The Leach Report: Baylor Game

Written by Tom Leach

After 27 minutes of the game against Baylor, you probably could have gotten nearly universal agreement among college hoops pundits that this young Kentucky basketball team was going to be playing at least one more game in Dallas’ AT&T Stadium this season (site of the 2014 Final Four).

So what happened to turn a 50-41 lead into a 67-62 defeat?

It may be as simple as the Bears deciding to take this game back and the Wildcats doing very little to stop them. Look at the pregame comments to the media of the Providence coach as well as Baylor’s Isaiah Austin. Kentucky opponents are tired to hearing all of the hype for players who are in the first season of college basketball and it’s putting a chip on their shoulders. And you need to understand that if you’re playing for this Kentucky team. Remember that line from the original “Rocky” movie when Apollo Creed’s trainer said of Rocky, “he don’t know it’s a damn show–he thinks it’s a damn fight.” And Baylor out-fought Kentucky down the stretch.

This group of recruits drew comparisons to Michigan’s Fab Five class and I suspect those guys had to deal with this in their first season, when they lost seven conference games before making a run to the Final Four. Until this Kentucky develops a tougher mindset, it’s in danger of taking several more losses, too.

Coach Calipari’s postgame critique included playing his starters too many minutes. This was supposed to be a deep Kentucky team but the Cats aren’t getting much production from that bench, save for the defensive effort Dominique Hawkins is giving them. It’s hard for a coach to stick with a player who isn’t producing so those bench players aren’t staying on the court very long once they get in the game. He doesn’t start but Alex Poythress is a big key to this team’s long term success because they need him to play significant minutes with significant production, mainly rebounding.

None of what Baylor used to beat Kentucky should have come as a surprise to the players. The scouting report told them about the Bears’ rebounding prowess and that this game could be decided on the glass. They were coached on how to defend Baylor’s pick-and-rolls although you couldn’t tell from the execution– and how Kenny Cherry was inexplicably left wide open for a dagger-delivering basket to make it 65-61. Besides Cherry, Rico Gathers was the key player for Baylor and it was simply all about effort plays for him.

No time for whining. Effort & competitive spirit need to be an always-thing. Waters get deeper. Teams comin’-up are better’n Baylor.

That starts Tuesday night with Boise State, the nation’s highest-scoring team.

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