UCLA upsets No. 1 Kentucky, again
It’s tough to beat a team that can’t miss.
And UCLA couldn’t miss today in Rupp Arena.
The Bruins came in and took down No. 1 Kentucky for a second straight season, 97-92, in part because Kentucky kept beating itself. Officiating was suspect at times, but this one came down to the Cats’ inability to keep UCLA out of the scoring column and plenty of freshman mistakes on both ends of the floor.
The loss is Kentucky’s first of the year after seven consecutive wins by 21 or more to open the season.
A very unhappy John Calipari will be by in a moment to break down the game, plus lots more of postgame chatter throughout the afternoon.
Here’s the box score to hold you over, if you have any interest in seeing it…
44 Comments for UCLA upsets No. 1 Kentucky, again
Briscoe just stepped out again…
If Willis isn’t going to shoot 3s he shouldn’t play. We give up much when he’s out there.
i agree. willis should shoot or sit and briscoe should stop shooting 3’s or sit.
The problem is Cal said he was gonna sit if he DIDN’T shoot. Briscoe doesn’t want to shoot them.
Some of Cal’s substitution decisions today were definitely head-scratching and opposite of what he usually does.
I’d be a rich man if I had a dollar for every time UCLA committed an offensive foul that wasn’t called. Took 38 and a half minutes for Alford to finally be called for pushing off.
Horrible defense, terrible ball movement, guards forcing their shots, Bam missing layups, missed freethrows. So many things we need to work on, however, it’s early and all of these can easily be improved upon through the season. Though, I swear if I see another game of Briscoe taking more than 1 jumpshot I might just turn off the game. Briscoe plays great defense and hustles really well but he might be the worst shooter I’ve ever seen among all-american caliber guards and someone needs to tell him where the out of bounds line is. Ucla is probably the best offensive team in the country and they showed it against us, hopefully we bounce back from this quickly.
Fox has to learn that when we start to get momentum he can’t take a dumb quick shot. It really sucks to lose our win streak at Rupp. If it weren’t for that I wouldn’t be that upset. Unfortunately we were overrated and they were underrated. This was a big loss for UK today. We need to improve your defense and overall decision making.
“Unfortunately we were overrated and they were underrated. This was a big loss for UK today.”
Step away from the ledge….
SHOW’D
Again!
Why no Mulder? Could have greatly used his shooting, and his defense couldn’t be any worse than what we had out there anyway.
So there were some huge missed calls by the refs. Reach arounds, Briscoe sideline steps (2nd one), Alford push offs (only the last one called). With that being said ANY championship caliber team plays through bad ref calls. This solely lands on Cal. I stand behind Cal and I think he’s the man for the job, his record and recruiting speak for themselves. But hot damn he doesn’t know how to use his big men. He blew the first season by improperly using Cousins, ’14 season by not using more KAT (and the other three bigs), and this game by not using Bam. Three big guys on the opposing team have 4, 4, and 3 fouls with 5 minutes left you attack their bigs with yours. Play aggressive. They foul out you have a huge advantage. MESSAGE TO CALIGARI START USING YOUR BIG GUYS OR STOP RECRUITING THEM. THE LAST TIME YOU PROPERLY USED A BIG MAN YOU CUT THE NETS DOWN
**CALIPARI (auto correct)
Bam was 4-12 from the field and shot 13 FTs. He had his opportunities, forced some fouls, but also missed some gimmes. Trust in Cal we will be fine.
Another thing, glad we had Briscoe out there in the end when we needed three’s, since he’s a much better shooter than Mulder.
My thoughts exactly. A guy hitting 47% on threes can’t even get off the bench?
Couldn’t buy a basket.
You guys keep talking about offense….UCLA shot 53% from the feild and 43% from 3
53% from the field, 43% from 3, 80% from the line.
If that was a player’s Stats he’d be in the HOF.
Why is it, we can’t get away from this guy?
Who?
Bad shot selection. Limited ball movement. Wrong guys taking threes. Leaving shooters. Add in UCLA hooks, push offs, shoves, etc. Not going to be a good day when all that adds up. We’re had a lot of assists in previous games because of fastbreaks, not really good ball movement. Our “play for getting a 3” is put someone at top of key and let them shoot. Not good. We ran very little to try to get guys open, cough-Willis-cough. BUT it’s early and we’ll adapt.
Rebounds cost us big, I think that can be improved on. UCLA is a contender for championship. I think they are at their ceiling though, KY is much higher. All the people who left early should have their tickets removed.
UK lost because of two main factors:
1. Only 13 second chance points despite having 18 offensive rebounds.
2. Free throw shooting (where have we heard that before…)
not sure it was free throws as much as 2-pt shooting. they shot 66% from the line. up that to 80%, it only adds 3 to 4 points, plus a couple more opportunities for a second free throw. if they had just got their 2-pt shooting to 50%, that would be 14 more points.
Chicken wings are offensive fouls, and extending the forearm while dribbling is an offensive foul. Refs swallowed their whistles on 4 chicken wings, and let Alford and Ball push off the whole game.
I knew when shows was announced as ref, Kentucky wouldn’t get the calls.
Way too many missed offensive fouls on UCLA and way too many rebounding fouls on KY. Momentum was lost on the bogus foul called on Willis that gave them a 5 point possession. I hate Doug Shows and Higgins.
This is the difference in a team that can shoot,
and one that can’t!
UK can bet a lot of teams but can’t match shooting like that.
Completely out coached…..our worst shooter shooting our best on the bench
“out coached” –
Here we go, folks….
Its December 3rd.
I agree I was calling to see Mulder and Sacha Killeya Jones.
Actually out-coached by Alford for the second year in a row, which doesn’t happen to Cal often.
Yeah, Mulder needs to be in there, when we need a three. And for God’s sake Willis shoot the dang ball. That’s the only reason you are in there, we are giving up so much so you can shoot, and guess what, you don’t shoot.
Only the 3rd time UK has lost at home while being ranked #1 by the AP. Now 99-3.
And I agree Doug Shows is simply bad news.
After all we have heard about it, I thought Monk was terrible in transition and finishing at the rim. That was supposed to be a strength of his, but definitely not today. It seemed like everytime he would get out with the ball, he would fail to finish and they would come right back and score in transition. I would rather see him try to dunk on everyone then try to step around Alford, miss & fall down. Missed opportunity to score & grab momentum.
To a lessor extent, same thing for Bam around the rim. He finished better late, but the play where he had a great baseline spin and then threw up some miserable shot, then Leaf scored on the next play by taking him baseline and throwing it down. Start dunking on people.
Alford has been getting away with pushing off and it not getting called for it for 3 years now. Why are you people still surprised? Officiating didn’t cost us this game.
Cal just said in his post game that he wants Monk to stop trying to avoid contact. Go hard to the rim, and get fouled or get the and-one.
Boiled down to UCLA took UK out of transition by getting people back. That was the turning point. The play of the game was when UCLA came out of a time and out no one under the basket to keep U.K. out of transition. If they don’t do that UK wins by 15. Next was U.K. couldn’t return the favor. UCLA was exactly as advertised. But did it in the half court instead of running. UK couldn’t stop anything in the half court and couldn’t do anything on the offensive end in the half court. Basically they are still in good shape. Most teams aren’t capable of out scoring them even when things don’t go right such as today. Just fix the half court offense. Learn some sets, get Bam involved earlier and tell Willis if he doesn’t shoot it when he’s open he’s off the team. They will be fine. Probably any other team in the country and they still win today. Not many can score 90+ the way UCLA can.
Embarrassing loss
Once again we fluff these freshmen as the next coming and they fail in big games over and over. We have played one good team this year and lost at home. There’s no Anthony Davis on this team so don’t get your hopes up. A team with upperclassmen that don’t sit the bench will win the tournament again.
You mean like Willis and Dom Hawkins, both seniors, who played significant minutes today?
GTFOH, troll.
Here’s an embarrassing loss: losing at home on Senior Day, with a Heisman player, to a 27 point underdog.
Here’s an embarrassing loss: blowing a 22 point lead to a Scott Drew coached team where you were favored.
Rupp’s atmosphere is embarrassing. Very few people were standing at all, including those in the lower level student section. I expect more from the “fans” for the greatest tradition in the history of college basketball.
I agree completely Bigbluecat95. I was at the game with a friend sitting in section 215 and we both thought the crowd was pitiful. No standing, almost quiet at times. I stood the entire second except for commercial breaks and I was just waiting for somebody to say something to me. It’s like UK fans are spoiled. And don’t get me started on the “fans” that left with over 2 minutes left in the game.
Cjruk1, I’m a student and my friends and I were cursed at and told to sit down for standing in the lower level student section with under ten minutes left in the game by other students. I can’t make this stuff up.