Blanketed! Kentucky in a State of Emergency. (From the Snow not the Loss to Ole Miss).

No blogging yesterday.  Kentucky was in a State of Emergency.  We had friends over to our home that were without power until late in the evening.  Then we had Nina's parents come right after that.  So, I did  not get to do my usually research and analysis.

I can say though that I loved Gillispie's comments about how much he loves his team.  Come on, that is so awesome.  How many coaches say that after a loss.  Forget about his run-in with the sideline reporter Jeannine Edwards.  Because I for one have never, I mean never had any useful information reported in that ten seconds clip.  It is useless and an annoyance.  The coach is trying to get back there with his team and correct some mistakes.  But he has to stop and answer some inane questions that is are vague and ridiculous.  If Gillispie's half time strategy was to get Meeks more shots and more screens what was it any of our business.  He's the coach.  I think that that part of the game is so bureaucratic and political I could gag.  I hate the half-time Coach's comments.

"So, Coach, what are you going to do different in the second half to score some more points than your opponent?"  asks an annoying sideline reporter (whom are mostly all women...eye-candy for the networks?  Trying to justify hiring more women.  And I am sure that most women, who are journalistically-bent don't want to be doing this fluff, but probably have to if they want to have real reporting job in sports; political garbage)

The Coach responds, "Well, Jane Doe, we are going to play harder on defense and play smarter on offense."  Then he runs off to the locker room.  Wow, my inquisitive mind has been slaked by that Pulitzer Award Winning journalism.  

Jane Doe then turns to the camera and says something earth shattering like, "Well guys, there you have it play hard and smarter.  That is why he is one of the best coaches in the conference." 

Wow, that was riveting stuff.  That was such and in depth reporting that I probably could not have figured it out myself. 

 It was a tough loss and will take us out of the national polls, but the team nor the coach offered any excuses.  And I think that the reason that Gillispie didn't try to get Meeks open with double and triple screens was to force other guys to step up and prove that the Cats are more than two deep on offense; three or four deep.  For the most part it happened with Perry and Darius.  He tried to let Jodie's points come to him in the flow of the game and not force him to be the team's saviour.  If they had won then other teams would have seen how useless it is to just try and shut down Jodie and Patrick.  This was hands on training for Liggins and Miller (and everyone else).  I feel this is very important come tournament time.  These other higher ranked team will shut down Patrick and Jodie (or they will have off games) and if they other guys have found their offensive groove we will go far in the tournament.

I know that if the Cats had applied more pressure on the defensive end we could have had more transition points.  Now, Liggins did not make the best decisions in transition, but he is just a freshman.  Everything that Gillispie does is to strengthen the Cats' weakness so that the team is more mature and seasoned for the post season...that is all that really matters.  SEC championships are great but they don't have the same ring as NCAA Championships.  Remember Pitino said that a loss to Mississippi State in the SEC Championship game would not be good for the '96 Cats, but he benched most of his starters the last few minutes as the Bulldogs went on to win.  We lost the SEC tournament.  But he came out and said that it was good that we lost.  It gave the starter focus and showed that they were not invincible; brilliant idea and plan.  On the flip side if the '96 Cats win with the starters on the bench confidence is up that the team is so good that they could win with second tier guys.  Great a good lesson as well.  I don't think that Pitino's plan would have failed either way.

Here it is guys, Great Coaches are always teaching, every step of the way.  They are constantly pushing you to become better.  Gillispie has been challenging his other players to step up and preform.  This was the perfect stage, and if not for a few too many 3's and bad passes, this actually reinforces that same truth among the players.  Patrick and Jodie score 44 and the rest of the score 36.  Not too bad.  We can play and be successful playing this brand of ball, but everyone has to know their place and make better decisions with the ball.  I am sure that I haven't told you anything that you couldn't make up your minds about otherwise...I am just internet eye candy?  I feel so taken advantage of...

Here's a great article about Tubby.  A positive word about our former commander and chief.