Offense Sputters Again As Louisville Falls To Cincinnati

I don’t care that the Seniors went 0-118…I do care that they played 65 combined minutes with 4 assists. Unacceptable. The reality is that this team has had little leadership from these 2. Agree Gorgs showed the most fire and I cannot wait until he is the ass kicking, fire breathing dragon he will be his last two years. The problem is that no upperclassmen has stepped up and seized the mantle and said “enough. I will not allow us to lose.” That is a huge issue.
Okay I have plastered my spleen all over this board over the last hour and I apologize but damn, that loss pissed me off!

we usually ,damn near every game have more T.O’s than assists but we’ve been playing "good"ball,not in my book.Tired of everyone putting the program on wayne’s(bad) shoulders.guess the fact we still have a good-looking record shows there is some bad college hoops being played.Tired of under achievments,this program has 2 step it up &get back to elite status like its supposed 2B.The crap down the road & their fans are driving me CRAZY…wake
-up CARDS fans,we deserve better 4 what they pay that guy

…you shut down Kuric or take Kuric out of the game, we’re probably going to lose. And the really good teams, or long teams or athletic teams are going to do just that (Kentucky did it, Syracuse did it, Cincinnati did it).

btw, Good stuff Mike. I really do have to agree Wayne could have been the difference tonight. When teams take Kuric out of the offense, we are really limited. And it’s not that hard to do for long, athletic teams that play good man to man. Fans can harp all they want about “senior leadership,” but it’s a moot point. Chris and Kyle are playing their tails off, we just have to accept them for who they are. Kyle has his limitations. He is a solid shooter, but not very quick. His effort is there every game. Same for Chris.

This team lacks shooters. (We’ve known this all season). Kyle is a really good shooter given the right circumstances. It can’t be overlooked once again on a night like tonight that again, we missed the presence of Mike Marra. A threat from downtown, 6 ft 5 and a great passer. I said when Marra went down that we would miss him for certain games, games that we would lose by a couple baskets on the road, games where he could have busted a couple threes. Tonight ended up being one of those games. It is what it is. Given the injuries on this team, I don’t think any reasonable fan could ask more from what this team’s been accomplishing in the past weeks.

For this team to make a run in the NCAAs, I agree, we need Wayne. We’ll eventually run into another team that can take Kuric out of the game (kind of like what WVU even did for part of that game) and we’ll need a guy like Wayne on offense.

One more thing….It’s easy to play arm-chair quarterback, and I love Rick, but every time this season that Kuric has been taken out of the game because he’s overmatched athletically, I can’t help but thinking…would it really hurt to give Angel a few minutes, maybe let him shoot a couple threes? I get he “isn’t ready” and that he lacks defensive skills. But I also have a hard time believing that Angel is any further behind Ware (and Price, tonight, for that matter) – who get minutes.

Go Cards.

if wanting 2take care of ball is ignorant then im in a coma…..& mr. syracuse defense in hoops is somewhat overrated,good O wiil beat good D 7days a week.Your to far away 2C the smoke are coach blows(maybe not) his ego-maniac ways has grown old & he lost his swag somewhere in boston .10+ yrs & denny still does it better,we all thought we would have banners hanging by now,& I personally thought he would’ve done produced more than a handful of productive NBA players ,but are guys is barely hanging on.& then we got guys who leave 2go pro……………..& DON’T EVEN GET DRAFTED!!!!! tells me somethn bout the culture of the program or the lack of player development,instead of sticking around 3-4yrs 2B a perfect"louisville first" player,they get outta dodge!!!SMH

Peyton can’t even keep his footing when he drives the lane. I swear once he’s got a step, he just puts it into his absolute fastest gear and gives up all control for where hes going. I don’t think he could even stop his legs from moving before running out of bounds, let alone have the presence to keep his dribble.

By the way, I think Peyton is great. I just don’t think the way he drives to the basket is conducive to the “Nash dribble.”

That dude in the grey hair wearing the Kentucky t-shirt behind OUR bench. Let’s look at this guy’s life/reality. His team has one loss, has a No. 1 seed locked up, is having the best season it’s had in over a decade and a half. That’s not good enough for this sorry sack. He has to go into UC’s arena, sit behind our bench, wear a Kentucky t-shirt and root for Cincinnati.

I’m from Northern Kentucky. Growing up there as Kentucky fan, we hated UC! Then I see this guy wearing a UK shirt rooting for UC! Oh goodness. I’m sorry, but as a UK grad/alum, a lifelong Kentucky fan (until Rick Pitino went to Louisville, then I rooted for Kentucky except when it wasn’t playing Louisville…now I just plain dislike Kentucky because of The Vacater) – but it’s fans like that guy in that Kentucky gear behind our bench that make Kentucky fans look ridiculous. That is all.

Go Cards

“peyton will be the best guard in country,& be able 2go pro after this yr”…..coach said somethng like that before the season so I was expecting a tad bit better PG production/decisions…yeah keeping his dribble like nasty-nash would be wise,but developing a floater like tony parker would be $$ in tha bank!! he’s so quik & if he could get that teardrop runner down would benefit his & the teams game tremondously………I am whatever yall say I am,not writing a term paper,so FIX your reading!& U guys/gals are the biggest bunch of homers I ever saw…& thank-U mr.mike 4 this kool/neat site(told U was a gent)……GO CARDS,BURY THM COCKROACHES!!!!!!!

there’s always a blame for every loss, atleast that’s what us fans try to point out, so here’s my take….
i’ve never been a basketball coach but i played high school ball and competetively afterwards in various leagues, and when you play a zone defense with no size, the opposing team will always be able to shoot over the top, and when that team makes 8 or 9 three’s in the first half, why in the world don’t you lock it down with man defense???
i never like to question the coach, he gets paid to do what he does, but if we’re so conditioned, play man to man and rely on help defense to slide over if you’re man beats you off the dribble…
with that said, the sky is the limit with this team, you take any top 25 team and have their 2 and 3 guards don’t score the way ours did, it will be very difficult to win, that was a tough loss but pointing fingers and getting down isnt the answer, the season is far from over..
this team is like most UofL teams of recent past, we play with the competition, but im still optimistic and condfident that we can and will make a run in the tournament…
finsih the regular season strong and make a good push in the BE tournament to polish some things up, and we’re a team bound for New Orleans, call it wishful thinking, but we have just as good of an opportunity as anyone else…we have the ingredients, they just need to be mixed properly..
CARDS FOREVER!!!

has been puzzling during his time as the head man at UL. He got off to a pretty good start but has not been able to sustain it. It appears he has been given everything he would need to succeed and take UL to the top tier of college basketball on a consistent basis. That has not happened. I think we all thought he would win a championship or at least be in the discussion for a title when he was hired. He has been here longer than anywhere, has a new arena, and has had the unwavering support of the administration thru some embarrassing times. I don’t get why he hasn’t done better here. Unless something changes soon the highlight of his career will be his time at Kentucky.

…I just don’t see him getting anything done this year. He should have probably just worried about getting healthy and having a great year next year with Chane, Gorgi and Peyton hopefully all coming back.

Everyone in the gym knows what plays we are going to run. How about something new?

If we can beat lower-seeded teams in the NCAAs, I think this whole dynamic works in our favor once we play a higher-seeded team and the pressure shifts to them. But we will be vulnerable to an upset if we go into one of our patented FG droughts.

That said, I agree with Mike that Wayne could have made a difference last night, and he could still make a big difference down the stretch. The guy has the ability to come in and put up 6-8 points quickly just based on his talent (see WVU and Depaul). That 6-8 points alone can eliminate one of our droughts. But it remains to be seen whether Wayne will be healthy for the tournament, and even if he is, we may not wind up with a seed that will provide a good opportunity to advance to the second weekend.

that there are really 2 things missing from this years team that we had last year.

1. Mike Marra and Stephen Van Treese were able to create their own shots off the dribble, and were very good at drawing pressure and passing to the open man. None of our current players are nearly as good at doing that this year as those two were last year. Kuric never had to worry about creating his own shot because Knowles or Marra would do it for him. Because they weren’t focusing so much on trying to create, or having a bad shooting night, they were able to focus more on other aspects of their game.

2. We don’t have a true floor leader this year like Preston Knowles was last year. When he was on the floor, offense and defense were run by him. He knew what coach wanted him to do, but he adjusted on the fly to what they other team was doing, and got his teammates on the same page quickly. This years team always seems to have to get directions from the bench, and when they can’t, they get lost, both offensively and defensively. It seems like we’ve wasted sooo many timeouts just to get the team on the same page, rather than having a floor leader that does that on his own.

I don’t think this years team is a bad team. But they’re not a great team. There are just a few missing parts, like I mentioned above, that if they had, they would be a great team.

Here’s hoping we don’t end up being a one-n-done in the NCAA tournament. I can hardly remember what its like to play past the first weekend anymore…

… Stood for “Fragile”?

I’ve seen better shoulders on a plate served with sauerkraut!

we are mediocre. we are 0-5 against teams that are above .500 in the big east. our game against USF next Wednesday is a battle of two frauds (they’re also 0-4 against .500 teams in big east play). we’re headed for another first round flameout (pitino should just trademark that term since he’s mastered it so perfectly) when we limp into the tourney as a 6 or 7 seed, get paired up against some red-hot mid major fresh off a conference tournament championship, and watch them shoot threes over us all night long – like Cincy did last night. just another mediocre season under a mediocre coach.

Granted we play great defense, but as Crawford said in the CJ this morning, at some point you have to score. We are far too easy to defend. Kuric and Smith disappear under man-to-man pressure and that’s not going away. If I’m a potential NCAA opponent scouting the Cards, there’s no way I play a lick of zone against them if I have the defensive talent to play man-to-man.

If we get to the final 16, I’ll feel like the team accomplished a great deal this year, given the injuries thrown at it. Does anyone know how severely Blackshear is injured this time around? Perhaps it’s time to shut him down for the rest of the season, though I dread the thought of that. We sure could have used him last night.

is that 2 of our top 3 scorers, and the 2 guys we rely on the most for consistent points, went 0-for-OMG from the field, contributed only 4 points from free throws, and we still only lost this game by 4 points.

Gorgui and Chane both had decent games.

Siva, with a few head-scratching exceptions, played very well. If he can use the pull-up jumper more often, rather than just driving full-bore into the chests of the defense, he’ll be an even bigger threat to score.

If either Kyle or Chris have an average shooting night, we would have won this one going away. So while the loss hurts, its not the end of the world, and it doesn’t portend gloom-and-doom for the rest of the season like some asinine fans are predicting.

Maybe we’ll be a one-n-done in the tourney, maybe we’ll make the Final Four. Who knows. The journey should be just as much fun to watch, and just as much reward, as the finish is.

… I’m a UC fan, I just wanted to say good game.
I think the difference, wasn’t just that UL had no real outside threat, but that we had play makers on defense in the second half. That’s the only game I recall the guards getting so many blocks, Gates had a few rattle out, but still played like a grown man(which he’s done most of last year and this year) Jackson is still raw, but he certainly made a difference. I think if you had more depth in the back court, you’d be a lot better off. I realize Ware is still learning.
Siva tried to do as much as he could, to the point he stopped seeing the open man.
I feel bad for Dieng, he played well but badly needed help down low.
I wish we would have at least gone 60% from the stripe.
If we were around our average, we could have iced it, instead I was left standing, waiting to see what happened.

I do think, if you’re seeding either high or low, you’ll make it past the first weekend. I don’t think though, you want to wind up toward the middle. I’m hoping we get a high seed. I’d love to see a 7 or 8 play us.
Oh yeah, that zebra crew was garbage, both ways.

I’m not too worried about this loss to be honest. We had our fair share of WIDE OPEN looks from 3 and other mid range jumpers and just didn’t connect. Cincinnati also hit 3 or 4 ridiculous almost-30-foot shots and when stuff like that is falling for the other team while your two best three-point shooters (I’m lookin at you Chris and Kyle) can’t connect on wide open looks, it’s gonna be hard to pull out a win especially in a hostile place like Cinci.
A positive to take away from this game is that, although we played very lackluster offense, our defense kept us in the game and we were in a position to potentially snatch a win at the end of the game.
I still can’t figure out why Chane sat for such a long time in the first half, though.

Siva had an awesome game, but folks missed shots. He set up Kyle and Swop and Smith with great looks and they just missed them. I know we all complain that Peyton gets too deep in the lane and gets stuck, but the entire offense hinges around him penetrating on the pick and roll. Every trip down the court! If you drive the lane 25 times a game your going to get in trouble on a few of them. Other thoughts:

1.) While I agree that a defense that looks to shadow Kuric and Smith is the right way to defend us, Cincy didn’t really do that. Kuric had a minimum of five decent looks at the rim and just missed them. It happens.

2.) You knew when Wright hit the 30 footer it just wasn’t our night

3.) The first half lineups were… curious. I’m pretty sure I can go the rest of the season without ever seeing a lineup with Ware and Price on the floor together this season. Some day, but just not the remaining days of 2012.

4.) I know Chane missed some rotations. But he was excellent the entire game. He just wasn’t on the floor the entire game. Simply strange. It seems like a weird logic to take a guy off the floor that is killing them on the boards – and making things happen when we finally gave it to him in the post – over two made three point shots.

5.) Kuric hits a couple open jumpers and Rick leaves Chane on the floor I think we win, maybe by double digits.

6.) Yancy Gates isn’t a very good player.

I admit to skipping down to the bottom after reading only 20 or so comments so perhaps what I am about to say has already been said.

We are a pretty good team. That is because we play very good defense. When it comes to every thing else we have weaknesses everywhere. Not all the time of course. We are capable of beating any team in the country when we are clicking on all cylinders. But the reality is that has not happened very often.

Call me what you will but I call myself a realist.

We are not a good shooting team.
We are limited on offense with no “go to guy.”
We are limited on offense with no consistent threat.
We do not shoot free throws well a great deal of the time.
We commit a lot of errors.
We commit a lot of silly, perhaps even stupid, fouls.
We give up a lot of offense rebounds.

I could go on but this is what we are. Our tenacity on defense keeps us in games and wins many of them. But a deep run in the NCAA is highly unlikely. I sincerely hope it happens and given proximity I will be there. But at some point reality has to sink in. Our recruiting for several years (and to a degree injuries) has put us in this situation and until the talent level goes up and the injury list gets shorter this is who we are.