Kentucky

[-Blu]

I can give you three characters why he is not excited, A&M

Are we the only team in America to have a bad loss right now?  And TBH A&M is in the RPI top 150, so it's not even that bad of a loss.  I can go down a list of programs that have had worse losses than this and they are still in the mix.

I know this wasn't the picture perfect start we wanted, but things are very much salvageable, and tonight is the start of that.  Get a big win here against Kentucky, we got 3 days to prepare for Georgia, we go in there and get a win, and we're right back where we need to be.  But, tonight is HUGE we need this win, and need BWA to be packed out!

[Hawg Red]

Are we the only team in America to have a bad loss right now?  And TBH A&M is in the RPI top 150, so it's not even that bad of a loss.  I can go down a list of programs that have had worse losses than this and they are still in the mix.

I know this wasn't the picture perfect start we wanted, but things are very much salvageable, and tonight is the start of that.  Get a big win here against Kentucky, we got 3 days to prepare for Georgia, we go in there and get a win, and we're right back where we need to be.  But, tonight is HUGE we need this win, and need BWA to be packed out!

Hogs fans are generally going to be more concerned with what's happened to the Hogs and where we're headed than other programs. They don't care if other programs are struggling, only that we are. It's natural and to be expected. We've lost back-to-back games we should have won and the opportunities for resume-building wins dwindle when you start dropping home games to ranked teams.

[Kenny Dowell Loggains]

I'll take you up on that. 100 bucks, you got Kentucky.

Hooch, I don't think Lanny and the powers that be would like betting over Hogville... I'm pretty sure it's illegal (even if it's a friendly bet).

However, If The Hogs pull it off tonight, I'll hit you up with +20 karma points... good bet?

[jbcarol]

http://kentuckysportsradio.com/basketball-2/kentucky-is-a-1-point-favorite-over-arkansas

Kentucky is 1-9-2 against the spread in its last 12 road games while Arkansas is 12-4 against the spread in its last 16 home games.

Kentucky is now +1

[ChicaGO HOGS GO]

 :razorback: :razorback: :razorback: :razorback: Let's GO Hogs GO :razorback: :razorback: :razorback:

[warriorlion]

Kentucky basketball is one of the 10-12 teams I hate the most!!

[jbcarol]

Kyle Tucker ‏@KyleTucker_CJ 5m
Julius Randle warming up with Arkansas student section right behind him. They're giving it to him. pic.twitter.com/VEOGep2j1B

[HogFanatic]

If you're a basketball fan it doesn't get any better than Kentucky in BWA.
The only other game I can think of is Duke UNC, and I don't give a squat about either of those teams.
Get ready for a Hogs W. And here's to watching all the fair weather fans jumping back on board afterwords.

[jbcarol]

Jerry Tipton ‏@JerryTipton 17m
John Adams, national coordinator of officials, is attending the UK-Arkansas game.

[jbcarol]

Matt Jones ‏@KySportsRadio 37m
Officials tonight are Ron Grover, James Breeding and Roger Ayres...Ayres is of course Mr. Technical when it comes to Calipari

[HogFanatic]

Jerry Tipton ‏@JerryTipton 17m
John Adams, national coordinator of officials, is attending the UK-Arkansas game.

Interesting.
This means the officials are gonna blow that damn whistle a lot tonight...

[jbcarol]

Interesting.
This means the officials are gonna blow that damn whistle a lot tonight...

[ThisTeetsTaken]

How can you not be excited? It's a top 15 team and a rival and it's CALIPARI! They used to move this game to Super Bowl Sunday!

Because our games don't mean anything anymore.   College ball is all about March Madness and we are usually out of the picture halfway through conference play.   We have been irrelevant for so long and our non-conference schedule is so boring that I just don't get excited about it anymore.  Or buy tickets for that matter. 

[jbcarol]

Interesting.
This means the officials are gonna blow that damn whistle a lot tonight...

Happy John Adams, coordinator of officials

[jbcarol]

Timothy Burke ‏@bubbaprog 13m
ANIMATED: Disappearing basketball!!  http://30fram.es/LaCmOp

[jbcarol]

[jbcarol]

http://kentuckysportsradio.com/basketball-2/kentucky-is-a-1-point-favorite-over-arkansas

Kentucky is 1-9-2 against the spread in its last 12 road games while Arkansas is 12-4 against the spread in its last 16 home games.

UK failed to cover again.

[jbcarol]

[jbcarol]

FOX Sports Live ‏@FOXSportsLive 6h
Hey @Mr_WALKONAIR, YOU are #The1!  @RazorbackMBB pic.twitter.com/B4UFtyJRuc

[jbcarol]

http://kentuckysportsradio.com

[jbcarol]

Harrison twins have pouted since UK signed Randle and on virtually every missed shot or foul call since.

http://www.kentucky.com

[jbcarol]

Jason King documents Kentucky's trip to Auburn. The former ESPN and Yahoo!Sports writer is the College Basketball National Lead Writer for BR who is usually not linked here. This piece is an exception.

[jbcarol]

Kentucky is 11-1 in "revenge games" under Calipari.  His next 2 games are at home against LSU and Arkansas.

http://kentuckysportsradio.com/basketball-2/btis-rants-and-ramblings-revenge-games-under-calipari

[jbcarol]

Since Arkansas beat Kentucky, a few changes.

Young and the Harrison twins have more field goal attempts in conference play than Julius Randle.  Combination of SEC teams locking down on Randle and the three 6'6" guards firing them up with NBA futures on the line.  Young now has 315 FGAs on the season (41%) to Randle's 257 (53.3%).

Dakari Johnson now starts at Center giving Kentucky five freshmen starters. The 7-footer is a defensive liability causing Randle to need to help and creating a foul liability. Cauley-Stein plays more minutes and has been up-and-down following a big slump which began at Fayetteville.

Kentucky's "Haydar", Jared Polson is getting more minutes. He is a level-headed senior with a nose for the ball and can hit the three but is no Cameron Mills (Pat Bradley). Haydar took Polson to school when they matched up in BWA.

[jbcarol]

Kyle Tucker ‏@KyleTucker_CJ  10h
Marcus Lee on why Arkansas rematch will be different: "This time we'll box out."

[jbcarol]

Kyle Tucker ‏@KyleTucker_CJ  10h
Marcus Lee on why Arkansas rematch will be different: "This time we'll box out."

Not this time.

[jbcarol]

Calipari absent from comeback attempt, media obligation

COLUMBIA, S.C. — In the end, the coach who preaches accountability was nowhere to be found.

The last we saw of John Calipari was with 10:23 left in the game at Colonial Life Arena when the Kentucky coach, his shirttail out, his voice no doubt hoarse from screaming, his volcanic emotions having run over, made the long walk from the floor back to the locker room after getting himself ejected.

Asked whether Calipari should have been around to give his team guidance, assistant John Robic, the coach who did the post-game news conference, said he wasn't going to answer that question.

According to UK, the reason Robic faced the media and not Calipari was because the head coach was doing his radio show. Never mind that it is a very rare occurrence when Calipari does not come to the post-game news conference.

UK did email reporters a few quotes from the head coach, including, "I wish I didn't get thrown out of the game, so I could fight with our team."

Robic should get the credit for inspiring the fight. Once Cal got tossed, Kentucky went on an 11-2 run to cut the lead to 57-50. Robic called timeouts. He drew up plays. He coached his heart out.

Saturday night, after the bus left the arena, all we got was Calipari via email.

"Proud of the guys for not giving up," said the statement, "but we all have to figure out what do we each have to do to get this team right."

Starting at the top.

[Hooch]

Gguilo I think you owe me 20 applauds!

[jbcarol]

Against South Carolina, Kentucky's Aaron Harrison and James Young combined for 28 field game attempts to 7 for former National POY candidate Julius Randle.

Harrison was 2-10 inside the arc while Young was 1-7. Both drove into a tightly packed 2-3 throwing the ball in the general direction of the basket.  Randle was only 1-6 inside the arc as was Poythress.

Harrison, Young, and Randle did combine for 27-31 from the FT line, on the road.

That was not enough to overcome a Gamecock team who, at home, shot nine fewer FTs, shot under 40% from the field, and was outrebounded by 18. UK had 21 off. rebs, to 16 def. boards for SC.

There has to be an unbridled selfishness to lose with those numbers.

[jbcarol]

"I just think they look like a team not having any fun," Fran Fraschilla said.

Nor is Fraschilla having any fun.

"I do feel badly for him," Fraschilla said of Calipari. "Now, I don't feel badly because he knew what he was getting into with this type of recruiting style. But they're just not fun to watch."

"Of the teams I've watched this year ... they're the most fun to watch," Jay Bilas said of the Gators.

[jbcarol]

John Clay: ■Did some research for my Monday column and found the instances of Kentucky teams stumbling down the stretch then getting it right at tournament time are few and far between.

UK on wrong side of history

[jbcarol]

Kyle Tucker ‏@KyleTucker_CJ ·3 mins
Cauley-Stein devilish tonight: 6 points, 6 rebounds, 6 blocks.

[jbcarol]

Grantland's Mark Titus enjoyed the Kentucky-Wichita State game. In his 20 NCAA Tournament Observations, Titus included the following:

12. Kentucky–Wichita State was everything.

This could be a mild exaggeration, but let me go on record and say that the Kentucky–Wichita State game was the greatest thing of all time in the history of ever. If I had to pick a favorite part, I'd probably go with the stretch from the start of the game to the end of the game. Everyone who saw the court was the MVP, except Fred VanVleet. The first 10 picks of the NBA draft should be Jabari Parker and everyone who started in that game except VanVleet. There were a lot of great games in college basketball this season, and there are still probably a lot of great games to come. But right now, Kentucky–Wichita State is the best game of the season and there isn't a close second.

http://johnclay.bloginky.com/2014/03/25/the-greatest-thing-of-all-time-in-the-history-of-ever

Not certain if serious

[jbcarol]

Wall Street Journal:

As Louisville rolled to win after win, Kentucky packed on 10 losses. There was pouting. Disarray. Heartache. Soon UK fans took to message boards with torches in hand, calling for an end to the flash-and-dash, one-and-done John Calipari era. It was glorious validation for me, a once-a-year sports columnist who last spring called the coming Kentucky team of seven McDonald's All-Americans a hollow Death Star.

But here we all are. Again. A Sweet 16 matchup, the second Kentucky-Louisville tournament meeting in three years...

Should it not even advance to the Final Four, the opportunity to stick it to Louisville is a delicious and vengeful final turn. It's as if Calipari had this diabolical fail-to-succeed plan all along, and was just waiting to move his Death Star into position.

Access to the WSJ article and other pre-game links

[jbcarol]

ESPN Stats & Info ‏@ESPNStatsInfo ·1h
Louisville forces 17.4 turnovers PG, 2nd-most in D-I. Cards are 19-0 when forcing 17-plus; Kentucky is 16-2 when committing 11 or fewer TOs

[jbcarol]

Matt Jones ‏@KySportsRadio  3m
"Doctor told me Willie was going bonkers in the locker room...they had to hold him down bc he was going crazy" --- Calipari

[jbcarol]

John Clay ‏@johnclayiv  7h
Four times UK could have surrendered and didn't http://johnclay.bloginky.com/2014/03/29/four-times-uk-could-have-surrendered-and-didnt/ ...

1. Louisville led 18-5 at the 12:31 mark. The Cards were hitting shots, including three-pointers by Luke Hancock and Russ Smith, with a fast break jam by Montrezl Harrell thrown in for good measure. Plus, UK lost Willie Cauley-Stein for good at the 13:05 mark of the first half when the sophomore center left the game with a left ankle injury...

2. Louisville led 34-31 at the half and the Cards had not lost a game all season in which it led at the break...


3. Louisville led 64-57 with 5:32 left when Hancock hit a pair of free throws after making back-to-back three-pointers on the previous two possessions...

4. That final Louisville lead. After Smith's shot

UK went back up on a Harrison 3 on an assist from Randle at :39.

[jbcarol]

NCAA March Madness ‏@marchmadness  8h
Your votes are in and the Player of the #Sweet16 is ... http://oak.ctx.ly/r/up37  pic.twitter.com/01bBDRDiaa

[jbcarol]

Kyle Tucker ‏@KyleTucker_CJ  1h
If Kentucky wins tomorrow, it will have knocked off three of last year's Final Four teams, including an unbeaten and the defending champs.

[jbcarol]

Wolverines News ‏@WolverinesMLive  2m
Michigan's key against Kentucky will be, as always, the mighty 3-pointer http://bit.ly/1jnZK7X

[welchog]

...in the name of all that is holy did we beat UK TWICE!!!

[Breems]

Made the Harrison twins into poop and made FTs.

[40MINSOFHELL]

We outplayed them in both games

[Smithian]

How did we lose to Mizzou twice

Two games don't equal a season.

The Hogs got Kentucky when they were still trying to find their way.

[Danny J]

We outplayed them in both games

[snortman]

How did we lose to Mizzou twice

Two games don't equal a season.

The Hogs got Kentucky when they were still trying to find their way.

And A&M and USC and BAMA

[hogman99]

How did we lose to Mizzou twice

Two games don't equal a season.

The Hogs got Kentucky when they were still trying to find their way.

This ^^^

[razorbackchamps94]

...in the name of all that is holy did we beat UK TWICE!!!

Should had beat Florida to.. All we needed was 1 made free throw by Harris

[Dudeman]

How did South Carolina beat them? Not the same team right now. They are playing on another level now. That's what those highly ranked recruiting classes can do for a program.

[Brandon72]

Won two battles, but still lost the war.