Misery loves company, and folks, we we had plenty of it today. While Kentucky certainly lost a tough one this afternoon, they were just one of several ranked teams to lose on a day that ESPN creatively named "Upset Saturday."Here is a list of the ranked teams that lost on Saturday...
#1 Kansas (lost to Oklahoma St.)
#2 Kentucky (Lost to Tennessee)
#8 Villanova (Lost to Syracuse)
#11 BYU (Lost to New Mexico)
#13 Georgetown (Lost to Notre Dame)
#21 Texas (Lost to Texas A&M)
As for the Kentucky game, here's what Cal had to say...
And here is what Wall and Cousins thought about the loss...
Overall, I agree with Cal and think this could be a loss that will actually help this team a great deal moving forward, similar to the loss Kentucky had in 1996 to Mississippi State in the SEC tournament, or the loss to Ole Miss in 1998. Both of those losses came late in the season, and helped Kentucky gain focus before the NCAA tournament. Of course (in case you forgot) Kentucky won national titles in both of those seasons.
Of course, the jury is still out, and I'm not predicting a national title just yet, but I certainly wouldn't rule one out just because we lost to a ranked opponent on the road. The bigger question is whether or not Kentucky will find their outside shooting touch again. This team hasn't been the greatest outside shooting team all year, but they've went from average to just plain horrible. It will be hard to advance to the Final Four (much less win it all) shooting 2 from 22 from outside the arc.
Still, we have a great coaching staff and tremendous talent and I believe they'll find what's broken and fix it before the SEC and NCAA tourneys.
Had Kentucky won, we would have been ranked #1 because of the Kansas loss at Oklahoma State, and right now, I think our young team is better off playing with a chip on their shoulder and with something to prove. With this loss, our Cats should be hungry moving forward, and that will help us on the home stretch.
Anyway, that's my two cents... what's yours? Talk about it in the comments section below...
I find it interesting that you seemed more upset during the game against South Carolina (that we won by 20) than this game against the Vols. I can relate with the lack of disgust for this loss, as I think it can be beneficial down the stretch. Just funny how perspectives change from game to game, but we might have gained more by making that comeback and falling short, than playing with our food and getting away with it like we tend to do at times.
ReplyDeleteI wasn't very upset about this game. Here's why. Had we beaten UT and went into Athens unfocused and cocky they might have beaten us. Now, we should go in focused and with a sense of urgency. The loss to UT is not a bad loss, a loss to a 5-9 (SEC) Georgia team would be.
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