Ep. 124: Auburn Hosts College Gameday and Loses to Kentucky 70-59

just popping out to do the podcast and popping back in to celebrate the rest of the night so cool we'll keep it short might as well yeah the numbers are bad yeah this one might be decent numb just because people are be so flabbergasted by this result you know if it actually went live or not a I'm outside in like 20 degrees let's see how long I last anyways yeah it's cold out here too all right it says we're live on YouTube well you can tell we're live if the pocket watchh is in the room or not you know yeah exactly try to keep this going I always like to I don't know it always kind of freaks me out because doesn't necessarily show it almost said like the video didn't go up but it shows Live on YouTube we lost by 11 12 points 11 points 7059 yep all right I'm ready to go whenever you are all right it says we're live I don't see any it just did something weird when I tried to go live I'm watching it on my phone so we'll go with it co all right uh three two all right we are back on the jungle podcast and we just took one of the most deflating losses I've experienced in the Bruce Pearl ERA with college game day toown with us ring chasing in the SEC we got blown out 11o loss double digit lost 70 to 59 the Kentucky Wildcats it was not close pretty much the entire time uh we shot terribly we scored 59 points at home we got scored on a ton uh from turnovers points off turnovers were bad we just it's one of the worst performances I've seen in the Bruce Pearl era in Alburn Arena or Neville Arena and uh I mean that's maybe that's where I'll start I don't know Matt if you have like an analogy or an example us beating this getting beat this badly at home before well the final four team got blown out a lot um or at least we're down by more than this and struggled a lot more so I mean I think that's a little I think it's safe to say we've done really well in these big moments at home and and have won a lot uh when we've kind of put all our eggs in the basket as a program you know I don't think there's really a comparison to that of course all that is fairly new you know that's the last last two or three years you're talking about um maybe four or five but you're you're right off is there game off the top of your head that you remember maybe I don't know at home in the last couple years you're like oh this one kind of feels like that one well I mean you have to go back um I think the only reason this feels really bad is because we haven't lost at home we're 40 four and two or whatever in the last three years at home so it's our third loss and there's only been a couple Seasons where we were in the regular season title hunt was 2018 when we won it um and then it was two years ago unless I'm forgetting so there there's just not a lot of I think that's why it feels unique in a lot of ways um it's it's a good thing good thing it feels that unique honestly but like I mean I guess if you're like putting like we might as well open the wound and pour all the salt in to start the show in my opinion you lose double digits at home when you have haven't lost in I think 16 games in a row longest win streak in the SEC at home so that's bad enough as it is then on top of that it basically knocks us out of the SEC race there's extremely small chance if you do win out you could win the SEC but the average team that wins the SEC is about three losses a four loss team is a lot less likely and then Mor saw the moon Alabama's leading the SEC and beat somei Tex at home today uh so it might be tough we're going be cheering for someone else probably to knock them out of the SEC race probably another rival like Tennessee and then the final terrible salt worse than Salt in the wound Jaylen Williams goes down we don't know how bad the injury is but reports are not good so it's not just a blowout loss you might be losing potentially your best player or arguably your best player wow Jaylen yeah Jaylen Jaylen Stock's never going to be as high as it is right now um yeah it it definitely is a gut punch on all those levels I mean you wanted to hold serve at home the the Trek gets a little easier outside of the trip to Knoxville after this so it's like man if we could we get our buy this week which now I think is really good timing for us but it would have been great to you know get this win steal this win ultimately to me the storyline is man it takes a lot for us to lose by 10 at home because just about everything went against us from I think it was somebody posted it might have been the third worst shooting night in the Bruce Pearl era from the field I can't verify that but it felt like home overall because it it was it was bad from the G it felt like I I wanted I wanted to check the rims I wanted the rim checked it was so bad so I mean that we we didn't shoot well a lot of the just a lot of uncharacteristic mistakes and then I think you and I have watched a lot of this and we we were you you were saying what I was thinking so many of these possessions and loose balls and kind of um chaos plays that we were trying to cause especially when you're down it's just so much effort gets put in and then somehow the ball ends up right with Kentucky under the basket or they hit a tough shot that we defended well you know sometimes that's how it goes the refs were weird um we couldn't shoot from anywhere dalen goes out um we're playing Denver Jones at point guard in pivotal minutes in the second half for the only the second time all year tre's in foul trouble uh um Chad Baker Bazar can't stay in front of anybody defensively uh it was kind of a it felt felt a bit like a Jinga set all right we we had like we knew we had our gaps in the Jinga set but everyone has their gaps it just felt like Kentucky or something happened where we pushed that just wrong block and the whole thing collapsed in this game yeah well and I mean I just it was a five-point game with 11 and a half left so um even even with all the the terrible start I think we were down what 14 to four or something like that early got down big never and we had a couple opportunities in the first half like some pivotal possessions and we just never how many fast breaks did we actually score on I mean was it two two out of 12 I mean every time we weren't finishing in in the open court which I know bothers you and there were at some key just not just not scoring but like turnovers on fast breaks that lead the other way for threes on the other end that were fivepoint swings um just tough tough tough performance all around nobody's going to be happy with it we missed free throws we got outrebounded um we turned it over too much in the first half you mentioned the points off turnover which is a lot of bad and I guess my takeaway is wow it takes a lot for us to you know I know it was a blowout and we weren't we never were in a great position but it's not like what we just watched the other night against South Carolina I'm always thinking narrative wise and I get in trouble and you you and Ben I believe in the Florida or maybe it was just Ben on that one or maybe I don't know talk about how like you live and die with the winds and losses during the season and you look back and you've overreacted or under reacted to different things it just without that Florida blowout I could be like okay they this team just had one of the most off nights ever fine we turn we like just move on from don't even look at the tape but with this Florida lost and this one within the last two games then you had the South Carolina end 40 Point Victory I just it's absolute chaos right now with this team and then on top of that I mean I hate that we don't know yet what's happening but like I wanted to I was so ready before Jaylen went down to be like okay something's wrong with the Florida loss Kentucky loss but hey you got a bu week it's time to adjust and say this team's not going to win the SEC and you adjust and say how do we turn this thing in the right direction for March what do we need to do it look like we already starting to do that potentially by moving Denver to point guard at times and understanding that Aiden just isn't what we hoped he could be and that's part of our pivot you know but with Jaylen going down now it goes from like pivoting towards march to like how do we keep this season on the rails you know hope I'm hoping I'm overacting and that Jaylen is fine and he's and the bye will'll get him healthy or whatever but without Jaylen and know you you're going to think this hilarious but like he's been playing like one of the best players in the SEC and we just lost him and now you know things it was just coming down to Janai and Jaylen honestly that was doing this for us during the year if you think about it I mean I've been so irritated with the guards and we haven't had a great guard in the last couple years take one of your Splash Brothers out it's just I think things are going to get start getting exposed you know yeah I mean it look I think we have to work under the assumption you know Twitter has declared a lot of people's seasons over that that were in I mean I remember J our Tex thread has done that as well yeah was it the uh aill of Janai was gunzo last year about early season you know so so but it did look bad and um you know it it definitely was I was at the chuma game uh at the North I was in person in the sweet 16 when that happened and it's it's a gut punch I mean he I think chuma was a little more heart and soul of that team maybe Jaylen is of this one but um it's a brutal if if that's if it's a season ending injury and a career- ending injury for him like that's brutal there's no way around it I think the difference is you do have some time to Pivot and you know the goal is still to make noise and March no matter who's on the floor you know this team has has put themselves in a position in a top 10 analytics and right now a four SE seed you know the top four seed going into today according to NCA tournament committee um they're going to slide some guys around and they're going to play 10 guys and our guards are going to have to Pro play a little better they're gonna have to provide more offense um and you got to hope that like some combination of Cheney Johnson and Chris Moore and I mean you is that enough at the four it feels like that's just it is not that that becomes that be the the problem is and I like both of those guys and I like I like our but you feel it don't you feel it when Chris is on the floor at this point it's it's just a black hole offensively and defenses can play you so much differently when there's not that threat so I just think it'll Expo like one one piece is moved and either Jaylen or ji and the whole team Cascades into being exposed in my opinion we just do not have a player on this team that can cover up the holes and so like we had all these guys in just the right place and you put something together with this to deep depth and like playing hard and having not a big drop off and now you've removed this like like I said like a Jinga piece and I'm afraid this is really I just can't imagine this team playing well with either Jaylen or Janai going down so yeah I mean I I guess we'll see right um I there's no doubt jaylen's played well a lot of the time this year not every game uh and you know games didn't play well in are the games we lost so yeah but but again the difference is when jaylen's not playing well and he's the focal point of your game plan offensively sometimes that's different than plugging some guys in who aren't going to be asked to do the same thing you're right we don't have anybody who's gonna be asked to do what chuma and Jabari and Jaylen have done at that power forward position we've talked about it for years the the success that Bruce has had utilizing that it's going to look different um and I'm that's why I'm curious are they gonna what what they'll do with a week off and if if it is true that jaylen's out but but regardless of Jaylen I mean we'll have a year you know if he's out for the year we'll have time to like you know Lament The the sadness of that having a career year and being our top three-point shooter on the team and um you know shooting better he came into this game shooting better from three than Jabari did in his year um had a a great season but you know there's no sympathy or um you don't you just don't get to hang your head and fortunately our players are are usually much better at this than our fans are and and myself included they're gonna have to Rally play their tails off for five more SEC games try to get a double Buy in the SEC tournament and they're gonna be in the NCA tournament barring something really weird so um they've got to figure out if that's the case how to play without him and how to do it effectively luckily the by week's coming up and just that we can end the discussion on the jayen part of this story because like you know like we said we don't know yet and at any moment we could learn that it's fine and and we it was stupid that we talked this long about it you know but let's just talk about the game I guess I mean could you I'm on the phone on the Mean Streets of New York City right now so I don't have the stats in front of me maybe you can read awesome I know our three-point shooting was terrible I know our our points off turnovers comparatively was terrible maybe just read off some of the key set yeah I I'll give give people the quick if you're watching on YouTube we have it up now I forgot to share the screen um yeah we shot 31% from the field uh to kuy's 44 18% from three four for 22 uh and then miss Nine free throws but still shot 70% how many three-pointers like I know their three-point perc wasn't that much better but they shot way less three-pointers right what's the what's the quantity on yeah we both made four but they took 13 and we took 22 so so we shot nine more threes to make the same it's brutal to like watch us keep having these like high quantity three-point nights when we clearly have shown at this point that we just we're not a good point shooting team I mean it's you're right but but I also did a podcast 72 hours ago where we shot 60% from three in this same building so like it's you know and I thought honestly we got a lot of really good we the my biggest complaint honestly is two things that I don't think people going to talk about and then I'll get back to the stats but number one it's really annoying to me when we're down that we panic and we start just our offensive shot selection gets way worse when we're down like it it's always a little weird it gets really bad when when things start to go off the rails maybe that's true of every team but there were just multiple points in this game late I would say the last eight or 10 minutes where it's like no just like Palm down like just get a decent shot I know they're not falling but all you can do in basketball is get good look looks and if you're getting good looks which we were for a lot of this game you just can't panic and I felt like we panicked a little bit and then defensively we've played great second half defense I mean we played to the level that you would want to give yourself a chance to win and it reminds me of the Alabama game where we just we just didn't defend we did not communicate well enough early in the first half uh we were giving up constant guys wide open honestly Kentucky could have really blown us out if they' hit some open looks early because uh we were we the splits on points first half second because we gave up a lot in the first half but I have a feeling the points were less in the second half uh yeah it was 39 31 for them so they uh so we we held them down I mean we defensively I would say the last 30 minutes of the game we played really well so it's frustrating the first 10 we also scored like 25 in the first half right 29 and then only 30 in the second so we we just we just could w we really didn't play that much in the second really we we only made 17 shots all night I so freaking brutal how bad our shooting was I just I don't like I don't know how you I don't know I'm not a college basketball player I mean this is the fan podcast you know like I don't know how you go back to back like that in game so differently like you you wonder if you're going to hear later on that like something about the locker room or like this I don't know how you like go this much of a yo-yo you know it you haven't played basketball then you know it just happens you're right no you're right mean I look everybody's had those game sometimes you show up I think Ryan Norman you know sometimes we all try to have these great takes and we all like to sound like we know what we're talking about and sometimes it's just not your night and and some of that reason is because of our our execution our effort at times I think early was maybe we were a little too amped up and we just didn't execute right um but you are going to have nights where you just can't throw it in the the ocean and and I don't it doesn't take that long of watching Auburn Basketball to know there's those nights the the Challen in thing is that it was in Neville so we missed a lot of shots like I I fully expect that honestly away and honestly we storman and everybody else was calling like Gainesville Man Trap game they're coming off the bu we're we've been in a brutal stretch we've got South Carolina and Kentucky come up after we already played Alabama we kind of saw the Trap game potential this one I don't know every college game days in town like I thought we'd be hyped up the the crazy part for me is not just the shooting it's one thing to shoot badly okay it happen the points off turnovers is what really got me we got Ray out of our own gym that's our thing that's our thing what happened and and I would argue and I'm I'm pretty quick to give credit to really good defense I think Kentucky did step up their physicality they clearly that's the part of the game they've struggled with this year they they played a lot better against Old Miss and They carried it into this game without one of their better players so they played really well but it really felt like early on I know at one point it was 12 to nothing it ended up being 23 to10 points off turnovers like you mentioned but it was 120 early so we gave Kentucky at least eight or 10 of those 12 on you know just behind the back passes that were unnecessary and passes two different terrible behind the back passes from CBM right it was both from CBM yep it was so weird I mean if they' worked amazing jungle all explodes but it was it was one thing when he missed the first one and then to tried it again a second time I don't I really don't know what was going through his head and I love CBM but that was strange here's a big aspect of it too when the offense isn't flowing we've noticed it all year long and it's the same thing it was during the Walker kler Javari years the guards have to get the ball to Janai and jayen the guards are not good they're not great they can't we've at this point we have to admit they probably can't win us a game and that's what all I wanted to know after that South Carolina and Florida games like can the guards win us a game and they can't but you have to at least be able B to get the ball to Janai and jayen and early in this game early like maybe halfway through the first was like man it feels like Janai and Jay just have not touched the ball much you know and it's like chicken or the egg are they is there a reason why like are Jaylen J I just not getting open for the ball are is a good scheme by the other team but it's another one of those nights where you look up you're like why did Denver take so many shots early like why did we not get the ball to our guys earlier I don't feel diagnosis of like why they weren't touching it more well I mean I think a lot of it uh Jaylen was having one of those quiet first house for sure uh he he shot it five times before he got hurt he had three points didn't you know didn't do a ton he it felt I mean Kentucky is a bigger team you know they have athletes they have large athletes and I think we could have all it's always easy I agree with you we should have gone inside probably more um but broom took the most shots on the team um I I didn't I didn't he had a double double I didn't feel like we I it didn't feel as egregious as other games I would say of not going inside Jay Jaylen missed a couple inside early that he should have made um I don't know I felt like we were and we were just turning it over when you're turning it over you don't get shots up you know what I mean early in the game definely Chicken or the Egg like Jaylen hits couple of those threes early or J gets a couple of those shots early and we're not talking about it you know it's just that they didn't hit their shots early and then they just didn't get the ball as much like like you said turn is whatever reason why just so like early on this game we saw a lot of Denver shooting a lot of mid-range shots him playing a little point guard maybe even and then our point guards just had a terrible night also Tre had some weird turnovers and he ended up with four fouls like early in the second quarter when it's already like Aiden disaster time on top of that your guy that you're think you're starting to rely on gets four fouls so we have to play Aiden and Denver luckily Denver's you know we gave him some experience in that South Carolina game we definitely didn't need that when we were already down 10 and half time yeah I thought Denver was really good um he missed a few shots but he played the most minutes on the team well I guess Janai beat him by a couple he played a lot tonight because he was playing you know multiple spots um you know Trey it hurt not having Trey too I I think oh yeah I ideally I I like the idea of having Denver as an option but I'm just not low on Aiden as everybody I'm just I'm just not going to be the you know I I Aiden didn't turn the ball over tonight had a couple I thought he ran the offense fine he missed wide open threes which we know is a problem he got to the Rim made a couple free throws I didn't think he was a liability defensively Aiden made a layup tonight Aiden made a layup tonight which it's hilarious that when Aiden made a layup like mid through the second quarter I was like wow he did it his third layup of the year the didn't get blocked I I would love to see the stats I think he's got more blocks on his layups than made because ibe Ben was just being hyperbola me and Ben got to actually watch the first half together in New York which was nice we don't get to do that all the time and well maybe once a year and he said he did the math and then Aiden's made two layups all year that might be you know him being over dramatic but if it's true then I know for sure he has way more blocks on his layups than make layups but I don't know I'm pretty if Jaylen is legit hurt for the rest of the year we have to push for Aiden to figure something out in the next couple games or we have no chance but not hurt I don't know what you do with Aidan this idea this this look at this point in the year we've played how many games 25 26 games there the time for um guys not playing and and change like it's over like you're we're playing with our guards our guards going to have to win us game Help win us games a little more than they have been and we're going to see if they get to do it in the next five regular season games you know they they'll have some opportunities to prove that um so Aiden's got to be part of the solution so does I mean everybody everybody on the team is gonna have to take a little step forward and and take a little bigger responsibility if if jaylen's out for the year yeah it's you know I told uh the text message group that I was going to be outrageous this podcast and part of that outrageousness is just big picture thinking on you play Kentucky a talented team that recruited really well and we kind of talked in the season SEC preview if this team was not going to play well in the SEC which is not they played well it's the issue would be that we play Elite teams with talented players all of a sudden this two deep does not have a single player that can beat out the other team starter you can't combine these two players you just end up in a situation where neither player can beat the other team's most talented players and this game might be an example of that I'm not for sure about that I mean ky's lost to worst teams and they've been all over the place but this might be an example where you put them out there and we didn't have a single player or very few players out there that could beat their guy oneon-one you know and like you can play you can play the other team can play their players 35 minutes 40 minutes sure over a season that sucks like over a game a big hyped up game where Kentucky needed to win too all of a sudden we just don't have good guys we don't have guys that are highly recruited I know Aidan's highly recruited but we just we haven't had a good guard a guard that I'm like excited to have the ball in their hands shooting since Samir probably that's been four or five years it's just like it's a you know hope that it's not like a like a narrative adjusting thing but it's like we have to get a good guard in recruiting some point right now and our recruiting class don't have one we have a good point guard coming in but like a good big guard it's NBA Style yeah yeah I think we need to yeah clear I'm glad you said the last part because I mean you know it's hard to beat back-to-back five stars a guard which is what we've been doing the last couple years um but can we get a one one five star guard I guess you're saying in the next year coming in yeah yeah yeah another one coming um and I just I'm not short another another six foot point guard that shoots a lot style yeah a little more of a driver but yes um okay so I just clarification is good can you get 6 foot five to 6' s NBA Wing prospects I mean that that but to be clear even 62 to six like a mark sear style a Wade Taylor style like one these guys that you feel like can go and get those points and I know some of those guys are short too but like we just haven't got a guy that can drive those we will have those guys because those guys are are getable my point was going to be you know who else want 6'5 through 6'7 NBA potential Wing guys is everybody in the country and there's not that many of them which is why it's hard to get them so um you gotta get one every two or three years you know like you're right I don't think au's gonna get one every year like some of these big progress you just gotta kind of look into one or like you know I know we missed on like Floyd Duna but I think he was a center even like just we got to keep pushing and like it's I mean aoro is the only one aoro is the only one just got to keep hoping you can hit the lottery on one of them you know you got to keep recruiting those kind of guys and staying in the race because it just you know we're trying different strategies it feels like to see you know we stuck with the guys last year to see if that was the strategy this year we tried this to deep you know depth situation which can be really hard to do too I just I don't know what the strategy is I just don't want us to be cemented into a SEC Contender but never ring winner kind of thing when you see just it's annoying if in like it sucks to say this if Alabama wasn't playing so well it wouldn't be as big of a deal honestly but they're proving that they can do it so it's annoying that we can't right now they they're looking down the gun at two SEC championships in a row yes um I I agree that Alabama and Tennessee's to some extent success is making it a little worse um because I mean the reality is we've won two of the last six regular season titles um and we've you know we're we're in it just as much as anybody but this would be a year where if Alabama gets this one too and they still haven't really done anything in March uh but maybe they do that this year we'll see um we haven't really been great in March either outside of the final four so it feels like we're going to lose a lot of players this off season too not that this team was supposed to be built up to some great National Championship run team or anything like that but it feels like next year's team by all accounts is unless we pick up some really good transfers losing some Talent I'm not so sure see it is it is interesting because theoretically Janai does have another year ability theoretically cargo does have another year ability the CBM we probably expect everybody except Jaylen everybody except Jaylen does it just feels like we're going to lose some of these you know I just I know like it doesn't make any sense for cardal to just leave and even try to do something else but that's the vibe everybody's getting right the C is just not going to come and the same with Janai even if Janai gets like a late second round or just feels like that's what we're headed right it it does but it also felt like that last year um and it didn't really happen outside of flaming so I guess wind too I guess we lost two guys and I'm sure we will I'm sure we'll lose a couple guys but I I just wouldn't be the window situation kind of feels like what we might end up with like why did you leave again like he didn't go anywhere you know like and you're assuming that he chose true true I mean I think we've agreed that we're glad overall we don't have a guy that's I mean Aiden's kind of filling in that role at this point but felt like early season we were happy we didn't have a guy that was just jacking up threes with a low percentage but yeah that's just I can't allow you to say that that's just totally different that's not what's happening with Aiden I just like it's not watching basketball that's that's that's completely wrong right now I I'm not saying he's shooting well but to compare that to what Wendell green was doing with the possessions in our offense it's it's not even the same I mean Aiden calmed down a Aiden Aiden has calmed down the last couple games because he was shooting so badly that they're starting to play some Denver minutes and that he's getting called out publicly by Bruce some of our guys some of our guys just keep shooting even though they're not shooting well that was about eight in and now he's 4:30 from three I saw a stat on the TV over the last seven games still shot 3 threes over the last seven games I mean that's not like the worst the he had one again this game where it looked like okay like things are not going well with like eight minutes or so and he just jacks up a three and it just doesn't go in because they don't go in for him like I think we got to stop it saying that he's a good three-point shooter because he's not this year he's not only are he he is a probably he is he he has the highest ceiling of three-point shooter on our team for sure 100 per. I know I if we if he ends the year below 30% are we GNA keep calling him a good three-point shooter absolutely I will not stop I I I will I will keep all my land on this in this stock game I will keep my shares I'm not selling it's like fourth cup it's like shooting is a shooting does if you don't shoot good are you a good shooter you know but you can't in the same way I'm not gonna pretend I didn't watch the first 10 games of the Season like I'm just I'm not going to pretend I didn't see that I just I it's not L this is not like over like a five game tournament or something like that like we're shoot we're we're taking from like a 30 Game season like that's you know like he's got his chances I'm just not gonna say I like I just think he's gonna be a good shooter before he leaves Auburn I think I think he's gonna be good now I'm just afraid I'm afraid he's not gonna be on the team next year yeah what if he leaves right yeah yeah yeah if he like blames somehow no I kids like that I mean it's it's sad that's how it is but if you're a five star All-American guy you know his fixers and his uncles and like anybody else out there is saying like they screwed you over man like you're a great Allstar five star like it's like they screw they didn't give put you in the right thing and the right sets and like even if it's true or not he's gonna have 20 people on his ear telling him that and he's 18 years old you know so we'll see we'll see it's possible but that's just not what I see when I watch him play I see a kid that's trying really it's it's killing him that he's missing open shots and he oh that's the issue it's almost killing him too much like he's getting like it looks weird out there how much it's getting in his head I mean he missed a free throw not that long ago that really looked like it heard him almost like but see this is got shake this stuff off this is where the I mean I just want to be clear that a coach who would would say or act like that towards a play a freshman in that situation one of the best things about Bruce is that he just said that's why I've argued with y'all all year like Aiden's going to keep shooting threes I don't know what to tell you like it's not going stop he he's shrunk back some some quantity no no he hasn't I think he has I don't know the stats in front of me but I'm also not the best stat guy so I'm just I'm just telling you he's playing a little less minutes because he's coming off the bench he was like shooting six or seven a game like early and he's not doing that now but that was always the plan that that's what you know I'm trying to think I feel like there was a good comparison at some point with another he's shooting he's shooting like three or four now right compared to the six or seven he was shooting yeah you could argue some he's playing you know five to seven minutes less a game and this is a benefit to him I'm giving I'm giving this as a benefit to him he was shooting a lot more early three-pointers and missing them as the point guard he's not doing that anymore he did one tonight like it was several a game before and early in the season like you said I agree early season he was hitting some of those it was like good good we need a guy like that that can like R the game that can come up the floor open and just hit that three you know like we've seen some guards in the past he stopped attempting those until that one tonight really so I'm saying he shrunk his his quantity someone got in his ear and said calm down son make the passes you know now I'm I'm worried that he's in his own here because I again I I would rather I just don't believe this staff would ever do that I I don't think there's any evidence no yeah it could be his own year you're right it could be I mean Bruce I mean this is where I would say it's someone it's got to be coming go just like like we asked Bruce when he came on how do when you have a player shooting you out of games how do you talk to him about it and I'm pretty sure his answer maybe correct me wrong it's just like I just don't that's not something he doesn't you know exactly his hiso for his whole career has always been he had a quote he had a quote like a couple games back about uh certain players they're shooting us out of games that aren't shooting well that's like the closest I've seen it to like a public thing being like we're going to tell somebody shooting so much so there something there for sure well I I think that could have been said about a few of our guys uh if I remember right but I mean look Aiden's playing really bad I just you you talk about ceiling guys and who can raise I mean a Aiden's the guy who's got to play better i' I've been saying on the PO it's one of our seven you know we have seven offensive threats I'm stubbornly keeping Aiden in the seven and now it's maybe six without Jaylen but like a 's got to score more and he's got to continue he has to be a threat on the floor offensively and for his game it's going to be three-pointers because you've talked about how he struggled at the rim and he doesn't quite have the mid-range package that treyes developed so I just if jaylen's out y'all better hope that you know that this the staff's trust and insistence on Aiden being part of this is It's you have to hope it's going to pay off I mean we're running out of games to see something different I agree with you but yeah we we ride and roll with the with these Seasons man with every game we live and we live and die we try to put some perspective too but that's also the deal when you're gonna do a post game every time and I just say I agree if jaylen's out I'm gonna be cheering my heart out that Aiden keep shooting and they finally start going that's the only way this team like makes any noise in March is if Aiden starts hitting them but if jaylen's fine then I'm arguing for more dimmer moment and less Aiden moments but that's you know let me ask you this let me let me run through the last stats like we got out rebounded barely uh we uh we got outscored in the paint which is disappointing we got outscored on the fast break at home which is really disappointing we've talked about a lot of the stats uh Janai and CBM had 14 Denver had 12 uh pointwise I mean um Janai had a double double and I think one of the stats that's interesting to point out is uh only you know only two guys made threes Denver made uh three threes and Chad Bazar made one and nobody else made all it's it's been weird because jaylen's hit that a good clip but I think I can like fully expect that janai's been hitting at a good clip and it's like I still don't know if I expect that though like it's kind of like found change a little bit when he's hitting them but like his percentage is really high so then like it comes down like who else like we need Aiden to hit we need Trey to hit and like come on you got to hit like try a I feel need to hit at least one a game what did what did you think about Chad Baker marar game watching it because he did a lot of really good things I you saw much so Ben sometimes will send the graphic beforehand be like who's gonna get the MVP and I just like to come up with silly scenarios that I think are most likely in my most likely scenario I just thought that we would struggle a bit coming out and CBM would end up winning MVP ultimately by keeping us in in the first and then like Janai and Jaylen would take over in the second and we end up having a big win but uh CBM still kind of did that a little bit the whole team was just playing so badly it didn't matter you know and he didn't play so well to keep us out of this bad one he hit some threes he turn got some ball turnovers he's got this classic thing where he's getting calls from fouls which is great but man tonight the amount of times I saw him get blown by on defense was just outrageous I don't like I don't know what to do with that because he comes up to like the free throw line a bit he's got those long arms and long legs and he has made some cool defensive plays where he turns the other team over but then he just kind of gets up there squares up with his hips forward the guy starts coming at him and it's just like he doesn't even move he's like oays every single time he just moves his hips to the side the guy goes right by him I'm like you do better just trying to like get your feet over a little bit trying to get a charge or something than what you're doing I don't know if he's trying to like Chase block or why but it's just so egregious every time you you can't unsee it can you I'm sorry I'm sorry I yeah now that you thr up so many times it's brutal every single time I see him just like because every other player there's like a KD man so fun to watch on defense honestly Denver is doing well with it Cardwell does well with it that get that square I'm like oh yeah try to drive by this guy it's gonna be like a wall and then CPM gets up there and I watch two or three other players ball their guy up then he goes over cpm's guy and he just goes whoop right past them I'm like what was that if you're getting blown by that badly stopped coming up so much go backwards a little bit you kind of got to pick your poison and he's not picking the three he's like guarding the mid-range for goodness sakes it's one to blown by the three-point line yeah sorry in his defense like I think he was matched up a lot on guys tonight that were good three-point Shooters and he had to kind of be up and it it didn't and he does he is a really good off ball Defender and he does create havoc and and lead the steals when he's not the primary Defender and on offense he does things that we absolutely need somebody to do from that three position you you know we've talked about that for a couple years um needing that so like I never want to take away he's been better than I thought he would be um he's been a really good player when you there were just times in this game where you kind of okay this is his first year playing 20 plus minutes at a major in a major conference game when you're that size you know what I mean it just it looked a little different a little more out of control the other aspect of that is like what people talked about with him how skinny he is yeah oh he's GNA get backed down he's goingon to get bullied under the basket but that's not what's happening he's getting blown by so I don't know if that's just because he's so lanky he's not a fast on thing but offense he is he's causing havoc and making people foul him because he's longer than they think he is and quicker than they think he is so I don't I don't I don't know what it is on defense and why he's doing that but it's been this game especially like there's been a couple like this recently where just see like the other team scoring every single time even though we really think our defense is really good and we do turn it up at times especially in the second half there was some first halfs this year in the last couple games where the other team just every single time they went down the floor they scored and it felt like a lot of it came down to this one where the first pass or two our guys played good defense and went to cbm's guy and they just blew right back like what was the point of playing defense the last 15 seconds if by the time they get a CBM guy they just going to blow right by him I mean he's not alone and letting people do that and there was a lot of tough sh like give it to Kentucky man they had a lot of tough shots yeah uh the ball ended up in their hands in weird ways over and over again which just seemed like bad luck but sometimes bad luck is you know flying to the ball when the other team isn't so I don't know we just we had a game where they really they lost to G zag at home last game they've been in a bit of a freef fall they got up for this one and said go win in Neville Arena and that'll be a check on the resume right there they got up for it and we just didn't but there's really no excuse for it on our side because college game day wasn't down and everything was online for us too so I don't know I don't know I would push back you know like you said um it it's a very depressing loss in a way but I think we were five- one at home against Kentucky under with Bruce as our coach so yeah um which is pretty amazing if you know the history you know and we know how we haven't won in rup since the 80s so like we know we know how this goes um so it is frust we won a lot of we've won a lot of great home games too like the ones that we've been hyped up for we've gotten most of them it just feels bad really bad on this one and it does you know it would have felt I don't know if it would have felt less yeah it would have felt less bad if we just played well honestly and they just played well too we played bad and they played well so well about if you have the YouTube open I'd love to hear some YouTube comment well that's what I was going to say I'm not uh seeing any live chat comments oh wait I am let me read through it real quick Ben Ben talked about Trey Trey only played 11 minutes zero assists two turnovers four fouls how we get four fouls man yep uh pocket watch and the man here they said that was rough uh Ben Ben with a nice classy shout out to Jaylen saying if Jaylen is done I just want to say what a privilege it was to watch him play his best ball becoming the winningest player ever in offer in history I I will give them that man I love the the best parts about college we're losing so many great Parts about college sports the things that we really love about it and I don't think I'm a cranky man yelling the sky I think we really are losing the best parts of college basketball over the next couple years and and already and the best parts are watching a guy like come in as a four like a low four star with the athletic ability extremely rough on the edges and come in and do that off the backboard dunk his freshman year then put the team on his shoulders a bit that next year then take a back step to play behind Jabari and and be humble like that play well last year then finally in his fifth year seem to put it all together and really play some really quality basketball this year it's really cool to see the journey and see how good a kid is and be able like support them hopefully even I know we've gone back we got to be real on here but like cool to support them and see the community come out for them and vice versa so yeah I hope it's not right in the obituary for his career right now just I know these kids want to play Beyond College too and like I don't NBA career or anything but he definitely had some more years to play so now he could be he could be a great player over so if kid on the border line like that it really matters when you go down like that yeah um get anybody in the midst of all the chaos and the terrible loss is there anybody that looked I have two guys in mind that I was fairly happy with with well two and a half I would say that I was fairly happy with in this game of how they played any anybody positive I thought broom was fine you know he's just he goes and gets his and he's been the the best bet I just he wish he had that next Notch maybe that when things are really going wrong you could like be like screw you guys I'm putting it on my shoulder I'm gonna make something happen I'm gonna put do and it doesn't quite have that I don't think I still think he use a team around him to do some things we have seen him dominate games just not games like this where things are going badly and he can turn it around no KD you know I was literally talking to some guys at the bar Auburn guys that like it's almost a bad thing when KD has to take over like this when there's so much blood in the water that KD just starts like driving the ball and getting some hard twos and hitting some hard shots because everyone else is sucking so badly and we've had a lot of good games this year where we look at the stat sheet and hear a quiet KD game like wow KD had like 11 points and he hit all his threes and like man really cool and like yeah it's like these games we had like this year or past year years he forced himself to be loud and it was bad it was a bad thing we had to talk so much about KD this year when he has to be loud it's because we forced him into the situation and that's what happened in this one so like shout out for him to like have that confidence to go get some hard points when we need him but it was just he wasn't gonna be able to fix this game yeah I mean I I thought he he was one of the ones I would have picked I thought he played um he I I just like guys that care and and he just cares he cares a lot uh he plays his tail off he he had a stretch of Defense with three fouls in the first half I think it was where or maybe it was two and he was about before he got his third but like he just played out of his mind on a few possessions and he created some of those transition opportunities that we just botched you know like he he really did a lot to try to help us get this game and he missed shots and he he's he had one turnover whatever he's perfect as always but like I I like a guy like that who and I honestly and Bruce said this before uh this game when he was talking about the Denver playing poker he's like honestly I just think Denver and ktie are playing well and they need to play more than 20 minutes um I think that was a nice uh Democratic political answer maybe but I think if Aid if Aiden and Trey are playing well I mean I guess you you if if you really believe that then Aiden would be I think you would be playing aen Le and or you'd be playing Chris Mo Le or Les shifting them up to three so badly we have to shift it down to one that that's my argument I I I'm much less inclined to take Trey Andor Aiden off the floor at all honestly unless we need to for foul trouble or an injury or something I I'd rather take some of the Leo Chris Moore minutes from the three position um personally and slide yeah I think that's that's the damning part that's it's like no Aiden's playing so bad that they're shifting Denver down to the one at times I really we talked about in the offseason we thought Denver might play some three and uh yeah I think it just comes down to Aiden's bigger hole they have CM at three and they're just gonna play CBM more Denver was my other guy I thought Denver played really really well defensively I thought in a rough spot at point guard when he was thrown into it I thought he did a pretty good job um I think you know he hit three of our three four threes um shot a good percentage got to the line he missed them to open twos which you know I'm sure he'd love to have back I early I was pretty irritated with him early in the game with some of his mid-range shots and how many times it was in his hands and be fair some of that wasn't like oh Denver's trying to do too much like some of it might just be could we couldn't get the ball to Janai or jayen or they weren't getting open or whatever it just felt like early in the game when we started going to down I was like huh Denver's taking a lot more shots than I would have expected you know there was one drive there was he had two turn there was one drive where he he just we've talked about all on the Pod um like he he he has not been great finishing at The Rim or getting inside like but mid-range he's been pretty good and I think he was so open for a lot of those shots even though he's missing them because of what you're talking about I think Kentucky was really really focused on Jaylen and um and Janai and especially with that starting group with Chris Moore out there they just aren't even worried about Chris Moore like they're basically playing four on five and they're going to focus on Janai and Jaylen and Denver had a lot of room to operate he just didn't knock shots down I just I get so irritated like it a couple times a game a couple jump shots a game especially if it's late shot clock or something okay it's just there we've shot more long twos than I would like for sure this year I mean we saw during the Bama game though we trying to be Alabama you trying to be Alabama I mean I'm trying to be like modern day basketball you shoot a three or you shoot a layup you don't shoot jump shots and and I'm cool with CBM doing it CBM seems to have a really silky smooth shot and I'm okay with you're cool with Jay doing it you're cool with you're cool with CBM doing it you're cool with jayen doing it I'm not cool with Jaylen doing it J like his little floaters sure he's a power forward the little floaters halfway between the fre I mean I'm talking about the long twos we have a lot of long twos where they like pump fake the guy on the three-point line dribble in don't try to dribble in the lane and just stop a couple feet from the three-point line and shoot a to and they've gone in a couple times this year but like I don't want to see it anymore Trey does it Denver does it CBM does it but a little cooler CBM and he does a little closer and it's a little taller and he gets a lot of foul shots too he like gets that as like like no one fouls a jump shooter except for CB I hear you I love analytics but I also think if Denver hits a couple of those tonight you're like oh man Denver did such a great job of putting the ball on the floor not going in for those layups that he can't make he takes the open every I I pretty steadfast that no matter if they go in or not I get irritated with these long twos because every I know it's just a bad shot and like KD does it sometimes too and they go in and I go well okay and I kind of like put it behind me but like I admit every single time like that was not what I wanted out of the situation they would love for us to shoot nothing but long twos all game and they'll give it to us all day well yeah I I would still argue that we don't do that nearly as much as a lot of other teams I don't think that's a chronic problem for us but love see the shot I just feel like it's a lot more this year than usual and I noticed it after looking like I've noticed it plenty all year but then just seeing the Alabama shot clock or shot chart versus ours there's just all three-point line and layups and ours just all over the place I like hey well it worked we beat him pretty bad but I just been pretty irrit with it over the last like 10 games they they've lost more games than us and and we're also in the top 10 in offensive efficiency in the country so I I just don't think it's a huge problem um but rough night tonight uh bad loss we definitely gave up I mean we pretty much would have to win out like you said I thought you framed it up well at the beginning uh you got to win all your games at this point to to try to you know sneak in the back door I do think we have some winnable the at KNX Tennessee is just going to be Tennessee is a unit I still think they're the best team in the league and they go to Alabama they still play them one more time and they could kind of control their way if you have a sunshine pumper that's like we're still in it you could still do it just like go down the SEC Championship Wikipedia and I've done this a couple times to see like what is average decent amount of two win team like two L mostly mostly three lost teams there's like one five loss it's like tied three ways there's a couple fours like three or four fours over the last like two decades and they're always tied with somebody so if we win if we could win the SEC with four losses almost guaranteed you're sharing it with somebody which I'll take I will take that for sure yeah but like I would just I would not put any hope in it and I would not if I'm Bruce be like in my mindset of ring Chaser anymore my mind said would change over this biwe to how do we pivot to March how do we win the SEC tournament how do we make noise in March Madness well good luck with that because he was definitely talking about it today in the pregame I don't know if you heard that I mean all right I mean pregame sure but you expected to win this one at home against Kentucky so you're I I think the competitor in you you're always chasing it until you're out till you're eliminated you know so I mean you're right and I do think this by week will give them a chance to step back and especially hopefully they'll get some clarity on Jaylen and they can make a plan um you know of how to handle that here's here's some silver lining I know this is going long we said we were gonna keep it short I'm literally all the streets freezing right now like here's the one silver lining I'll give you it's is extremely small percentage sometimes in March you will see teams that got had an injury or something else happened about this time of year because what happens is these teams get all this footage on teams and like you saw what javar and Walker and all these others you have a great team but other teams figure you out and then you don't adjust because you're trying to get those Rings you lose a player like Jaylen it really sucks and there's a very small Silver Lining chance that like this throws everything into chaos for our team and changes up exactly how we play just in time for teams to not get it together in time you know what I'm saying so like tournament comes around and we're playing a completely different style of basketball than we were in four fth of the Year people are not sure what to do with it maybe I don't think we're going to change that much unfortunately because it's hard to do that with five years but uh you're G have to move a lot a lot of decent you're to move some players around for sure what would you do yeah because I don't know what I would do but you could get really you could get really wacky with it you could be playing CBM at the four you could be playing Cardwell at the five and broom at the four you yeah you could be playing Denver point guard and moving Aiden to the two just to change it up you could be he playing a lot more Cheney just like I don't know I don't know what you do you know like I said the moving the C you could be playing junai and CBM at the four slash Five with C Cardwell getting more heavy minutes and then you're moving players up the rotation there with Denver playing more three and Aiden and Katie I don't know I don't know I don't know my it's going to get so weird I honestly I'm really excited for next week as a like basketball nerd just to like see how we break the minutes down because I could see a scenario where we to me the most common to keep the flow of the team going and affect the least amount of people possible they would probably slide Chris Moore to start at the four like he's he's played powerful a lot throw up I'm throw up you start Chad Baker mazara and get him on the floor right away and you're already starting Chris Moore for three minutes you play him at Jaylen spot he he does what he did last year where he's just kind of a good decent Defender and rebounds hard and and maybe takes an open shot here and there and then you bring chain you keep bringing chy Off the Bench I am intrigued though Dylan's played really well this year and we haven't really had a lot of foul trouble knock on wood with those two centers so do you do you potentially play J I mean I thought Janai moved really well defensively against kuy's kind of wing guys today when he was matched up one-on-one and I I've worried about him playing defense at that position but I'm wondering in this scenario would you at least start and finish halves potentially with Janai and Dylan Flor that would be really interesting yeah no I like that I mean I don't like it but like if you had to I think yeah starting an ining halfs could be good like that like you just see you definitely see heavier minutes from some of these guys like Janai you know playing just different positions that you can put them in and like thank God they didn't play Super heavy minutes the rest of the year because they're going have to play some really heavy minutes in the year I would personally be surprised if they if they move I don't think Chad Baker Mazar can play down any more than he is like I I don't I just don't like the idea of him playing an entirely different position and I I just don't love that but it would be Can you steal some minutes with leor at the power board I don't think so I don't think so but like it does feel doesn't it feel like playing Cheney and Chris Moore at power forward the whole game feels like a bad idea doesn't that feel like a bad idea yeah yeah I would start Cheney too I would not start Chris Moore I know he got like the starting role at the three or whatever but if he's gonna play Four I start chaining Chen he has shown some glimpses pretty good I just don't think Chris MO is gonna be good not today at all Cheney worries me I don't know CH I'm on the roller coaster with Cheney he's another guy who cares a lot and tries really hard but I don't know yeah I don't know remember when we thought he was better than Jaylen remember when we thought he was going to start I mean you ride the roller coaster of every quote from practice and everything so hope you guys enjoy that you know it's just part of the fun you gota like not take yourself too seriously you know yeah absolutely what else would we talk about if we didn't talk about that kind of thing you know so we play um gosh who we play next week we play five week then Georgia away right at Georgia and then at at Tennessee are the next two games come on Jaylen don't be Hur be as bad as we think it is at Georgia at Tennessee and then if if we could somehow you know survive that then it's Mississippi State at home at Missouri who I believe is winless in League Play and then George at home to finish up so the next two games will kind of tell the tale in terms of are we you know can we still be a really good team with or without Jaylen depending on the situation I think this road trip will we we've not been very good on the road for the most part um we we need to find a way to win at least one if not try to compete in both of those games we've uh I've been saying most times I'm in the podcast are we having fun and this wasn't a fun game but if you asked me over the whole season if we had fun this season so far we're still very much on the fun side and last year I don't know if I could answer that same even after a loss like this I could still say the season itself has been fun now if we start Lo if we lose every game down the stretch because jaylen's out or lose the majority of games it's definitely gonna make it closer to the not fun side but so far it's been fun we've had some cool moments and memories so far so just hold on to that as like part of the fun parts of the roller coaster um yeah I totally agree um I you know I thought this was a bubble team slash kind of like last year like good team but not you know that's just what I thought preseason and it's been so for me such a pleasant surprise to see how well they've defended for the most part and then the offense has been a lot better this year and on days like today you know you you focus on this game but the offense has been a lot of fun to watch and this has been a fun group um Ryan texted our group said not looking good with Jaylen MRI tomorrow but they're making it sound like it's pretty significant I assume he means like how they've talked about it after the game and um yeah so we we don't know for sure but definitely looked like if you've watched a lot you you kind of know it when you see it with the knees and it's just you don't always know but it it felt like a 80 90% chance that that is well we've had some uh you know I wanted to say like we had Kentucky had a player out today during our game we've been pretty lucky with the nagging injuries we haven't had many games where players out for a big game for two or three weeks or something like that but we've had some trouble with season ending injuries like Alan Flanigan insane busting his Achilles heel now if Jay lenon tears his ACL and then the whole Sharie Cooper thing a lot of that was an injury as a weird Sol stuff but then he went out not that long after being in so it's just been chuma not great Kuma chuma like so we've had some bad Anthony mmore Anthony mmore is injured oh my God how forg getting that yeah we almost completely we've had some really badas this is a mmore right this is an ath mmore injury that changes the team completely and we're just going to be holding on that that year the SEC just wasn't what it is now and that's why it hurts so much that like this team's in the SEC hunt and like historically that would be amazing but it's our Rivals and like other teams we think we should be better than that just doing it you know it's not like kuy's just dominating the league and it's like we can't even catch up because they're just so good anyways it would take a miracle to be better no it's like other teams we think we should be competing with we just can't seem to break through the last couple years well we did two years ago but two years ago you're right you're right um not not last year and maybe not this year but uh yeah it's it's gonna it's gonna be tough I mean that that that team with mmore people forget I I'll never forget that he went down and then I think uh Mustafa Heron got sick or got hurt at one point we were playing Alabama at home down the stretch that year with like six or seven players and we won and we we managed to win the SEC and Bryce had a hurt shoulder at the end of the year it was it was we were hanging on for dear life kind of like you said but we we got it done this is going to be a little different that wasn't the uh the Year Kim Newton was in the student section was it uh no that was back in the the it was even earlier yeah the Barbie days don't don't bring us back um so yeah I just saw some post about that recently so really really frustrating um especially if jaylen's out you know I'm going to have to go into morning for that but at the same time I mean it's team sport and I think no you know I think Janai is the most indispensable player on this team but Jaylen is probably number two um so it it it would be but but there's no choice but to try to figure it out with the 10 guys we have left if that's the case and make the best out of it and try to make noise in March just like we would have tried if we had them yep well any other thoughts before we uh end this one go warm up go warm up thanks for hands are numb thanks for bearing the cold in New York City on the streets with us good to have you back on the Pod sorry sorry we didn't have a better game for you yeah I've been a lot of stuff going on at work when I finally get back to doing the Pod and here we are hopefully we'll get another one in a week or two so that should be good the rest of the season to be around so I hope I hope people will like that that uh got to hang out with Ben tonight and watched the game with him which was fun know everybody's been having B on a little hopefully we'll get Ryan on again before too long but I know he's a busy man also so hopefully we'll end this in an exciting streak but you know not sounding like it yeah yeah we we'll see it's going to be one game at a time um I know I'll be back on next Saturday the road trip to Athens we've had some weird games there every trip on the road we know is uh is dangerous you know A&M lost at Vanderbilt this past week you just never know so um you know if you're still listening to this on YouTube like you're still listening this on the podcast come join in on live YouTube it's fun to see you guys in there it's like our best way to communicate to you guys and uh if you haven't and you're this deep into it you haven't gone into the Apple podcast thing gave us a little review or reached out to us on social media or something like that go ahead and take this as an incentive to do it you know we're part of a community we're you virtual tumor's Corner when we win but we're also virtual friends talking it out at the end so you know wary go thanks for listening in yeah this is how the podcast started right Jackson was just commiserating and celebrating after games on the phone so this was like a good virtual flashback to that in a way you walking around New York and talking about the a rough loss it feels exact feels exactly like that because I'm on my phone instead of my laptop and all that so it feels like I'm forgetting sometimes so we're gonna re this is recording going out to the public so just speaking my heart all right buddy I'll see you later all right warle thanks guys bye