I'm going to make this quick, because you know what happened and I want to go get dinner. Kentucky defeated Carolina by a score of 67-58. If there was ever a game where the game wasn't as close as the final score, this one was it. The 'Cats largely dominated and led by around 20 for large portions of the second half before Carolina narrowed the gap in the final minutes. Brandon Knight led Kentucky with 23 points, while Sam Muldrow provided one of the lone bright spots for Carolina with a 23-point, 14-rebound performance.
A few quick thoughts:
- Shooting killed us. This team tends to lose when it doesn't shoot treys well, and it was under 20% in this game.
- While watching the game, it seemed like Carolina was making a lot of mistakes. However, the stats tell a somewhat different story. We committed only 11 turnovers, much better than some of our early-season tallies. Our 21 fouls to Kentucky's 18 isn't terrible. However, it certainly seemed like when we did make mistakes that they were costly. A lot of the fouls were needless, and some of the turnovers negated otherwise promising plays.
- Questions for Darrin Horn: Why did you leave Ramon Galloway in this game so long when he was a liability? Why do most of our guards continue to refuse to attack the basket? Why do our players make so many ticky-tacky fouls on driving guards when we have an elite shot-blocker who has their back? These are issues that Horn can and should address.
That's a wrap for tonight. Auburn is next.