On Sunday afternoon, Kentucky fell to the Auburn Tigers 77-71 in the Elite Eight and PJ Washington’s tweet following the game sums up the feelings of the Big Blue Nation.
Kentucky can’t win it every year, but nothing hurts worse than Kentucky losing in the tournament and it never gets any easier.
It was a helluva season and I hate to see it come short, but lets look at why it did.
Guard Play
Guards win games in the NCAA Tournament, and simply put
Auburn’s guards were better on Sunday.
The Kentucky guards combined for 38 points on 13-38 (35% FG)
shooting, 3-17 (18%) from three, and 9 turnovers.
Whereas Jared Harper and Bryce Brown combined for 50 points
on 15-30 shooting including 5-13 from three, 6 steals, and 5 assists. Two players
accounted for 65% of Auburns points and you can’t expect to win when that happens.
Down the stretch, Jared Harper made the right plays and
willed Auburn to that win and the Kentucky guards didn’t have an answer.
I would have liked to see Immanuel Quickley or even Jemarl Baker
a little more, but it looked they were just playing scared. While Hagans turned
it over 7 times, he wasn’t scared and made some crucial layups at the end.
Keldon Johnson and Tyler Herro were the two of the three best
offensive options for this Kentucky team for a majority of the season and
Kentucky was really hurt when they combined for just 21 points.
Dreadful Second Half
While Kentucky still held Auburn to 30 points and 35% shooting
in the second half, the offense was the problem.
If you were to combine the amount of points Kentucky scored
from free throws and three-pointers in the second half, you would come up with
a total of ONE point. With the way Kentucky plays, you can’t win like that.
PJ Washington scored 28 points and Reid Travis played 44 of
minutes, and single-handedly kept the Cats in the game in the second half and
they should be remembered in such a positive light in Kentucky history.
No team can win a game with two players.
This is NOT on Calipari
Everyone is entitled to their own opinion and I respect
that, and there are going to be fans blaming this loss on John Calipari and the
“one-and-done” philosophy, but I just don’t see how one could say that.
I know 90-95% of Kentucky fans love Calipari and know how
great of a job he has done at Kentucky. However, there is still that 5-10% that
will NEVER be pleased.
In Calipari’s ten seasons at Kentucky
In Calipari’s ten seasons at Kentucky
– 305 wins*, 2nd in UK history
– 31 Tournament wins*
– 5 SEC regular season titles
– 6 SEC Tournament titles
– 7 Elite Eights*
– 4 Final Fours*
– 2012 National title
*=Most in the Country in span
Yes, Kentucky has the highest expectations of any other
school but it’s extremely unrealistic to expect a title or bust every season.
Kentucky has won 8 titles in 116 seasons, for an average of one every 14.5
seasons, and Cal has brought us that.
As for the one and done, it has only been used for a little
over 10 years, so yes there is a bigger sample size of teams that are led by
veterans and a larger number of teams doing that because they aren’t able to
get elite talent.
Duke and Kentucky are really the only ones going all in on the one and done. Just by percentages of 66 teams vs 2 teams, most years the field will win it and that’s just the randomness of the tournament. Still, the “one-and-done” has brought a title to each team.
Enjoy Calipari and all his “swagginess” while you can because Kentucky will not always have it this good. Kentucky has won a title with five different coaches, but only Rupp was as dominant. Kentucky will not always be a national title contender every year, Kentucky will not always have the elite of the elite talent. Don’t take this for granted and trust the process.
This one is going to hurt for a while but what stings most about this loss is that this team was national championship good and they were stopped short by a team they had beaten twice this season in a winnable game.
With that said, it’s been a heck of a heck of a season and while it might have been a mild disappointment, I have had so fun watching and covering this team. Thank you to all the players giving your all and thank you to all my readers for the support through this basketball season.
Kentucky will be back and reloaded next season. GO CATS!!
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