UK-UofBrawl

Pitino said he didn’t think his press wouldn’t work against the Cats.  I thought his reference to backing off the press was a ploy.  I was wrong and he was wrong.  UL did not press like usual.  And when they did, UK turned it over.  I thought UL would need to shoot well and often from three range and neither happened.

 Yet here UL was with a one point lead in the second half.  Wall had thrown up the worst shot I’ve ever seen from him and made the worst pass I’d ever seen from him.  No, the game plan was not to press or to rely on threes.  The game plan was to fluster a young but talented team.  The game plan was to take UK out of its game mentally.  And up to the point of Walls worst shot and worst pass the game plan had worked on all but two players.  Ironically, one of those players is the guy you would expect to lose it first and that guy is Cousins.  Maybe this is just the type of game he LIKES to play in and that is actually great news for UK.  UK hasn’t had a “Cousins” since Maglor roamed the paint.  UK needed a “Maglor” yesterday and Cousins was happy to oblige.  He had his moment.  Many think he should have been ejected but he clearly did not throw a punch.  I do not agree with the forearm he used but I also do not agree with how the UL players were attempting to push UK around either.  Someone needed to even the slate.  Someone needed to let UL know they would get as good as they gave.  If you throw Cousins out, then three UL players should have been tossed as well.  I think UL would have been content to lose one or two guys just to get into UK’s head.  Getting Cousins out would have been a bonus. 

 The plan almost worked.  Wall was not Wall and UK was not UK.  But then the TV time out came and just in the nick of time.  When UK came out of the time out and down one, Wall returned to being Wall and UK returned to being UK and there was nothing UL could do about it.  The bone head passes went away, the three fell for Harris, Wall goes on a Wall run from everywhere and UL had no answer. 

 Coach will do the right thing, but I think its time for Harris to replace Miller in the starting lineup.  It seems that every game Harris is one of the guys on the floor when it matters most except at the start. 

 Again we see that this team is built very well.  They can kill you at their game and beat you at yours.  I’ve always felt that one or two dimensional teams are suspect during a post season run and need a lot of luck to go far.  Teams that can excel in any game situation does not need to rely on luck and this is one of those teams.

 Hat’s off to the Cards for getting this game just where they wanted it.  I though they got a major break with how the game was called.  They needed it, and they still came up short. 

 15-0