(Photo Jamie Rhodes-USA TODAY Sports)
Yesterday the 46th chapter of the Battle of the Bluegrass was written and for the 31st time it was Kentucky who walked away with the 73-66 win. Our Cardinals are now 11-2 and will more than likely drop a few spots in the national rankings, although they did remain in the #1 spot in the Kenpom rankings despite the loss.
The stage was set yesterday for what was billed as one of the biggest games in this series as it featured both the 2012 and 2013 College Basketball National Champions. It was a pretty competitive game throughout but I think the script went a different way than what most of us expected. Kentucky was supposed to be the team that didn’t know who they were yet, they were supposed to be the team that lost focus down the stretch especially with their star player in the locker room. But that’s not what happen. It was our Cardinals that started taking bad shots, making bad decisions, and struggled to play as a team. It was the Cardinals that looked dysfunctional.
The Cardinal front-court was nonexistent yesterday afternoon and Montrezl and Chane combined for a 2 of 5 shooting effort. But more disturbing to me is that these guys really weren’t given the chance to get involved. 44 of the 58 field goals attempted by the Cards in yesterday’s game came from three guys Chris, Russ and Luke. You just aren’t going to win many games on the big stage and against good competition when you have three guys taking 75% of the shots, especially when one of those guys (Luke) goes 2-of-8 from the arc and 3-of-11 from the floor. Coming into this game I mentioned that Kentucky was ranked 200th in assist and weren’t passing the ball enough, but it was the Cardinals who fit that script on Saturday.
Louisville has got to get things figured out on the boards as well. It has been an area for concern all season long. Kentucky pulled down 17 offensive rebounds for 17 second-chance points yesterday and out-rebounded the Cards 44 to 36 on the day. Chane did a decent job on the glass grabbing 7 boards, but Montrezl and Mango only combined for 7 on the day. And when you allow any team to have that many second chance opportunities it’s not going to work out in your favor very often.
There were some positives from yesterday. I really liked how Rozier looked when he came into the game and would really like to see him get more time at the point guard position. He ran the offense yesterday in that hostile environment better than anyone. And Chris really stepped it up offensively on the big stage, just think he should have been more team oriented at times. Mango had 4 of the teams 5 blocks yesterday and that was really good to see. Our bench also did a good job out scoring Kentucky’s 14 to 8. Oh yea and Russ Smith did have the play of the game when he put Randle in a poster. That was fun to watch.
I’m still very confident in how this season will turn out and I think this early loss in December will give this team a wake up call. Where Calipari relies more on talent, Pitino has utilized development and his coaching ability to make Louisville successful. He will figure out how to best use the pieces on this team and the team will figure out how to use what they have to their advantage. We have got the nucleus for another Championship now the guys just have to keep fighting to find a way to make it all work together. I’m very disappointed in that loss yesterday and I did take it very hard, but the college basketball season is not a sprint it’s a marathon. We got a long way to go until March.
Coach Pitino after UK Loss:
