Wow - and other comments

RobS--good perspectives, and I'll just add to them rather than put forth a separate post.

* It was baffling why Self chose to play Diallo and Bragg so much in the first half, and they played very respectably, yet both didn't appear to sniff the floor in the second half. (Maybe Bragg got in for a play or two?) Really, Coach? We had so many possessions where we needed to have a down-low scoring threat (or someone big who could stretch the D out due to the ability to knock down a jumper). And yet, they didn't get the opportunity.

* That was all the more baffling due to another major problem tonight: Perry's complete shrinking from the big moment (which meant that we really needed another big to score for us). The team free throws were utterly excruciating to watch, but nothing left me more disappointed and concerned about our ability to do anything in the post-season than Perry playing so soft and quiet tonight. From the very early air-balled free throw onward, you could just see his body language was soft. He brought zero fire, did not pose an offensive threat whatsoever, missed a ton of bunnies, and utterly choked on the free throw line late in the game. It was an abysmal performance for our senior "leader," all the more so since it came on the biggest of stages, at home, against a team that had utterly smoked and humiliated him in his prior losses to them. What gives with that performance tonight?

* On the upside, CREDIT COACH SELF with the important defensive adjustment in the second half. Against WVU and ISU, he dug in his heels with the M2M defense, despite our guards' utter inability to stop the drive and score or the drive and dish. But tonight, after finally seeing enough himself, I guess, in the first half, he went with the zone and junk defenses that served us well at some key points in the past (recall the UNC tourney game in St. Louis back in 2012, as a marked example). Good adaptations, Coach! Nice to see that!

* Free throws. Ugh. I mean, really? To borrow a line from Vince Lombardi, what the hell is going on out there? It was the most rancid performance I've ever seen, and we literally gave away chance after chance after chance to pull away in the game. We're very lucky to have won given our horrid inability to hit a simple free throw consistently. And it's been a major problem with this team, so that's a huge, huge red flag (among others) for the tourney.

* Congrats to Frank, Devonte, Landon, and, yes, even Jamari for laying it all out there in the second half. They didn't play great, by any stretch, but they never gave up and fought.

* I've already made myself very clear on Jamari's role throughout this year (and how he should be nailed to the bench in favor of the young bigs), but despite several predictable gaffes tonight he came up with the nice follow-up slam and hustled/fought hard. I still would bench him immediately, however, going forward, and until Self gets away from this ridiculous fallback impulse to go with Traylor for the bulk of minutes (along with Lucas) alongside Perry, we are not going to advance to the team we can be come tourney time.

* Lucas is less egregious with the mistakes, by far, than Traylor, but as others have rightly pointed out he, too, is a major offensive liability and we're playing 4 on 5 with him out there. Diallo and Bragg must play more. Period. And the first half encouragement on that score was undercut greatly by Self falling back to his old crutches in the second.

* We were very lucky to get such a huge advantage in foul calls and trips to the line in the 2nd half. Not that ConTucky didn't earn those fouls, they did, but if you put this game on a neutral court, without those rabid fans, I'm convinced that our horrible FT shooting probably enables the Wildcats to pull this one out.

* That is why I come away from this very happy with a win over the vexing Wildcats, who have had our number for too long....but also still concerned about the holes and gaps we need to fill if we want to advance and do the kind of damage come March and April that the upside of this team promises is actually attainable.

Thoughts, addendums, and counter-views welcome.

Rock Chalk...

...the more I'm convinced that the 2nd half defensive adjustments (along with Wayne going off) were what made the difference in the game. I made that point in the post before this (even underscored it, I think), but I really think it deserves being called out. It completely flummoxed UK guards, who had driven at will in the first half, and Calipari just couldn't come up with good counter-adjustments.

It also obviously didn't hurt that we reversed the tables on penetration, with us being the aggressors and getting the officials' calls on contact in the paint--just as UK had been getting those in the first half when they were the driving aggressor. In that sense, I guess the officials were at least consistent in approach...but UK fans are in an uproar right now over the foul and FT disparity. I'm sure we wouldn't be happy with that if the shoe were on the other foot...but you can make that case that the refs were simply being consistent (even if one could wish they wouldn't have called the game quite so tightly against both teams in the respective halves).

Final thought: back to those defensive adjustments. The triangle and 2 can work when it's not expected (see Roy again), but if opponents in the future know it could come, it's far easier to beat. This puts a premium on Self and the staff practicing various zone looks and perfecting some non-M2M defenses as we go on, since our guards (and Ellis and Lucas/Bragg on the switches) are not good at all at keeping skilled ball handlers in front of them.

cjonline.com/sports/hawkzone/2016-01-30/...vertime-victory-over

Selden's great night + effective defensive switch = the difference

Note also Self's concern about being able to continue running gimmick defenses in the future. In the absence of better man to man D by our guards (and the bigs coming off of switches) against good ball handlers, we'd better come up with something, however. And practice the heck out of it...

Thanks for representing!

If you get time, we'd all love to hear what the experience was like in the Barn tonight!