Kentucky Basketball: How can the Cats turn things around?
On Sunday night, the Kentucky Wildcats Men’s basketball team traveled to Spokane arena to take on the Gonzaga Bulldogs, ultimately dropping the game 88-72 in regulation. After seeing the Wildcats fall to a second top-tier foe, some members of the Big Blue Nation may be having issues with remaining optimistic as it pertains to the future, leaving the question: What has to happen moving forward in order for John Calipari to salvage his relationship with the Big Blue Fanbase.
In April of 2009, Coach Cal took the Bluegrass by storm as he announced he would be accepting the Lexington coaching job and leaving his previous home in Memphis. By early November, the entire BBN was on board the Coach Cal train as they sported the “John Wall Dance” and wore T-Shirts with “Cousins” intended puns.
Nowadays, while Coach Cal still possesses the support of many, the overall song of unity rings a much quieter tune. Over the past few seasons of “not living up to Blue Blood expectations,” questions have arisen about a possible outdated and stagnant offense, lack of three-point shooting in modern style basketball, and the decline of Cal’s ability to bring in top recruits one after another.
After watching Sunday’s game, a few key takeaways were made painfully clear, with the first one being the Cats having a heavy reliance on Oscar Tshiebwe. While the big man down low ended the night with 20 points and 15 rebounds, Oscar’s collection of buckets in the paint was just no match for the momentum swing of three-point shooting that traveled with Gonzaga early in the game.
Furthermore, the Cats looked to have ruffled feathers on consecutive offensive possessions as they once again forced ill-advised, low percentage shots to the rim. The Cats ended the night shooting 39% in comparison to Gonzaga’s 56%, and although they did manage to shoot the ball well later in the game, it seemed the game was essentially out of reach by the time shots started to fall. It is also worth noting that the Cats, who have been praised for their length being a strength coming into the season, lost the overall rebounding battle 39-29.