Loss to Dogs: Unsettling

I'm not ready to go threat level red or anything. There's plenty of time to panic later. Heck, the artist formerly known as Danno is predicting that the Cats are going to run the table the rest of the way. (You heard it here first.) So it's hardly the end of the world.

However....the word I'm going with to describe UK's loss to Georgia (in opening SEC play on Saturday) is simply...unsettling. Like when you have a churning stomach. That slight nausea from a bad meal or a crazy amusement park ride. You probably don't have anything life-threatening, but that doesn't mean you don't feel like puking.

Kentucky did show a dab of fortitude in clawing back to a tie, and brief lead, in the second half. Terrence Jones somehow wound up with 24 (garbage) points. Josh again had double-digit rebounds (11). But when it came down to "winnin' time", as Magic Johnson likes to call it, Georgia asserted itself and continued to find its way to the free-throw line.

And at the free-throw line, Georgia absolutely buried the Cats.

30 for 34?! Craziness. I thought I was watching my little brother play Pop-A-Shot at Chuck E. Cheese. . I think the Bulldogs hit another 20 or so while I was sitting in church this morning! Don't you hate when teams do that to UK? A 60% team from the line all the sudden becomes a roster full of Mark Prices.

But that's how it goes. Coach Cal said as much...Kentucky should always expect to get everybody's "A" game, and he wants his young team to be better prepared for it. Cal was absolutely right to criticize UK's toughness, or lack thereof, in Athens. "Guys were shooting fall-away 1-footers." Somebody-- I won't say who, but his name rhymes with "carry us"-- put up a 2 for 11 game, plus a mere 4 rebounds, in 32 minutes of play. Unsettling.

Five Wildcats also fouled out. So there's that depth thing going on. And Enes Kanter isn't walking through that door, courtesy of the NCAA's double-final, we-really-mean-it ruling (no further comment.)

Not to mention Georgia won the battle on the boards 41-37, and they aren't what I'd call a huge team. There was a lot of tapping and poking at the ball from the Big Blue side, and not enough strong vertical leaping with two hands extended to really CLAIM the ball.

But going back to Cal's post-game comments again, he made the statement that Georgia wanted the game more. UK allowed them 48% from the field in the first half, and from what I saw the Cats did not look very interested in competing until after the break.

Brandon Knight had a very poor game-- what you might call a non-factor type of game-- especially in the sense of keeping his teammates focused in the half court offense, and setting the tone with a high intensity level throughout. Unsett....well, you get the picture.

Fortunately, it's a quick turnaround, with Auburn visiting Lexington on Tuesday. So I will leave it at that.

Go Cats. Beat the Cam Newtons.