Rant: That's As Embarrassed I've Ever Been Watching Kentucky Play Basketball

There have been more embarrassing losses - most notably Evansville a few years ago. But this is as embarrassed I've been watching a game for the simple fact of the dumb mistakes made. Evansville just worked us back in the day. Notre Dame? It's not like they played well. It's not like they did anything crazy. Mike Brey put Wesley on Wheeler and dared him to shoot and took away his ability to drive and kick. Wheeler launched long twos. Dumb. Keion Brooks decided it was his turn to keep shooting mid-range jumpers for no reason whatsoever and brick them. That's what's embarrassing. It's mistakes that a junior can't make. It's mistakes that were supposed to be fixed over the summer. All Brooks has to do is step back a few feet to the 3pt line, shoot that instead of the 16 footer for no reason. 

Defensively wasn't much better, especially late. Too often Brooks got caught out of position and got beat on a simple cut. Again, this is a junior making that mistake. And this isn't all on Brooks or anything like that. Cal can't keep making the same lineup disasters that we had out there. Why have Mintz in defensively that last possession? Clearly that's who Notre Dame wanted to target. Why go stretches of playing Mintz, Oscar, Toppin, Hopkins and Wheeler? That let Notre Dame hang around when you could have pushed that lead to 10 instead. But there was no offense out there. It was ugly basketball for a 5 minute stretch that kept Notre Dame around and ultimately boned us. 

The changes are simple. Kellan Grady needs to be the offensive focus. Watch how he played at Davidson and how he was used there. He's not a spot up shooter. He's a play maker, let the guy make plays. Start speeding the game up. This team isn't made to play in the halfcourt and a slow game. Use a 1-2-2 trapping press, use a regular press. You have this athleticism and a guy in Oscar at the rim to protect it, speed the game up and use that athleticism. Finally start spacing the floor. I know Calipari wanted to shorten the rotation, fine. But in a game where shots weren't going in, play Allen out there with Grady, Washington and Mintz or something so Oscar has more space to work. Keep the lane as open as possible. 

I know a ton of people want to talk about the schedule too. That had nothing to do with this and it a pretty dumb argument. Yeah, I'd like one road game before here, but the next games are Ohio State (Vegas) and home to Louisville. That's also before a trip to Kansas later in the year. All the old problems just came up today. Wheeler was trash. Brooks wasn't good. Washington wasn't good. Grady wasn't used correctly until it was far too late. Beat Ohio State and it doesn't matter. Lose to Ohio State and this feels a whole lot more like 2019-20 with losses to Utah and Ohio State back to back games. That team got right beating Louisville and then running through the SEC. This team needs something to start building on.