lane a couple of times as well. He got frustrated with the Rupperees, which is understandable; I'm impressed that most players in this league are able to maintain their composure in the face of the constant screwing taken when playing Kentucky.
9. Greg Anthony actually said he thought UT had an outside shot at a #3 seed. I don't know about that. I think we'd have to win out and get to the SEC tournament championship game to have a shot at a #3 seed. This team should not have lost at UGA or FL or to Vandy at home. It's a shame, but they've had a lot of adversity with the arrests and Chism's and Tatum's injuries.
10. This is the time when momentum is very important. Hopefully these guys will take this and play with energy in these last two regular season games.
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