USC 68 UK 62

I didn’t want this day to come. I certainly didn’t see it coming from a game at South Carolina. It’s just a guess, but I don’t think the Cats saw it either, and there in lies the start of the problem. It’s not a bad problem to have, rooting for a team that is 19-1. I wanted to believe this team could handle it. I now know they couldn’t. I think Cal probably knows it too. I know some disagree, but I do think there has been too much going on outside of basketball this last week for this team. But in the grand scheme of things, there is more to life than basketball and I would trade raising 1.3 mil for one of the worst natural disasters of my lifetime and the acknowledgement from that for a loss to USC any day of the week. Having said that, there is no excuse for losing to South Carolina outside of Devan Downey. The kid was the best player on the floor on this night, and in the end, that is the center of the story. He got the help he needed from his team mates and from UK, but you have to take your hat off to the Gamecocks for having a plan, sticking to it and executing it. UK, didn’t.

Any time after a loss like this, you have to look harder at what went wrong. For one, Bledsoe seemed to be caught up in the, “who is the better point guard” war. Downey, wasn’t. Downey did what he had to do to win and that really is the ball game as none of the Cats did what they needed to do to win the ball game. The late heroics seemed a little stale to the Gamecocks, who shrugged it off and won the game anyway.

I honestly think coach had a game plan that would win almost any game, but there was a major lack of execution which started with Miller. The game plan only works if you hit your outside shots, and Miller seemed to not even be in the gym. His replacements didn’t do any better and I am not sure why Dodson deserved 21 minutes in this game other than he did seem to hustle some on D. Harris played six minutes, which was probably 5 minutes too many until you consider that anyone deserves a chance to work their way into the game. Harris, in my mind, has been disappointing of late. I love the kid, he’s one of my favorites, but he seems to be coasting. The effort on D is gone, the rebounding is gone and the over all leadership is gone. This team will go as far as the three position takes them, which at this point is a toss up on any given night.

Leadership. Big, big word. Guys like Patterson and Harris have all but differed the leadership to the freshman point guards. You must give Kudos to Wall and Bledsoe for wrestling it away from the elder players and shame on Patterson and Harris for handing it to them without a fight. Patterson is my favorite player of all time, but he has coasted this year as well. Part of that is the scheme, and I don’t think there is an answer for it. UK can go to the double post, but that clogs things up. Boogie, to his credit, has stayed on the blocks much better than I thought he would and it usually serves UK well. Patterson, on the other hand has not produced much when he’s on the wing and has not posted as well as the last two years. Over all, you just don’t see Patterson around the ball nearly as much as in the the past and I credit much of that to coasting.

This team would have Cal’s eight or ten losses if he didn’t have Boogie. The kid brings it every play of every night. Lat night: 27 points while shooting 53%, 12 boards, a steal, three turn overs, three blocks. He’s the one guy that did not deserve to lose.

I didn’t want to know how this team would handle a loss, but now its time to find out. The great news is, I just looked out the window and the sun DID, in fact, come up this morning and UK does live to fight another day.