Matt Jones on the state of Kentucky Basketball after Tennessee game

KSR Host Matt Jones talks about Kentucky’s 103-92 loss to the Tennessee Volunteers on Saturday night.

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The cats uh lose to Tennessee you know that it was brutal most points scored uh by any team in rup Arena since VMI scored I think 111 against Billy Gillespie and the most points scored by an SEC opponent in rup Arena since 1993 cats never LED down the entire game

That really doesn’t happen very much in rup Arena either we’re a team where Kentucky never leads in a game uh it was a brutal loss and and look there are there are a lot of ways to to to to talk about this game let’s just quickly

Talk about the actual game for a second Kentucky was outplayed from the very first moment and got in a hole that they really never could get out of cut it to four a couple times cut it to one at one point but they came out not ready to

Play they got down 16 to5 and then they did the exact same thing in the second half I mean they cut it to four at halftime and then within three or four minutes in the second half it’s 12 so in the first and second half they

Just didn’t come out ready to play and you can’t win like that and what’s amazing is Kentucky gave up 103 points to Tennessee and their best player didn’t even play very well as a matter of fact for long extended periods of time in the clutch part of the game like

The 12-minute mark to the 5minute mark he was sitting on the bench they were they had their best player and their potential SEC Player of the Year sitting on the bench CU they didn’t need him the other guys were killing us uh a couple stats that were amazing to

Me Rob Dillingham and Reed Shepard and Antonio Reeves combined to score 72 points I was telling Billy Reed Sheard had 21 and shot 50% from the field it felt like he played a lot worse than that but they combined for 72 points the rest of our team only scored

20 our big guys Mitchell Bradshaw and Ugo combined to score four points I mean you’re just you’re not going to win like that so it was an absolute travesty of a game in my opinion some of the worst defense except for maybe an eight minute stretch at the

End of the first half I think it’s some of the worst defense I’ve ever seen a Kentucky team play Just guys just just completely driving past them I mean Tennessee doesn’t even put up a lot of points this year they put more than they have in some other years but they’re

Still and they just scored at will and we made no adjustments we gave up 10 points on out of- bounds plays and for I think the sixth time in the last four games gave up a wide openen dunk or layup off an out of- bounds play the

Fact that that’s not been corrected is is ridiculous but on a bigger picture this is an awful loss and has been an extremely disappointing few weeks just in terms of the way this program has gone I know DJ Wagner was out I think he’s really important but

We’re 0 and three without him Wilmington Florida and Tennessee have beaten us we’re 0 and3 without Wagner And if you combin their three rosters they would have fewer NBA players than what we have on the court without Wagner I mean how is that acceptable and it’s just more of the

Same thing and it’s part of a trend that if we are honest with ourselves has been happening since the covid year four straight years of disappointing results and rationalization or accepting of whatever happens it’s really more the rationalization we talk about about these four years and no matter what the

Individual thing is we find a reason to excuse it well it was the co year as if the other teams in the country also weren’t dealing with Co well you know it’s St Peters well that was weird it was severe wheeler was point guard it

Was this it was that it was it’s it’s always something well now it’s Wagner’s out well then when the in the Kansas game it was well we didn’t have any bigs okay well in the south Carolina game it was there to do was that I mean whatever

The game is we we find a way to excuse every single loss but it did feel like tonight just from the people that I talked to and looking on social media that it felt different tonight I had a friend at the game I ended up deciding

Not to go and I had a friend at the game say he couldn’t remember the last time rup was angrier leaving now I wasn’t there so I can’t say that that’s true or not but this person’s been to every game and says I can’t remember it being angrier than with when people were

Leaving and I got that sense tonight as well that there is a point of this is just not acceptable to people anymore now let me be clear there’s still 10 games left and there’s still a postseason and there’s still time to turn it around and there have

Been Kentucky teams that have turned it around in similar instances 2014 being the most obvious and this team actually has the talent where wouldn’t be CRA like that 2014 team where it wouldn’t be crazy if they did it but I think we’re setting up for a March where it’s really calip

Perry’s relationship at Kentucky comes down to March and that stinks because he’s had most of his time here has been a really really good run but the drop off has been obvious and real in the last four years and people who try to act like that’s not the case are just fooling themselves

We’ve lost back-to-back home games eight times in the history of Kentucky basketball we’ve done it three times in the last four years I mean just think about that stat just think it’s it’s unbelievable and I have said if you’ve listened to this show for 14 years March is random you

Can play really well and lose you can be a really good team go cold one night and lose John Wall’s team was awesome they got cold one night they lost right in 2017 Kentucky was the second best team in the country they just happened to play the first best team in the elite

A in 2015 we were the best team in the country by far and we ran into the one team that could beat us and they made a couple big plays and beat us at the end like stuff happens at the same time in 2014 we’re One Missed shot away from

Losing in the second round right in 2011 if Brandon Knight doesn’t hit a layup we lose in the first round so March is random but over the culmination of a career it becomes less random a one-year individual sample can be random or slice can be random but the whole 14-year sample is not

Random caliper has put himself in a position with his fan base where even though March can be random this year it better be random in a good way I don’t I think if we don’t have a good March this fan base is kind of over I think that’s just reality leave aside

Matt Jones’s personal opinion because contrary to what you would think with what people say online I tend to have even today remained more of a caliper supporter I think than the average fan at this point but none of it matters because the fan base I think has reached a point

That this March better go well and every loss we take along the way is going to make it harder and harder for it to go well in March we’re now looking if the tournament started tomorrow we would be a six maybe a seven seat because our our resume is so bad

And we still have to go to Tennessee go to Auburn host Alabama and go to Mississippi State and host Gonzaga there are more losses to get on the resume at this point I think if we have the best possible finish we can have we’re probably going to be end up a

Four three at best but probably a four so like you’re going to have to upset some teams to make a mark March run but I think this fan base has reached a point with Cal that this March better go well and if it doesn’t Kentucky is never going to fire John

Calary whether you wanted that to happen or not it won’t it just can’t and it won’t but it is going to become so tenous the relationship I don’t know how it could continue to go without it being miserable for everyone involved and that culminated to me

Tonight I texted Drew I’m just going to be I mean listen if you’ve listened to the show you know I just tell you exactly what I feel and what I do and our lives that’s what this show is so I texted Drew right after the game was over and uh he was

Just telling me about some of the stuff in the crowd and I said he definitely does the postgame radio show tonight right and Drew was like oh for sure he’s not going to skip this one and then he did he after a loss that probably left the rup Arina

Crowd as at least according to my friend as angry as they ever remember did not even show up to talk to the fans on the radio in front of Tom Le who is a friendly Voice who is going to say nothing but nice things to

Him he didn’t even do that and he sent Orlando to do it I think that’s one of the lamest things I’ve ever seen from a coach that makes $10 million a year that’s one of the lamest things I have ever seen you know he skipped a bunch of them over the

Years but sometimes it doesn’t matter he’ll do Road postgame radio radio shows where he talks for literally like for a minute combined and they cut it into three segments but on a night like tonight you’re paid to face the music you ask your players all the time this is Kentucky I can’t hide

You we all know that quote this is Kentucky I can’t hide you well then you sit there and don’t hide okay Justin Edwards that kid has taken more criticism this year than any player on the team and he has underperformed but he has probably taken more criticism than anyone on the team

They sent him out there and he had to do it and you didn’t that’s lame people can get mad about me saying that but that’s the truth that is lame to send that kid and make him do his responsibility for which he’s making zero dollar at least officially from the

School and you don’t do it and you make $10 million you want to know why the fan base is frustrated the fan base is not frustrated because we don’t have you know we’re too crazy or we’re basketball bennies or we should sit there and cheer and not overanalyze that’s not why they’re

Frustrated they’re frustrated because we are playing at a level that is not a Kentucky standard and if we’re honest with ourselves we’ve been doing that for the last few years and the relationship between fan and coach has been broken and it’s easy to blame that on

Other Figures it’s easy to blame that on social media it’s easy to blame that on negativity or overanalyzing or Matt Jones in Sr that’s the easy way out but you want to know why it’s like that because when you take the loss against the Rival that next to the one

Down the road is the one fans care about the most the Rival whose coach when you’ve been ranked in the top 10 is seven and one against you Rick Barnes is seven and one when kuy’s ranked in the top 10 against that rival in an atmosphere

That was as good pre game as you’ll ever see at rup arena in a day that people were so excited about even though you lost last week to Wednesday in that day you took a loss where we never LED were embarrassed and you didn’t even come out and say anything when it was

Over and Justin Edwards had to that’s why the relationship is broken results and a connection to the people that care about this program the most that has somehow lost its path I hope it can still be repaired I hope we go on a run in the next 10 games

And in March that is special I hope we look at this year like we did 2014 I hope it happens but at this point and it saddens me to say it I think it has to happen because if it doesn’t I don’t know how this keeps going it’s like a

Marriage where so much has happened and everything everyone does gets everyone so annoyed Cal’s annoyed by us myself Matt Jones included but he’s also annoyed by General things that happen and every the fans are annoyed by things like skipping the press conference so we better have a good March because if we

Don’t I don’t really know how it goes forward