Road Crash Again For UK

I'm ignoring blogger rule #1 tonight.

Rule #1 is don't blog angry.

Like the rest of BBN, I'm fairly hacked off at the way Kentucky has managed to drop another game to an inferior SEC opponent away from Rupp Arena. But if I never posted after road losses, well, I'd hardly get to post during this conference run.

It just doesn't make sense. It really doesn't.

The "youth" excuse is tired. Nay, exhausted. We know they're a young team. Can we agree to get over it?

You can't blame it on the refs. Not tonight.

Arkansas didn't just go absolutely bonkers from 3.

UK just got beat.

And mainly by their own mistakes.

I'd rather avoid the litany of mental breakdowns, but let's give a special acknowledgment to the "dumb foul" category. Fouling jump shooters. Fouling guys on layups. Giving the Razorbacks those chances for "and-ones"....not to mention technicals. Oy.

And each loss bumps the Cats further down the seeding ladder, with March a mere 6 days away.

It's a good thing Bobby was at the Hound tonight to talk me down before I got into the car to drive home. (Driving angry is worse than blogging angry.)

So. Can anybody figure these guys out? Help me.

I really think of this team as Brandon Knight's team. That's maybe not how it should be, maybe not fair. He's only a freshman blah blah blah, and probably playing out of position, but when the rubber meets the road, I think of Brandon as the "leader" -- quotation marks very necessary. Terrence can score plenty, Josh and Darius and DeAndre are older...I get all of that. But I think we only go as Brandon goes these days.

So I didn't mind him getting a good look, er, make that two good looks at the end of regulation for the W. Fire away! Knock one down.

Be the hero, B. It's all you.

And even the fact that he missed them both-- it just don't nag me all that much. He looked confident shooting them. He didn't hesitate like well, you know what, let's not go there.

But the turnover at the end of OT.... ye gods! (to borrow a phrase from Gregg Easterbrook) what's the rush? Inexcusable. You can't just chuck that ball into space like that. That's a panic play.

Throw it up at the basket if you must. Maybe a teammate gets the rebound. Call a timeout. Heck, just hold onto it and give up the ball on a 5-second call. At least then you can set up your defense. Don't throw it out there and give the opponent a chance to take it the other way and take the lead.

But unfortunately, Brandon had a brain freeze and it really cost Kentucky.

Grrr! Makes me wanna cuss.

And yet.

And YET!

The Cats get it back, with some time, and poor Brandon gets a shot at redemption, going towards the bucket, admittedly covered pretty well, and puts up an awkward attempt that didn't have much of a chance. A nice aggressive move, to put it kindly. But he was trying to make something happen.

You saw it.... we all did.

And I guess you give him kudos for effort. Hard to blame a guy who puts up 26 points on the night.

Insult to injury: who gets the last-gasp effort with less than two seconds to go? I'll give you no guesses. And it was no dice. Not tonight. Not in Fayetteville.

Man. I hope Mr. Knight has a short memory.

I just know I'm having a tough time getting over all these road crashes.