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KSR AM 3/17/2019
          Kentucky Sports RadioUniversity of Kentucky Basketball, Football, and Recruiting news brought to you in the most ridiculous manner possible.Basketball
Basketball Season Coverage
WATCH: The Firecrackers steal the show at the SEC Tournament
By Jack Pilgrim on ©March 16th, 2019 @ 10:00pm
Still disappointed in Kentucky’s SEC Tournament loss to Tennessee this afternoon? Maybe the most exciting halftime performers in the history of ever can cheer you up.
At halftime of today’s game, the Firecrackers lit Bridgestone Arena on fire with a riveting display of jump roping, tricks, and dances.
Take a look at their impressive performance:
Like they do every year, the Firecrackers performed at Rupp Arena earlier this season, and it was a massive hit for the Rupp Arena faithful.
And on an even bigger stage this afternoon, the girls did it yet again.
I’m no jump roping aficionado, but there’s no way you can convince me they’re not the best in the business. If they go on a world tour, I’m getting tickets.
What went wrong for Kentucky down the stretch?
By Jack Pilgrim on ©March 16th, 2019 @ 9:30pm
With just 2:58 remaining in Kentucky’s matchup with Tennessee this afternoon, the Cats held an eight-point lead (72-64). As Drew Franklin mentioned earlier, Kentucky had a whopping 95.7 percent chance of covering the spread immediately after Keldon Johnson’s massive and-one finish.
From there, Tennessee scored points on seven consecutive possessions, including three straight 3-point jumpers from Admiral Schofield, Grant Williams, and Lamonte Turner to ultimately push the Volunteers ahead and never look back.
But what exactly happened during that horrendous stretch for the Wildcats?
“I don’t know, I’ll have to watch the tape,” Kentucky head coach John Calipari said. “There’s a lot of stuff that was going on, a lot of plays, lot of calls. Just got to watch the tape. I mean, we’re not one of those teams that usually does it. All we had to do was rebound that last ball. If we rebound the last ball, the game is different. We just didn’t bring it in.”
According to Calipari, the team had to change the way they were playing as the game progressed, and it worked. They pushed ahead for a strong lead, but they just couldn’t finish the job.
“We had to change how we played because they were killing us in pick’n rolls. We started switching, let their guards try to beat our bigs, we’ll play their bigs with our guards. That helped us. That’s how we got a lead because we couldn’t really guard them.”
If you ask Kentucky point guard Ashton Hagans, the result was a mix of several things.
“Down the stretch we had some turnovers, travel, my turnover, but there’s nothing we can do about it now. I’ve just gotta go back and correct my mistakes,” he said. “We had some mix-ups going, but there’s nothing you can do about it. We’ve just got to go back to practice and work on it before the big tournament. It’s a learning experience, you know?”
Senior forward Reid Travis said there were numerous possessions that the Cats could have put the nail in the coffin, but execution just wasn’t there in crucial moments. When you play a team like Tennessee, especially when they’re down, you’re going to get punched in the mouth down the stretch.
That being said, he plans on using learning from it and applying it during the NCAA Tournament.
“Give them credit, obviously there were some plays that I wish we could’ve gotten back as far as fouling guys and turnovers, stuff like that. Could’ve gotten better shots,” he said. “Give them a lot of credit, they were making shots, they were more aggressive down the stretch, which you’ve got to expect teams when they’re down, that’s what they’re going to start doing. It’s going to be a good learning experience, and we’ve got to apply that to the future games.”
Is Calipari worried about how his team will respond after the devastating loss? No, not even a little bit.
“No,” he responded quickly. “The hard thing about this tournament, if we had won the game, my comment to my team now is, If you’re going to make me coach, you’re going to play in this finals, we’re winning it. We’re not going to lose and have to play, then have to play Thursday.
“Now we’re done. We’ll drive home and get ready for the tournament.”
PJ Washington encouraged teammates to move on from loss, look forward to NCAA Tournament
By Jack Pilgrim on ©March 16th, 2019 @ 8:30pm
When Kentucky forward PJ Washington entered the postgame press conference following his team’s crushing 82-78 loss to the Tennessee Volunteers, his overall vibe was completely different from what we’re used to seeing following losses.
It wasn’t anger or disgust. It wasn’t bitter or gloomy.
While the rest of the Kentucky fanbase snarled and broke down the ins and outs of how the Cats lost their first SEC Tournament game in four years, the 6-foot-7 sophomore oozed confidence.
The reason? The SEC Tournament is not where the road ends. There’s a bigger goal in mind, as winning a conference title simply doesn’t compare to winning an NCAA championship.
According to Washington, he led a meeting with his teammates after the game, where he pushed that point home.
“I just told them to keep their heads up, keep fighting,” Washington said. “We still have a bigger tournament and it’s more important. We got to come out, be focused, be ready to play, whoever we play.”
In the locker room after the game, several Wildcats discussed what Washington said and what it meant for their confidence in the long run.
“PJ said it well after the game,” Kentucky forward Reid Travis said. “Just pick your head up. We’ve got a lot of basketball left to play. Credit his maturity and his leadership for saying that. Obviously we let one go that we should’ve gotten today, but we’ve still got another week of prep to really get ready. The things we really want to accomplish this season are right in front of us.”
Kentucky guard confirmed those comments, saying that the big focus is on the next weekend on. If they make the run they know they’re capable of, no one will care about who took home the SEC championship trophy.
“He just told us that we obviously have more games to play, keep our heads up,” Herro said. “The next tournament’s the big tournament. If we win that tournament, no one is going to say anything about this one.”
In 2012, the Wildcats fell in the SEC Tournament prior to making a championship run in the NCAA Tournament.
If sacrificing the opportunity to win a trophy this weekend means they can hoist one above their heads on April 8, Herro said he’d be perfectly fine with that.
“(Coach Cal) actually didn’t mention that,” he said. “But I would definitely be happy with that.”
While the team is thinking big picture, Travis wanted to make sure people still knew this was an incredibly difficult loss and they’re not completely over it.
“It’s still really tough,” he said. “I mean, every time we lace them up, especially with a rivalry game like that, we want to come away with a win. It’s still a tough one, but we’ll process it just like every other game.”
But if you ask PJ Washington, they’re going to be just fine when the games start to really count.
“We play next weekend,” he said. “We’re going to get it right.”
ESPN Bracketology moved Kentucky out west
By Drew Franklin on ©March 16th, 2019 @ 8:00pm
It didn’t take long for ESPN to update its Bracketology to reflect Kentucky’s exit from the SEC Tournament. In its new update released shortly after the game, Kentucky is projected as a No. 2 seed in the West Region with Gonzaga. The Road To Number 9 would start with the Wildcats of Abilene Christian in Jacksonville in the first round, with red hot Wofford likely waiting in the second. Florida State is the region’s No. 3 seed.
See the entire bracket here.
Takeaways From The Heartbreaker In Nashville
By Drew Franklin on ©March 16th, 2019 @ 7:29pm
Kentucky’s SEC Tournament run fell short in Saturday’s semifinal as the Cats dropped another one to the Vols in the rivalry’s rubber match. Tennessee crawled out of a big deficit late in the game to pull off the big victory in front of rowdy audience in Nashville.
Some takeaways from the heartbreaker…
That was a wild game.
It’s hard to say a game is fun when it ends in a Kentucky loss, but that was a fun game to watch. Fans were treated to a war in an insane environment in Bridgestone Arena with Rocky Top and Go-Big-Blue chants bouncing back and forth throughout the entire game. Those two teams went at each other for 40 minutes and it’s too bad someone had to go home on the losing end. Lots of fun and good basketball in there.
UK blew it by giving up an eight-point lead late in the game.
The Cats had a 72-64 lead with just under three minutes to go (and a 95.7 percent chance of covering the spread), before Tennessee went on a run that included points on seven straight positions. If you’re going to be a championship team, you can’t be giving up a comfortable lead like that in such little time. Kentucky can only blame Kentucky for its collapse and the team is going home early because of it.
Here’s the main reason behind that collapse:
Kentucky really missed Reid Travis down the stretch.
The last two and a half minutes served as another example of Reid Travis’ importance to the team. Without him in the game, Williams grabbed a crucial offensive rebound that led to Lamonte Turner’s go-ahead three-pointer; the play before that, Williams snuck over to the corner to hit a go-ahead three-pointer of his own. Travis likely would’ve prevented both from happening, which would’ve kept six Tennessee points off the board in the final two minutes. He also would’ve taken some of the pressure off PJ Washington on those last couples of drives.
And for the record, it was a bogus fifth foul call that sent him to the bench. He didn’t even touch Williams on the play, yet still got the boot from the game. Kentucky fell apart defensively from there.
Tennessee is really good.
I know we’re supposed to hate Tennessee around here, and I do and always will, but let’s at least acknowledge how good that team is this year. As Kentucky was folding in the end, Tennessee hit big shot after big shot to crawl back and steal the game away from the Cats’ grasp. Grant Williams and Admiral Schofield and Jordan Bone are great players and some other guys made some big plays and I can’t believe I’m saying nice things about the Vols right now but it’s all true. Tennessee is a legit national title contender and some teams are going to be very unlucky to meet them in the tournament.
Ok enough playing nice.
PJ Washington had the put-back to tie it back up but it just wouldn’t go in.
Washington was so close on his follow-up shot with only 13 seconds on the clock and Kentucky down two. Sometimes it just doesn’t fall though.
Tyler Herro’s turnover was a big moment in the game.
Herro made a costly mistake one second into a possession that really helped Tennessee’s comeback. He traveled right in front of the Tennessee bench and the Vols capitalized by converting an and-1 (on the phantom foul that sent Reid Travis out) to cut the lead to only three. If Herro doesn’t travel there, UK likely runs a lot of time off the clock while up six. But it is what it is.
Herro had a pretty good game otherwise, although I wish he had gotten the ball a little more than he did.
Ashton Hagans tied the school record for assists in an SEC Tournament game.
If you’re like me and believe Kentucky needs Ashton Hagans to play great in the tournament, Saturday’s game was comforting. Hagans opened the game with a three-pointer and finished it with 12 assists, matching the school record in an SEC Tournament game. He could’ve been a little better defensively down the stretch, but he was also assigned the task of guarding Jordan Bone, maybe the best point guard in the conference, so let’s not be too critical of his defense. Offensively, Hagans did a pretty good job running the show.
Blue got in.
Kentucky outnumbered Tennessee fans with about 65 percent (my guess) of the crowd. Those folks saying Tennessee would outshine Big Blue Nation were completely wrong as UK fans did what UK fans do during the conference tournament. Way to go, BBN. Way to go.
Okay, let’s talk about the officiating.
You didn’t think I’d go on without mentioning it, did you? Sadly, the officiating stole the show from a great college basketball game. It was absolutely terrible on both sides, so bad that at one point John Calipari and Rick Barnes just looked at each other with a shrug and a smile. I thought for sure Cal was going to get ejected (early on it seemed like he was trying to) as Doug Shows was trending on Twitter for his outrageous performance. Shows and his colleagues had a really bad afternoon, and he even had a fan ejected for letting him know about it. It was brutally bad.
On that note, let’s try to put it all behind us and get ready for an NCAA Tournament run.
Go Cats.
Rick Barnes is now 6-4 vs. John Calipari
By Mrs. Tyler Thompson on ©March 16th, 2019 @ 7:07pm
Not many coaches have John Calipari’s number, but Rick Barnes sure has lately. With Tennessee’s win today, Barnes’ record vs. Calipari improved to 6-4. The two are good friends, and after each loss, Cal jokes that he should never have recommended Barnes take the job in Knoxville back in 2015. Today was no exception.
“Six games in two years. They’re all wars. I don’t know why I recommended that Rick take this job. If I’d have known he was doing this to us, I would have said, Stay at Texas, don’t even come up here.”
Like a good friend, Barnes had plenty of compliments for Calipari and Kentucky following the game.
“Well, they’re so well-coached,” Barnes said. “They’re not going to beat themselves. They really don’t. We knew they were going to go at us inside. We knew that obviously.”
As Barnes noted, foul trouble plagued the Cats, with PJ Washington on the bench for most of the first half.
“You look at P.J., picked up two fouls, played 20 minutes. When he came back, they were going at us inside. They were really doing that. That’s when we said we’re going to turn around. What we felt we had to do was get their big guys away from the basket early. At the end we said we’re going to go inside because that’s what we do, our makeup, where we put it on the block, do that. Some of it, they were in foul trouble. You know they’re not going to be quite as aggressive in that situation.”
Here’s a silver lining: Admiral Schofield and Kyle Alexander graduate this year, so the Vols won’t be quite as strong next season.
Admiral Schofield clarifies comments on Kentucky players not respecting Tennessee
By Mrs. Tyler Thompson on ©March 16th, 2019 @ 6:44pm
Photo: Getty Images
Yesterday, Admiral Schofield stirred the pot when he said he didn’t feel Kentucky’s players respected Tennessee. After the Vols landed the last punch in today’s thriller in the SEC Tournament semifinals, Schofield backpedaled those comments.
“I think it was taken out of context. I meant that in the aspect of their program is prestigious as far as just winning, having a great tradition in basketball. We don’t have that. That’s what we’re building towards. Why would they respect us? Those guys probably expected to come out and just beat us. Just like we expected to win, they expected to win.”
Yeah, yeah. Honestly, I think Admiral knew exactly what he was doing when he said that, but I can’t bring myself to get upset. Plenty of other things to be mad about.
Calipari advocates for Selection Committee to use S-Curve
By Mrs. Tyler Thompson on ©March 16th, 2019 @ 6:20pm
With Kentucky’s NCAA Tournament seed in flux following the loss to Tennessee, John Calipari used his time at the podium to once again advocate for the Selection Committee to use the S-Curve to determine seeding for the top 16 teams, meaning that the worst No. 1 seed would play the best No. 2 seed and so on.
“The reason I say the S-Curve is all the, why did you do this? Why weren’t they doing, if we’re the No. 4 one-seed, why wouldn’t you play the No. 1 two-seed? Well, because of whatever. Everyone charters [planes], it doesn’t matter where you play and I believe you should do this. Well, this team has 11 teams from their league in the NCAA Tournament so they’ve got a lot of teams. You gonna give them another advantage? Just do the S-Curve with the first 16 teams. Here it is. They don’t. So that’s when you say, the power in this one and this is death row and this one’s a little bit easier. And then if you’re in the easy one, you’re happy. It seems like those teams are always happy. And if you’re in the tough one, you’re us and you’re always upset. Like why? Just do the S-Curve, it’s easy. But they have a reason why they don’t do it. I don’t agree with it but I’m not in the room doing it.’
Kentucky’s chances of getting a one-seed are likely gone with the loss to Tennessee. Do the Cats deserve it despite the loss?
“I don’t know. There’s a bunch of teams that can say it. I say we’re pretty good. It’s not if we’re a one or a two, it’s who’s the other team? And I have an idea of who it will be. But if you’re telling me we’re the number one two-seed, we should play the lowest of the one-seeds. That’s all I’m saying. Or, if you’re saying the second, then we should play the third of the one-seeds.”
Whole lot of reading between the lines there. And a whole lot of crossing our fingers before the Selection Show.
Kentucky Falls to Tennessee 82-78 in SEC Tournament Rubber Match
By Nick Roush on ©March 16th, 2019 @ 5:37pm
In a fight between two heavyweights, Tennessee landed the final blow.
Trailing by one, Tennessee’s Lamonte Turner hit the go-ahead three-pointer with 30 seconds remaining. P.J. Washington got two looks at the rim on the following possession, but the ball couldn’t get over the rim.
Keldon Johnson gave the Cats a 72-64 lead on an And One at the 2:58 mark. Over the final three minutes Tennessee went on a 18-6 run to end Kentucky’s chances of winning a fifth straight SEC Tournament.
HALFTIME: Tennessee is On Fire, Leads Kentucky 36-34
By Nick Roush on ©March 16th, 2019 @ 4:16pm
The Tennessee Volunteers brought their A-game to Nashville. In the first half of the SEC Tournament semifinal matchup with Kentucky, Tennessee made 53.8 percent of their field goals, including 7-of-9 shots (77.8%) from behind the three-point line.
Kentucky was without P.J. Washington for most of the first half. The sophomore forward picked up his second foul on a hook and hold call six minutes into the game.
The Vols are red hot, the Cats didn’t have P.J. Washington and they still only trail by two. Not too shabby.
Coach Cal really wants to get tossed
By Drew Franklin on ©March 16th, 2019 @ 4:00pm
This semifinal game is going to be a war until the very end. It’s too bad John Calipari won’t be there to see it.
Cal has been all over Doug Shows and the officiating crew in Nashville, so much so that he just bowed his head and stretched his arms out for several seconds in protest.
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He even said to them, “If you want to throw me out, throw me out.”
Will Cal be watching the second half from Rippy’s?
UK vs. Tennessee LIVE BLOG, presented by Liquor Barn
By Mrs. Tyler Thompson on ©March 16th, 2019 @ 3:15pm
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Visit LiquorBarn.com to shop now, download the app, or see what’s happening in your local store. GO CATS!
*Delivery available in Bowling Green, Danville, Elizabethtown, Louisville and Lexington areas. Promotion covers delivery fees only. Minimum order for delivery is $20. Complimentary delivery on all orders of $75 or more. Must be delivered to an address. Must be 21+ to download the app and accept a delivery. Valid photo ID required.Auburn beats Florida to advance to the SEC Tournament final
By Mrs. Tyler Thompson on ©March 16th, 2019 @ 3:05pm
If Kentucky beats Tennessee, they’ll face Auburn in tomorrow’s SEC Championship. The Tigers just knocked off the Florida Gators 65-62 to advance, but of course, it didn’t come without a little controversy. Watch the clips below and tell me how many fouls you think should have been called on the final play of the game:
Zero fouls were called.
The referees for Kentucky vs. Tennessee are…
By Mrs. Tyler Thompson on ©March 16th, 2019 @ 2:30pm
Get ready for the Doug Shows Show! Everyone’s favorite official is calling today’s game vs. Tennessee along with Don Daily and Steven Anderson.
We already knew today would be a war; considering the refs, brace yourself to hear the whistle early and often.
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