Game Thread: SEC Tournament Game #2: Alabama-Kentucky (6:00 CT)

We lost by 16 at Coleman, by 25 at Rupp, and by 26 on a semi-neutral floor. I'd say they are that much better than us. I'm glad we don't play them again until next year and I hope the schedule maker doesn't think we need to play UK twice next year during conference play. Let someone else have that privilege for a couple of years - like auburn, or lsu, or a&m... Give us missouri and tennessee twice.

edwd58 said:

We lost by 16 at Coleman, by 25 at Rupp, and by 26 on a semi-neutral floor. I'd say they are that much better than us. I'm glad we don't play them again until next year and I hope the schedule maker doesn't think we need to play UK twice next year during conference play. Let someone else have that privilege for a couple of years - like auburn, or lsu, or a&m... Give us missouri and tennessee twice.

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Yup..Kentucky from every standpoint of the game is just that much better than Bama right now & that was what was frustrating in the 1st half cause Kentucky didn't need any help from the refs at all to beat us..

We would've made it a more respectable score & that's all we as fans could ask for playing Kentucky until CAJ brings in help to level the playing field in the next couple years..Just let our kids play refs & they did kill off any momentum we gained in the 1st half to make the game closer than it was..

edwd58 said:

We lost by 16 at Coleman, by 25 at Rupp, and by 26 on a semi-neutral floor. I'd say they are that much better than us. I'm glad we don't play them again until next year and I hope the schedule maker doesn't think we need to play UK twice next year during conference play. Let someone else have that privilege for a couple of years - like auburn, or lsu, or a&m... Give us missouri and tennessee twice.

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I agree we simply do not match up well with them. A little payback will coming in Bryant Denny this year though.:biggrin2:

Other than the barn, I think who we play twice rotates every year.


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Bad officiating, "bad" 'Bama talent level, bad losses X 3 to UK (a lousy "first" for Tide basketball?) - all seared into Avery's psyche with the avenging mantra "Never again - mark my words!" Looking forward to how he attacks this challenge and confident he will succeed.

I was racking my brain, trying to figure why they were giving Kentucky such biased calls. I mean, Kentucky is almost certain to win, they're in the tourney, what's the reason for such blatantly bad calls? Finally figured it out, TV Ratings! In the pre-game lovefess for Kentuck, they went to one commercial saying "we know Alabama is also playing in this game". (Didn't change their coverage, though.) They had to make Absolutely Certain! that Kentucky plays on Saturday, otherwise they figure nobody will watch. After all, Kentucky is the only team in the SEC the world cares about, right! So, can't let it possibly be close and Alabama get lucky at the end. Got to keep them TV ratings up. (A real shame, for the zebras to decide the game, not let the players -- it'll almost certainly come out the same, just be a closer, more competitive game. But can't take any 'chances'.) I've been watching basketball for over 60 years and that was the worst officiating I believe I've ever seen.

Oldtider1 said:

I was racking my brain, trying to figure why they were giving Kentucky such biased calls. I mean, Kentucky is almost certain to win, they're in the tourney, what's the reason for such blatantly bad calls? Finally figured it out, TV Ratings! In the pre-game lovefess for Kentuck, they went to one commercial saying "we know Alabama is also playing in this game". (Didn't change their coverage, though.) They had to make Absolutely Certain! that Kentucky plays on Saturday, otherwise they figure nobody will watch. After all, Kentucky is the only team in the SEC the world cares about, right! So, can't let it possibly be close and Alabama get lucky at the end. Got to keep them TV ratings up. (A real shame, for the zebras to decide the game, not let the players -- it'll almost certainly come out the same, just be a closer, more competitive game. But can't take any 'chances'.) I've been watching basketball for over 60 years and that was the worst officiating I believe I've ever seen.

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NAILED IT! The 2 first half offensive fouls on Retin served as evidence that Bama would not be allowed any chance of pulling off the upset. And that's only 2 among the dozens of bad calls and/or no calls. What happened to the "LET 'EM PLAY" officiating the night before? Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.......

I know the officiating wasn't great, but there are two things I will say.

We played very well when Obasohan had to sit. You never want your best player on the bench, but the first half stretch wasn't bad.

We didn't lose that game because of officials, we lost because we played very, very, very poor defense. We were late on switches most of the night, forgot to cover the arch in transition, gave zero help on guard penetration, and let them offensive rebound almost at will.

They shot 54.5% from the floor and 59% from 3. WE attempted 3 more free throws then they did. They were called for 2 more fouls.

Officiating may have been bad, but our performance was worse.

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Officials or no officials, altho I agree they sucked, we just dont match up with UK yet. CAJ knows this and they will be a good gage for him moving forward. If I sat down right now Id put UK as a final four team in my bracket. We'll see, but they seem to be that good right now!

It's been a great season, hope it's not over! Roll Tide!

dayhiker said:

I was listening while driving. When we got hot from 3 and they matched then we had the 3 offensive fouls followed by the 3 waived off due to a 3 second call you could just feel the momentum leaving us. That has to be what playing us in football feels like. You are almost there, almost there, almost there, and then it's gone. The future is bright though. CAJ is the right man for the job.


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OK. I'll agree to an extent. I don't follow basketball as closely as football but the glaringly obvious officiating difference from the previous night took Retin out of his game. The same bumps and glances he was called for in the first half of the UK game were no calls in the Ole Miss game and the largest portion of the second half last night.

Could be my Crimson glasses but UK B-Ball gets the benefit of the doubt, as you stated. They are more talented as a team but our best players are just as good IMO.

RTR!!!

CrimSonami said:

OK. I'll agree to an extent. I don't follow basketball as closely as football but the glaringly obvious officiating difference from the previous night took Retin out of his game. The same bumps and glances he was called for in the first half of the UK game were no calls in the Ole Miss game and the largest portion of the second half last night.

Could be my Crimson glasses but UK B-Ball gets the benefit of the doubt, as you stated. They are more talented as a team but our best players are just as good IMO.

RTR!!!

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This is not the first year this sort of thing has happened. Iirc, the same occurred a few years ago. UK just has a lot more favorable officiating on the court, and I seem to believe it's because UK is the SEC's best chance of having a team in the final 4.
Jmho

Got to watch most of the first half. I get the complaints about the officiating, but if the officiating would have been flipped in our favor, we still get drilled.

I've said it for years going back into the CAG era and I fully expect CAJ to address this, but we haven't had a great shooters in years. CAG recuited athletes, but we need some pure shooters.

When KY was hitting threes and we were trading with two...we'll you know the story. Gotta get some pure shooters.

Retin got called with fouls at a horrible time, but as I said above Kentucky STILL got called for more fouls, and we STILL shot more free throws.

If you take all of their points via free throw away, we still get beat by double digits.

You can't win when your offense is pedestrian (34% shooting I believe) and your defense is abysmal (give up over 50% shooting from the floor and from 3).

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Crimson1967 said:

Other than the barn, I think who we play twice rotates every year.

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For the past two years we've played Kentucky twice each during the regular conference schedule.

Counting the tournament game last night, we've played them 5 times the past 2 years and the closest game was 15 points. As mentioned earlier, I'm ready to give that chore to someone else.

I have been watching Bama Basketball since the late 60's. I cannot remember hardly any games against UK that they did not get favorable calls in that time period. Even in the Wimp era it was that way when we beat them a few times. I think that was because Wimp was constantly on the refs. Regardless, we were our own worst enemy last night. They got a lot of offensive rebounds they should not have gotten. You cannot rebound with your hands down by your side. We also dribbled the ball too much on offense when we got down. The good news is those are things that can be fixed and I believe they will be. Like mentioned, we need a couple of consistent outside shooters. That would make a world of difference.

BamaMoon said:

Got to watch most of the first half. I get the complaints about the officiating, but if the officiating would have been flipped in our favor, we still get drilled.

I've said it for years going back into the CAG era and I fully expect CAJ to address this, but we haven't had a great shooters in years. CAG recuited athletes, but we need some pure shooters.

When KY was hitting threes and we were trading with two...we'll you know the story. Gotta get some pure shooters.

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Yup..Who was our last true pure shooter..Was it Earnest Shelton????..

And as far as the refs go in the game..My complaint were very wishy washy fouls late in the 1st half that became momentum killers for us & were huge point swings for Kentucky..It was almost like they were making up bogus fouls to get us off our game, then once the game was in hand for Kentucky, the refs began to let the teams play without fouls..And even had a couple wishy washy fouls against Kentucky that looked as if they were trying to even up the fouls for both teams when the game didn't matter at that point..

TideMan09 said:

Yup..Who was our last true pure shooter..Was it Earnest Shelton????..

And as far as the refs go in the game..My complaint were very wishy washy fouls late in the 1st half that became momentum killers for us & were huge point swings for Kentucky..It was almost like they were making up bogus fouls to get us off our game, then once the game was in hand for Kentucky, the refs began to let the teams play without fouls..And even had a couple wishy washy fouls against Kentucky that looked as if they were trying to even up the fouls for both teams when the game didn't matter at that point..

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Shelton is one of the last I remember. For a point guard, Trevor Releford was a pure shooter, but we haven't had a 2 or 3 guard who could shoot it like Shelton since, IIRC. We've had some great athletes who turned into decent players, but for years we've lacked scoring power from the traditional scoring positions.

TideMan09 said:

Yup..Who was our last true pure shooter..Was it Earnest Shelton????..

And as far as the refs go in the game..My complaint were very wishy washy fouls late in the 1st half that became momentum killers for us & were huge point swings for Kentucky..It was almost like they were making up bogus fouls to get us off our game, then once the game was in hand for Kentucky, the refs began to let the teams play without fouls..And even had a couple wishy washy fouls against Kentucky that looked as if they were trying to even up the fouls for both teams when the game didn't matter at that point..

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I have heard that in private conversations among themselves, SEC refs brag when they are assigned to do a game in Lexington. None of them wish to be black-balled by UK.