I showed up for the game last night with UK colors on, ready and enthused. Pizza, check. Good bottle of wine, check. DVR on, check. I showed up but unfortunately, the team didn’t. Even the game announcers noted how lackluster UK played in the first half. To be fair, Oscar T showed up and had another Big Game, but he was one versus five. Another crushing disappointment.

I’ve said enough, Here’s a great, thoughtful comment from A Sea of Blue that sums it up nicely:

Mark Few put on a clinic in regards to a modern basketball team (and program). Zags took highly efficient shots all game and let Kentucky shoot its long pull up 2’s. Few almost broke out into laughter when the subject of Toppin getting “hot” on semi-contested 18-footers. The entire point of their defense is to get the opponent to take such a shot. Few’s team is made up of skilled basketball players from 1-5. They have shooters at nearly every position. They space the court. They know how to move without the ball. They don’t depend on “plays” instead running actions that can be dynamic depending on how they are defended. The roster is intelligently built. Gonzaga minimizes their number of ball dominant slashers.

Cal has built a roster and program on ball dominant slashers. The dreaded HS scouting report “…great in the open floor and slashing to the basket. Shot and ball handling are a work in progress.” Kentucky’s rosters skill distribution and offense does not space the court. Notice how far under a screen Gonzaga went vs Wheeler. They would have let him shoot wide open 3’s all night. The Cats routinely have 2-4 players on the court that lack high level basketball skills; that do not play well off the ball; that do not stress a defense and therefore can not space the court; that can only score on drives/posts. The Cats do not run actions that open up shots for the few people that can shoot. (Sprinting 60 yards back and forth on a court and catching a pass while running full speed away from the basket does not help one’s shooting %.) Note how many NBA draft steals have come from Kentucky in the last 5-7 years (are better in pros than at UK); how much UK players shooting %’s go up when they are in the league. All the offensive problems also show up in defense as Kentucky routinely surrenders efficient shots and over relies on switching screens.

BTW whoever coined the phrase “NBA shot” for Toppin’s pull up contested 18 footers needs an irony award. Those are exactly the shots that NBA teams hate.

Back to politics. Recently elected Arizona House Republican says she will not do her job unless the 2022 election is redone. That’s 100% OK with me – you won’t do your job, so you’re fired. Swear in the runner-up and move on. There’s gotta be some recourse to childish, irresponsible politicians.

This is a terrible idea. With computers, you buy the hardware and software once, you’re entitled to the software upgrades. The auto industry is trying to change that. Asshats.

Here’s another potentially terrible idea. New Zealand considering lowering the voting age to 16. I don’t know about the rest of you, but at 16 I wasn’t interested in anything remotely resembling politics and real-world issues. I was the complete opposite of thoughtful and well-informed. Sports, music, sports, girls, sports – those were my priorities, in that order. Perhaps New Zealanders raise more fully-formed teenagers, but I doubt it. It’ll be interesting to see what happens.