I thought Cal's decision to foul up 3 with 8 seconds to go was absolutely the right decision. I realize the last few seconds were stressful (mainly because the officials wouldn't call a foul when Jones was holding onto the ball in the corner). But believe me, it would have been a lot more stressful to watch Vandy shoot a 3 with a chance to send the game into OT.
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Kentucky 68 - 66 Vanderbilt (Final) (No. 2,044)
I know that a lot of fans will be annoyed that UK threw away such a big lead in this game, but Vandy is better than most UK fans are willing to acknowledge. I thought UK's defense tonight was actually very good -- it is not easy to hold Vandy under 70 points. The problem for UK was that in the last 10 minutes of the game, their offense just went to pieces -- mainly because they were making too many turnovers. They couldn't get any open looks for Knight and Lamb, and even Miller wasn't stepping up like he did against Florida. However, the Cats did a good job of settling themselves and running some good plays down the stretch. Jones and Knight also made some huge free throws at the end. And, of course, Harrellson made the play of the game -- coming up with that key loose ball when Vandy was down 1 with 21 seconds to go. (Of course, Ken Pomeroy would point out that UK was due for a turnover of that kind after losing so many close games.)
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GO CATS!!
ReplyDeleteBy the way, a lot of UK fans are complaining about the officiating -- especially in the second half when Vandy made their run. I did think the officiating was bad, but I don't think it was worse than usual.
ReplyDeleteThe SEC officials seem to have adopted the Big East attitude, which is basically to always give the call to whichever team is being more aggressive. So when Vandy cranked up their defense and started throwing themselves all over the UK players, the officials simply let it go, and called turnovers on UK instead of fouls on Vandy. It is goofy, but that's the way the games have been called all season -- which helps to explain why big, physical teams like Georgia and Alabama have had relatively good years. UK, by contrast, has smaller guys who tend to expect more foul calls than they ever get. And this has hurt them.
There was someone on Twitter absolutely insisting last night that he knew one of the officials had attended Vandy.
ReplyDeleteI thought it was a terrific win. I think this team has now reached the maturity that last year's team had gotten to along about the middle of December. And I don't mean that in a bad way at all.