Psycho T v. Randy Morris
In a battle between one of the best centers in college basketball and one of the most underachieving centers in college basketball, many UK players were quick to point out Psycho T's seven point production versus Randy Morris' 23 point performance. Bobby Perry: "He showed who is the best big man in that matchup." But I have a bit of advice for Bobby and the rest of the UK team: Shut the fuck up, we still lost.
Some key points in yesterday's game:
1. Psycho T was double-teamed, and on occasion triple-teamed, every time he touched the ball. Randy Morris might have been double-teamed once.
2. Randy only took three or four shots within the designed offense in the 2nd half. This was after shooting 6 for 6 in the first half. There were at least five times I jumped out of my chair and shouted, "Throw him the fucking ball!" It's not often Randy works for good position inside. I'm not even sure if he was working for it yesterday, or North Carolina just realized we weren't going to throw him the ball.
3. Randy did show an impressive range of offensive moves. Joe and Ramel displayed an overall retardation for understanding the game of basketball. When I was 10 years old I knew if I threw the ball in the post to Wes Overton or Justin "Wiggins" Brown consistently, eventually things would open up for me to bank in awkward looking threes that made my Dad bury his face in his hands.
4. Bobby Perry's comment genuinely seemed as if no one really cared that we lost by 12. I pictured Kentucky's players almost celebrating with Randy in the locker room about how he dominated Psycho T, while Psycho T laughed with his teammates, saying, "Man, those fucking idiots concentrated on me so much you guys got to shoot open threes all day long. That was fucking awesome."
5. Ramel Bradley cannot play in big games
6. Was this even a big game? North Carolina's fans acted like they were at Dean Smith's funeral.
7. The only highlight I saw for UK was the small scuffle at half court when Bobby Perry got tangled up with some long, athletic shooter from North Carolina. By the way, I think this is one of the worst rules in college basketball. Apparently, if you aren't on your feet anywhere on the court, any player from the opposing team can jump on you and wrestle you for the ball. You still have possession of the ball, because you can still travel when you are sitting on the floor. This makes for sloppy plays and limits the Magic Johnsonesq plays of sitting on the floor and bouncing the ball between a person's legs to Kurt Rambis for a dunk.
All in all, I do think this team is better than last year's. But as Runs said last night we are getting outcoached on and off the court. Tubby's players aren't prepared going into a game and lose focus throughout the game. We had some success with the press late in the game, but the players weren't prepared at all to play from behind with 5 minutes left in the game. Ramel still walked the ball up the court, and we looked completely disfunctional in our half court offense. We should have drawn up simple plays to make one or two passes into Randy and let him go. Instead, we made eight or nine passes and let someone go one on one from the outside. Ramel and Joe started their penetration ten feet behind the arc allowing Brandon Wright to casually walk over to block Ramel's shot and Frazor to size up the student section and choose which girl he was going to sleep with that night while in position for a charge.
If there was a Wonderlic test for basketball, our team average would be an 11. And that's with Tubby taking Joe and Ramel's test for them.
Some key points in yesterday's game:
1. Psycho T was double-teamed, and on occasion triple-teamed, every time he touched the ball. Randy Morris might have been double-teamed once.
2. Randy only took three or four shots within the designed offense in the 2nd half. This was after shooting 6 for 6 in the first half. There were at least five times I jumped out of my chair and shouted, "Throw him the fucking ball!" It's not often Randy works for good position inside. I'm not even sure if he was working for it yesterday, or North Carolina just realized we weren't going to throw him the ball.
3. Randy did show an impressive range of offensive moves. Joe and Ramel displayed an overall retardation for understanding the game of basketball. When I was 10 years old I knew if I threw the ball in the post to Wes Overton or Justin "Wiggins" Brown consistently, eventually things would open up for me to bank in awkward looking threes that made my Dad bury his face in his hands.
4. Bobby Perry's comment genuinely seemed as if no one really cared that we lost by 12. I pictured Kentucky's players almost celebrating with Randy in the locker room about how he dominated Psycho T, while Psycho T laughed with his teammates, saying, "Man, those fucking idiots concentrated on me so much you guys got to shoot open threes all day long. That was fucking awesome."
5. Ramel Bradley cannot play in big games
6. Was this even a big game? North Carolina's fans acted like they were at Dean Smith's funeral.
7. The only highlight I saw for UK was the small scuffle at half court when Bobby Perry got tangled up with some long, athletic shooter from North Carolina. By the way, I think this is one of the worst rules in college basketball. Apparently, if you aren't on your feet anywhere on the court, any player from the opposing team can jump on you and wrestle you for the ball. You still have possession of the ball, because you can still travel when you are sitting on the floor. This makes for sloppy plays and limits the Magic Johnsonesq plays of sitting on the floor and bouncing the ball between a person's legs to Kurt Rambis for a dunk.
All in all, I do think this team is better than last year's. But as Runs said last night we are getting outcoached on and off the court. Tubby's players aren't prepared going into a game and lose focus throughout the game. We had some success with the press late in the game, but the players weren't prepared at all to play from behind with 5 minutes left in the game. Ramel still walked the ball up the court, and we looked completely disfunctional in our half court offense. We should have drawn up simple plays to make one or two passes into Randy and let him go. Instead, we made eight or nine passes and let someone go one on one from the outside. Ramel and Joe started their penetration ten feet behind the arc allowing Brandon Wright to casually walk over to block Ramel's shot and Frazor to size up the student section and choose which girl he was going to sleep with that night while in position for a charge.
If there was a Wonderlic test for basketball, our team average would be an 11. And that's with Tubby taking Joe and Ramel's test for them.
posted by HAL 9000 at 11:31 AM
7 Comments:
As one of Psycho T's biggest supporters, I must admit that Moderately Perturbed R outplayed him yesterday. Yes, UNC won, but Randy got the best of T in the one-on-one matchup.
I don't even like Kentucky, and I was frustrated by UK's low basketball IQ. How do you not feed Randy when he's hitting everything he throws up.
One last thing: I've been a defender of Tubby Smith since he arrived in Lexington. In fact, I would tell Cats fans that UofL would be happy to have Tubby if he ever gets fired after one of his 20-win seasons. Well, we wouldn't be that happy...not anymore. Not after Tubby fails to prepare his team for big games. Not with Tubby's sorry excuse for a half-court offense. And not with Tubby's seemingly random substitution patterns. I do think Tubby is a good coach. At one time, I thought he was a great coach. But he is not going to win championships. And his coaching style is not going to attract top-tier talent that wants to play in a system with a little freedom and excitement. God, I sound like a Kentucky fan.
I'm not going to comment on the game, as I didn't get to see it, since all I can really watch here is Premiership Football, which is a good substitute for college basketball in the same way Bubble Tape is a good substitute for Big League Chew. They're both good and they're both bubble gum, but Bubble Tape is no Big League Chew.
The real point of this comment is to thank you for the Wes Overton mention. It really brought the game to life in an awkward way. I hope that is what you were going for.
You said it all Thelonius. Our greatest concern about Joe Crawford has finally been realized. He is simply a more handsome Rodrick Rhodes. He is quite possibly the easiest decent player to scout in all of college basketall. You could stick a scarecrow in the lane and Crawford would still crash into him once every four possessions and get called for charging. The only solace I can draw from this is that it might mean we force him off the team at the end of the season and sign Ron Mercer.
Natty's admission is a tough pill to swallow. I feel like I've been very patient with Tubby, but things look very bleak right now. UK is not supposed to be content by being competitive with UNC, and it seems like that's the case these days. That's completely inexcusable. Tubby has his types of players here now, including possibly the best big man he's had since coming to UK. If he can't get it done with these guys (and I'm not mailing in the season, but there are going to have to be some serious adjustments), then I think it's time for him to go. He's quickly turning into a John Chaney type (without the ugly and crazy). He just wants to bring in the guys he likes, that nobody else wants, and prove that he can be competitive. Unfortunately, in 79 years of coaching, Chaney never made it to a Final Four.
By the way, there are three top 25 high school juniors in the state of Kentucky...guess how many we're going to get? Tell the world my friends, it's time for John Pelphrey to take the helm and restore us to unimaginable greatness. That last point will be elaborated in a later post.
"Many of life's disputes are the result of, and resolved by, a cock-slap to the face." - Psycho T
jb, quit contributing your quotes to other people. next you're going to be telling people that wynona judd invented the leg guitar.
I have spent the entire summer and fall defending Tubby to the masses here in Lexington. I have also spent hours praising my own calm, level headed approach to watching an up-and-coming UK team, saying "I'm not like the rest of those UK fans". However, it is time for a reality check. I am, in fact, just like every other UK fan in the bluegrass. I realized this soon after my rage at Ramel's foul with 5 second left on the shot clock in the closing minute of Saturday's game, caused me to rip apart my shirt and eat glass. Or maybe it was when I bashed in my skull with a T-fal skillet upon realizing Tubby's only OB under play is drawn up for every player to run to the baseline, beg for the ball, and then hope that we can catch a hail mary at the top of the key against longer, more athletic players. In all honesty, I truly realized that I was a typical UK fan when I began making ultimatums such as "I will never watch another game if Joe Crawford is on the team" and "If we don't find another player to score, we will never make the tournament", then ran to rivals.com for a little more self-loathing because no top 50 player in the next three years is even interested in coming to UK. Screw Joe, screw Tubby, screw Rivals, and most importantly screw me...your typical UK fan.
Haystacks -
I thought you spelled your name with a "z" at the end? Or how about "Haystax"? Think about it. We all know you're better than this
Your friend,
JB
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