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March 5, 2009

Bubble Schmubble - Dawgs Top UK

Last night was delicious.  Georgia beat the Kentucky Mildcats 90-85 in Rupp Arena and delivered a life threatening body blow to UK's NCAA Tournament hopes.  With an RPI of 67 (per Real-Time RPI) and falling, the Cats likely need to win the SEC Tourney or beat the Gators this weekend and make the SEC Finals.

The idea that a loss to UGA may have severely injured both the chances for the Cats and Gators to go dancing leaves me in a state of giddiness.  Welcome to our pit of basketball hell.

The only downside to this event would be UK terminating Gillespie and entering a coaching search at the same time as us.  Barring his team losing their next two games, I don't see that as a realistic possibility.  Firing Gillespie for winning 19 or more games this year after finishing 2nd in the East last year would not be wise.

And somewhere a lone Kentucky hillbilly looks over his jug of moonshine and ponders aloud how this is Saul Smith's fault.

Here's the reaction to the game:
-- UK Tumbles to New Low - Lexington Herald-Leader
-- Lowly Georgia Shocks Cats - Lexington Herald-Leader
-- Give me a beer to put these flames out - Sea of Blue (UK Blog)
-- Cats Dog it Against Georgia - Louiville Courer-Journal
-- Game Box Score - Yahoo

A huge thanks to the entire team for a great effort.  That type of effort on both ends of the floor is what the program desperately needs.

PWD

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

It is what makes this team so frustrating. When Woodbury makes shots they are almost unbeatable. Unfortunately, you cannot expect one kid to be on fire every night. I wonder what the season would have been like with another shooter on the floor. But reading the UK fans reactions on their blogs is great. They still blame Tubby for this mess. My favorite headline of the night was "GoodNITe UK!". I would be real proud of these kids if they can win again Sat and win one in the SEC tourney. Just remember these are young men and they deserve better than this season. Who do you think will lose their scholarship next year to open the door for some young shooters. Jeremy Price (lack of playing time), Travis Leslie (academics), Troy Brewer (lack of pt).

Anonymous said...

I'm sorry I should not say lose. Many of these kids will "elect" to transfer.

By the way currently reading "The Last Amateurs" by John Feinstein. A great book for any hoops fan.

Anonymous said...

Ha! "Lowly" Georgia.

Anonymous said...

Kentucky wishes it was Duke right now. And we made 'em feel that way.

GO DAWGS.

AuditDawg said...

Good points Standup. The main reason I was behind the Felton firing was the lack of progress the team made during his years here. I can appreciate a team genuinely playing hard, but is just out talented and gets outscored. What I couldn't deal with was the inability to avoid a trap, the inability to improve free throw shooting, the 10 minute scoring droughts, the excessive turnovers. Felton's first team in 2003 was no different than this current incarnation in those respects. That's what frustrated me the most. It also frustrates me that we may be that team now that causes your coach to get fired when you lose to them. Maybe we can replace "Croom'd" with "Hermann'd"?

Anonymous said...

PWD - disagree with your and Standup's assessment that Cat fans are blaming Tubby.

They cast aspersions at Tubby for the lack of perceived talent on this UK squad, but many UK fans are frustrated with Billy Clyde. He apparently has been a horse's a** on the call-in shows, is getting a reputation around town as a big drinker, and has had some embarrassing situations with sideline reporters etc.

Oh yeah, he is two years into the gig and still has not signed his original contract.

I think it is highly likely that UK will fire Gillespie if they lose at UF on Saturday, crap out of the SEC tourney without a title. Even if they are invited to the NIT, they will not be able to host a home game because Rupp is booked that week for the Sweet 16.

UK basketball fans are even more insufferable than UT football fans. Every loss, every slight, every player who leaves early or every recruit who goes to another school is perceived as "abomination" or embarrassment to the program and its history.

Heck, their are folks on the message boards who have calculated that UNC will be the first program to 2000 wins instead of UK- even though UK currently is 9 wins ahead of UNC. The bottom line is that they expect UK to get worse not better.

UK will begin a coaching search soon. It just makes ADDE's job to find our next coach more difficult.

the tri guy said...

I can't help but chuckle at the state of UK's program. They ran off Tubby who never did anything but methodically win, and now they're worse off then they were back when they were cussing the ball-line defense.

The parallels between UK basketball and UT football are staggering: completely unrealistic fans, no instate talent, massive inferiority complex, and a looonnnngggg history of questionable ethics. The only difference is Eddie Sutton couldn't keep the Teflon coating on as well as Big Phat Phil did.

MikeInValdosta said...

Great game, great game. I was so impressed with how they withstood that late surge from the cats and Meeks.

We actually played hard for more than 40 minutes. I credit Coach Herrman for the improved effort and FT shooting, not to mention the improvement in Ware's play. Maybe I am just an eternal homer, but I think things are looking up and there is some heart in these guys. Woodberry was awesome.

Only downside, our RPI probably goes up a little and helps gainesville.

Anytime we get a chance to beat these big recruits that leave the state of Georgia it is all the more sweeter.

S.A.W.B. said...

If we can't have a good team, then by god, let's be a bad loss for as many programs as possible.

Even if we were to beat SC this weekend, and perhaps take a game or two in the SEC tourney, I sincerely doubt our RPI would rise above 150, which puts any losses to UGA in the 'bad' slot.

Way to go, UK, you just got Herm'ed...

Anonymous said...

"And somewhere a lone Kentucky hillbilly looks over his jug of moonshine and ponders aloud how this is Saul Smith's fault."

I nominate this for blog line of the day. I was going to do a post about the game, but this line made anything I could say superfluous. Oh, and Meeks is a helluva player. Kid just scores. Hopefully he goes pro after this season.

Anonymous said...

Y'all wouldn't believe the whining and crying over last night's game. I was listening to the post game call in show on WHAS last night and these are the biggest bunch of spoiled brats I have ever heard.

The Dawgs beating the Cats in Rupp and knocking them out of an NCAA bid....priceless!!

Anonymous said...

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Funny funny website about sports...It's hysterical. Tell your friends.

 
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