Originally posted by ukbob:
Tired? BS
Cal platooned these guys for the 1st 12 games and nobody got a tremendous amount of minutes.
Virginia looks pretty good and they play 7-8 guys. UL gets up and down.
Lack of focus... Yep
Confused on offense... Yep
Lack of intensity... Yep
Tired..., not buying it
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I agree with Bob.
Tired has nothing to do with the trouble. These guys shouldn't be tired in the least. Not a single player is averaging more than 26 minutes per game. They may have gotten out of their normal routine during the holidays, but it's not fatigue.
I will say this, though- in nearly every noon or early start we've had this season, the team has looked sluggish coming out of the gate. I don't think that is about the team being "tired" or run down though. I think that has to do with the guys being typical college guys. They would rather play at midnight than noon.
Regardless, I think it's all about the lack of focus Bob mentioned here. They haven't come out with energy in some games. They have lost focus in the middle of games at times as well. In this TX A&M game Saturday, they came out flat from the start. They finally started giving high effort toward the end of the first half and then they started the second half well. The defensive effort was high. And UK took over the game midway through the second half. But at that point, I could see it, they relaxed again, thinking they have the game in hand. And that's when A&M began grabbing the 50/50 balls once again. We also had several calls go against us in the last 2 segments of the game and players fouling out and the blown lay-up at the end of the game that allowed A&M to send it to OT. The first OT we seemed to be in shock. The second OT we took control.
This team will be fine, of course. We could be 0-2 in the SEC but we're 2-0. Our guys have surely learned a lesson at this point that they can't come out flat but they have to match the effort of the opponent, regardless of their ability (or lack thereof) The defensive intensity MUST be high every game if we're to have any breathing room. And they've managed to learn these lessons without losing. They dug themselves a hole on an opponent's home court (down 11 with 5 mins remaining in the first half) and still managed to win the game. There is something to be said for that as well.