Living in Lexington, Ky. Surrounded by UK Fans after Auburn Win...

[BHDAU1 240]

Oh it's a winter excuse wonderland here in the land of the Big Blue Nation, Lexington, Ky.  You name it, they have already used it.  The main one is obviously that had TyTy not gotten hurt they would have beaten us no problem, they were up 6 or 8 points when he got hurt 8 minutes into the game.  They also mention their other guard Wheeler getting hurt played a huge role in their loss.  And finally of course, the refs were biased and called everything against UK and nothing on Auburn.  Its easy to play the what-if game but the only thing that matters is what actually happened, Auburn won by 9 points and they are now the #1 ranked team in the AP with a 2 game lead towards winning the SEC regular season title.  I do however want to explore the UK excuses a little bit....  1. Ty Ty had already played 8 minutes of 40 before he got hurt and finished with 4 points.  Had he played the whole game and reached his average of 13 points per game that would have at best tied the score and that's ONLY if you do not factor in that you have to take points away from someone else who had extra minutes and points because of his absence.  More importantly, and more importantly in a BIG WAY is that Auburn was playing like garbage the first 10 mins or so of the first half and that had nothing to do with what anyone on UK was doing or not doing.  Auburn came out tight was not playing like they normally do, and were giving away turnovers and playing sloppy defense.  It took ten minutes of playing for them to start to get into the flow of the game.   2. Wheeler got banged up during the game sure, but he played 36 minutes out of 40! and he scored 17 points to lead the team in scoring along with Grady.  Wheeler usually averages just under 11 points per game so he was one of the beneficiaries of Ty Ty getting hurt.  This makes this excuse totally bogus.   Finally, the disparity of free throws was in no way biased towards Auburn unfairly, I have watched the game 2 times all the way thru, and sections of it several times more.  UK was simply fouling more than Auburn was.  Yes there were some missed foul calls but it went BOTH ways.  There was one stretch in the first half when Auburn started making a run to close the distance and perhaps even take a lead into the half and there were 4 calls nearly straight in a row that were bad that went against Auburn.  Two of which were no calls on obvious fouls by UK, and two instances where the ball was given to UK despite it going out of bounds off of a UK player.  That could have been an 8 point swing on those 4 calls alone.  Anyway, what a hell of a game and I couldn't be more proud to be an Auburn Tiger right now!  This #1 ranking and all of the national exposure we have gotten will just keep on helping establish Auburn as one of the top programs in the SEC year in and year out.  The rest of the season is sure shaping up to be one to always remember!  Wouldn't it be awesome to finally get in the NCAA Tournament and be seeded somewhere on this side of the country where Auburn fans could actually travel via automobile or plane instead of Salt Lake City or some damn place on the west coast?  

[Dual-Threat Rigby 8,662]

I think UK’s starting 5 was better than ours, but that’s pretty much been preached before the matchup. The advantage we had as a team was the bench and intangibles. We would’ve at least needed to see how our team performed after a good run or after seeing how our bench would’ve done after a sustained period. 
 

There were also schematic things that Pearl played after halftime. I dunno if those are still allowed with Tyty, but you’d have to be pretty dense or an Oracle to think the game exactly plays out but UK just gains more points and we gain less if Tyty plays the whole game. There is NOO way to know. 

(We also win the 2017 regular season title they got and beat them by 40 in the 2019 Elite 8 if you turn injuries off) 

[JwgreDeux 1,279]

4 minutes ago, Dual-Threat Rigby said:

I think UK’s starting 5 was better than ours, but that’s pretty much been preached before the matchup. The advantage we had as a team was the bench and intangibles. We would’ve at least needed to see how our team performed after a good run or after seeing how our bench would’ve done after a sustained period. 
 

There were also schematic things that Pearl played after halftime. I dunno if those are still allowed with Tyty, but you’d have to be pretty dense or an Oracle to think the game exactly plays out but UK just gains more points and we gain less if Tyty plays the whole game. There is NOO way to know. 

(We also win the 2017 regular season title they got and beat them by 40 in the 2019 Elite 8 if you turn injuries off) 

I don't think their starting 5 are better than ours as a unit. I think they played better in the early part of the game, but games eb and flow that way. I think UK played a very good game. I think they played well without Tyty and unless he goes off for 25 the outcome isn't much different. Guys get banged up, get into foul trouble, and miss time, that's just ball. Kessler played 12 minutes vs Bama and we still won. Flannigan missed games, we still won. The fact is, they pressured the ball very high early on and kept posts low to stop back cuts and we struggled with that early. We adjusted by bringing our posts away from the rim and opening back doors so their guards couldn't pressure the same way. Then we got into some good offensive movement and lit them up from the 10:00 mark on. 

Depth and adjustments, part of what makes this team dangerous on top of the starting top shelf tallent. 

[AUFightingSoldiers 685]

To the free throw difference:

Auburn shot 29 fts to Kentucky's 10.

Kentucky fouled us shooting threes 3 different times. Completely avoidable and all were clear fouls. That's 9 shots there. 

Kentucky also fouled 3 times to extend the game. There's another 6 fts. 

Take those away and free throws are 14-10 in favor of Auburn. The problem wasnt the officiating. The problem was spotty perimeter defense by Kentucky and poor discipline when closing out on shooters. 

[boisnumber1 2,818]

Funny to me that they just assume they would have won with Washington when they have 3 other losses with Washington playing. They lost to LSU and Notre Dame who are unranked teams. What's their entitled, sore loser excuse for losing those? All of their crying just makes the win that much more enjoyable. The comments by their players have done the same. We obviously have a much more mature group of players than they do.

Edited January 24, 2022 by boisnumber1

[casatiger 513]

Their players are talking too which is awesome.   Cause we just might see them again come SEC and/or NCAA tournament time.  Our guys play well with a chip on their shoulder.  Keep it going KY.  Loving it.  

[Chaotic_zx 1,043]

Year in and out, seemingly Kentucky plays Auburn. They come into the game and play a rougher type of basketball. No disrespect given. The problem I have always had is that when Auburn has attempted to match that toughness, Auburn goes into foul trouble almost instantly. This past game however, Auburn matched that toughness and the refs called a straight up game. That is why Kentucky is so pissed about officiating. They simply are not used to a game being called fairly. Bruce Pearl had been giving the league notice that he was not a fan of the tougher type of basketball being used against his team(in particular against Jabari). I fully believe Bruce then tells his team to start playing that tougher brand of basketball. 

When a team is being aggressive with your guards, a fundamental way of getting them to back off is by imployment of hard picks. A hard pick is one where a big stands absolutely still and your guard cuts right off the hip of the pick setter at full speed. When going full speed, the defender has the choice of accepting the contact which will be a disadvantage for the smaller player or giving the ball handler room. One way to avoid the situation is for the pick setter's defender to call out the pick so that the smaller player has time to avoid the blow. The difficulty in this past game was that Auburn's fans were really loud and the defender likely did not hear the pick being called out. Which put him running full speed into Kessler. Completely clean basketball. An old version of it but clean. 

 

That is how I see it anyway. 

[Dual-Threat Rigby 8,662]

1 hour ago, JwgreDeux said:

I don't think their starting 5 are better than ours as a unit. I think they played better in the early part of the game, but games eb and flow that way. I think UK played a very good game. I think they played well without Tyty and unless he goes off for 25 the outcome isn't much different. Guys get banged up, get into foul trouble, and miss time, that's just ball. Kessler played 12 minutes vs Bama and we still won. Flannigan missed games, we still won. The fact is, they pressured the ball very high early on and kept posts low to stop back cuts and we struggled with that early. We adjusted by bringing our posts away from the rim and opening back doors so their guards couldn't pressure the same way. Then we got into some good offensive movement and lit them up from the 10:00 mark on. 

Depth and adjustments, part of what makes this team dangerous on top of the starting top shelf tallent. 

I think Zep is probably the worst player if you stacked all 10 players together, he essentially got played off of being the ball handler by Sahvir. I’d take either of their 2 guards over KD, but there’s games where he’ll look at that level. They’re just more stable. It really just comes down to how much you think our front court is better than theirs. I think the guard gap is wider than the front court one 

Edited January 24, 2022 by Dual-Threat Rigby

[Dual-Threat Rigby 8,662]

This isn’t me gassing Kentucky either, I dunno who’d win or lose in a 100% game. I just believe quite a bit in their starting 5 vs most teams, but that lack of bench presence is going to bite them in March. Especially if the two are out for a sustained period and they slip out of double bye seeding in the SECT. 

[tgrogan21 6,198]

25 minutes ago, Dual-Threat Rigby said:

I think Zep is probably the worst player if you stacked all 10 players together, he essentially got played off of being the ball handler by Sahvir. I’d take either of their 2 guards over KD, but there’s games where he’ll look at that level. They’re just more stable. It really just comes down to how much you think our front court is better than theirs. I think the guard gap is wider than the front court one 

Bad take is bad. Zep is probably the most underrated and least appreciated person on this team and it's not even close. What he does doesn't show up in the stats at the end of the game but there's a reason he was a +17 against Kentucky in 17 minutes. Without Jasper playing amazing defense like he does every single game, we lose.

 

[81spacetiger 157]

I don't know, maybe the UK fans are right and they are the better team... to the OP, can you just tell the fans you talked it over with the AU fans and we all agreed they are right so if they can tell us who to contact, we'll phone in the request to make an adjustment to the scores and they can have the win they deserved.

Or, maybe we'll let them man up if their fans can get the poop out of their drawers by the SEC tournament.  No excuses, just let the teams play the game, if we're peaking at the right time, it will not matter who they have in the game; we'll win again.

[Rednilla 5,390]

1 hour ago, Dual-Threat Rigby said:

I think Zep is probably the worst player if you stacked all 10 players together, he essentially got played off of being the ball handler by Sahvir. I’d take either of their 2 guards over KD, but there’s games where he’ll look at that level. They’re just more stable. It really just comes down to how much you think our front court is better than theirs. I think the guard gap is wider than the front court one 

Zep is the worst *offensive* player if you stacked all 10 together, sure, but the kid is dynamite defensively, which makes up for a lot of it. They aren't enough better at the 1 and 2 to overmatch our advantage at 3, 4, and 5, IMO.

[Dual-Threat Rigby 8,662]

54 minutes ago, tgrogan21 said:

Bad take is bad. Zep is probably the most underrated and least appreciated person on this team and it's not even close. What he does doesn't show up in the stats at the end of the game but there's a reason he was a +17 against Kentucky in 17 minutes. Without Jasper playing amazing defense like he does every single game, we lose.

 

I didn’t say Zep was bad, I said he was the worst player if you stack the 10 between the two teams together. I’ve been on here multiple times preaching why Zep is still starting and has been a contributor. 

[Dual-Threat Rigby 8,662]

7 minutes ago, Rednilla said:

Zep is the worst *offensive* player if you stacked all 10 together, sure, but the kid is dynamite defensively, which makes up for a lot of it. They aren't enough better at the 1 and 2 to overmatch our advantage at 3, 4, and 5, IMO.

And Kentucky had multiple guys who played good defense. Sahvir was the best defender on the court on either side, Brooks did as good a job on defense vs Jabari as I’ve seen, so on and on. Every player in their lineup played great defense and outside of Brooks, played great on offense (Tyty obv not being in too long). 
 

Again, this shouldn’t be an insult. Sahvir has been that guy all season long, Tyty is arguably the best PG in conference, Oscar is the conference DPOY for some folks. Grady is arguably the best shooter in the conference. I’m not comparing the guy to scrubs 

[NoALtiger 3,850]

UK does have a really good team and I can sort of understand the fans frustration a little given their history. Let’s face it, they’ve won a lot for many decades now and have been the standard for the league basically forever. Unfortunately none of that matters at this point and we are legit as it gets. None of their excuses hold water and it’s kinda funny seeing them whine. I’d love to play them again later and really lay the smack down. Like a Season ending, you out of the tournament smack down.  

[MaxCohen216 514]

1 hour ago, Dual-Threat Rigby said:

I think Zep is probably the worst player if you stacked all 10 players together, he essentially got played off of being the ball handler by Sahvir. I’d take either of their 2 guards over KD, but there’s games where he’ll look at that level. They’re just more stable. It really just comes down to how much you think our front court is better than theirs. I think the guard gap is wider than the front court one 

 

12 minutes ago, Dual-Threat Rigby said:

And Kentucky had multiple guys who played good defense. Sahvir was the best defender on the court on either side, Brooks did as good a job on defense vs Jabari as I’ve seen, so on and on. Every player in their lineup played great defense and outside of Brooks, played great on offense (Tyty obv not being in too long). 
 

Again, this shouldn’t be an insult. Sahvir has been that guy all season long, Tyty is arguably the best PG in conference, Oscar is the conference DPOY for some folks. Grady is arguably the best shooter in the conference. I’m not comparing the guy to scrubs 

IIRC, Zep was a +17 against Kentucky.  With only two points scored, one sports writer called him the "ultimate glue guy".

[mustache eagle 2,397]

2 hours ago, AUFightingSoldiers said:

To the free throw difference:

Auburn shot 29 fts to Kentucky's 10.

Kentucky fouled us shooting threes 3 different times. Completely avoidable and all were clear fouls. That's 9 shots there. 

Kentucky also fouled 3 times to extend the game. There's another 6 fts. 

Take those away and free throws are 14-10 in favor of Auburn. The problem wasnt the officiating. The problem was spotty perimeter defense by Kentucky and poor discipline when closing out on shooters. 

Exactly!

fouls were 20-12.  3 or 4 intentional fouls at the end plus the careless 3 fouls on 3-pt shots.  That puts the difference at 2-ish.  In my opinion the refs let ‘em play

[Dual-Threat Rigby 8,662]

2 minutes ago, MaxCohen216 said:

 

IIRC, Zep was a +17 against Kentucky.  With only two points scored, one sports writer called him the "ultimate glue guy".

I thought he was good in that game, esp in the second half. Bruce optimized him taking him off the ball when Sahvir was making ball handling tough for him, and the team + him benefitted from that. He did good 

[cheap seats 40]

Some thoughts:
The Media Auburn detractors love saying that the TyTy injury cost Kentucky the game. That’s a complete false narrative. Auburn was beating itself in that first half. They had already settled down and were playing Auburn basketball by the time of the injury. Auburn wins with or without TyTy in the game. And while making injury excuses for Kentucky they conveniently or incompetently omit that Auburn’s top returning player was out for our only loss. You don’t think a healthy Flanigan would have made a difference of one point in regulation for the Tigers against UCONN?

That foul on Walker against Wheeler getting reviewed for a possible flagrant was absurd. It was so very close to being a charge. Walker was still sliding that one foot just a bit, otherwise it would have been a charge for sure if called correctly. Also, that Wheeler kid needs to learn to keep his head or he’s going to get hurt for real. Not just hurt feelings like Saturday.  Zep said that he didn’t think Wheeler was hurt, but he was gassed and wanted out of the game. Wheeler played 36 minutes and he plays hard. 

[boisnumber1 2,818]

25 minutes ago, MaxCohen216 said:

 

IIRC, Zep was a +17 against Kentucky.  With only two points scored, one sports writer called him the "ultimate glue guy".

There have been a few different "in the studio" guys calling him the best defender in the nation the last couple weeks, not just sec guys either.

[tgrogan21 6,198]

 

Never seen another team melt as hard as Kentucky. From the coaches to the players to the fans. We're 56 hours removed from the W and Kentucky can NOT stop talking about the L. Cal said we rushed the court. Lies. Was surprised that we had standing room only tickets selling for $250. Our A&M game has tickets for $325. He had no words about when his players danced on the court after beating unranked A&M. I hope we play them in the SEC Tourney and beat them by 20+.

[tgrogan21 6,198]

1 hour ago, Dual-Threat Rigby said:

I didn’t say Zep was bad, I said he was the worst player if you stack the 10 between the two teams together. I’ve been on here multiple times preaching why Zep is still starting and has been a contributor. 

Never said you did but Zep is still not the worst out of the 10 starters. I'd take Zep over 3 of Kentucky's players and over KD. His defense is insane and has won us many games. He doesn't HAVE to be an offensive player because he knows what his role on the team is. I bet he could take over on offense though if he was needed in that role.

[AUFightingSoldiers 685]

32 minutes ago, tgrogan21 said:

 

Never seen another team melt as hard as Kentucky. From the coaches to the players to the fans. We're 56 hours removed from the W and Kentucky can NOT stop talking about the L. Cal said we rushed the court. Lies. Was surprised that we had standing room only tickets selling for $250. Our A&M game has tickets for $325. He had no words about when his players danced on the court after beating unranked A&M. I hope we play them in the SEC Tourney and beat them by 20+.

Kentucky can't stand being "the next game" for anyone. The fact it's happening against SEC teams drives them insane. You just happened to be the game between Auburn and #1. Youre Kentucky, we all get it. You've been great since before anyone in the SEC cared about basketball. Get over yourselves. Kentucky is probably the best team we've stepped on the court against, so no disrespect in that regard. However, with all due DISrespect, Cal can kiss my crack. That's a loooonnngggg fall off that high horse.

[gr82be 14,423]

I hate to cherry pick but for the sake of the sour grapes that UK has, our win is not an oddity of late. We've won 6 of the last 11. They've owned us throughout the history of the series but they really should be used to us winning our share with Pearl on the sideline. I always respected them and even used to pull for them in the NCAA tournament when they played. The excuse making isn't a good look for them. Also, if I thought I could beat someone straight up the next time we played I'd definitely not try to talk them down. Praise in public, criticize in private, is great advice...too bad they didn't choose to do so. 

[TAYLORKEETON 790]

Like fans like coach. This literally sounds like a little bit…baby, baby. I mean, lol. Come on dude. I’ve never seen a team/coach so salty 

Edited January 25, 2022 by TAYLORKEETON