...The More Behind You Get

Clark Kellogg was talking late in the game about how “we’ve turned the corner.” I’m not sure that there is a “the corner.” I think there are lots of corners. After we go around each one we run into another brick wall.

We lose to Kentucky 78-76.

The quote from Pogo comes to mind: “We have met the enemy and he is us.”

When the game just ended and we lost by only 2, I immediately remembered the 4 on 1 fast break with 4:24 to go where Brewer decides to “be the man” and take the ball to the hole and picks up a charging foul. But there were probably 10+ examples I picked out of the tape that made 2 points difference.

This game changed at 5:22 remaining in the first half. With 13 seconds left on the shot clock, Kentucky in a 2-3 zone, Townes took a shot from a step inside the top of the key with no Arkansas players in position to rebound. The score was 28 to 12. He missed.

From 5:22 in the first half to 16:05 of the second half Kentucky outscored Arkansas 21-12. Kentucky had 11 points off of turnovers in the first 5 minutes of the second half. With our speeded up play we literally threw the game away.

At 6:03 remaining in the second half Kentucky takes the lead 60-59. In just under 20 minutes Kentucky outscored the Hogs 48-31. That’s amazing.

Arkansas gave up 55 points in the second half. Lost the second half by 14 points.

I replayed the game and watched every possession again. I saw Kentucky grow more patient on offense. I saw the Hogs pick up the tempo and make many mistakes in judgment. Quick shots, poor decisions, lazy defense at times -- this bunch does not know how to maintain a lead. They don’t really know how to win. They let the crowd back into the game and lost the momentum.

It is amazing how this team manages to play beneath its capabilities. All year we’ve been letting teams – even not so good teams – come back from being well behind.

All those times in the pre-conference season when Stan let them play stupid and didn’t call time out or get mad about it should haunt him tonight. We had seen this before.

I’m thinking we have to be a lot better than the other team to actually beat them. Okay, make that “a whole lot better.”