Cats show their age, fall to Spiders 76 - 64

The Kentucky Wildcats fell to the unranked Richmond Spiders on Sunday. After trailing by 4 at the half, in what had already been a close game, the Spiders were able to use their veteran mindset to stifle any production from the younger Cats throughout the second half. They went on to pick up their first win against a top 10 team by stomping the Cats 76 - 64.

Before the Cats played Morehead State on Wednesday, Coach Cal had talked about not knowing what this team was made of. With the way the Cats played against Morehead I had wondered if this was just Cal talking things up to create a bit of spice.

Instead I now feel he was being forthright in talking about the experience of this young Kentucky club and the challenges they will be facing. This Cats team has all of the athletic ability in the world but are going to need to come together as a young club to find a good, working grove. Yesterday the Cats gave up a ton of turnovers, were held to only a few assists and missed enough free throws to win the game for themselves. It was everything indictive of a young team learning how to play together.

That's not to take away from what Richmond brought to the table. After a season which would have normally given them a trip into March had it not been for covid-19 they were ready to show the world they were ready to be in that place this year as well. They started by getting the first basket of the game and held with the Cats the entire first half until really laying it on them in the second half.

Kentucky WildcatsRichmond Spiders
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The offensive work from Boston, Sarr and Clarke was not enough to carry the Cats over. That being said it was exciting to watch Boston, especially in the first half, show why Kentucky brought him to Lexington. His words after the game of needing to realize that they took a loss to a more experienced team and moving forward and growing makes me excited to watch these guys continue to develop.

The Cats will need to recoup from this one quick. They will be travelling to Bankers Life Fieldhouse to take on Kansas tomorrow night to kick off the State Farm Champions Classic. You'll be able to tune into ESPN at 9:30pm EST to see what the Cats will look like coming off this loss.



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6 comments
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By looking at the background, it seems that crowd attendance now has been allowed. That's good to hear because most of the European competitions still hasn't allowed any audience.

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Yeah they opened it up to 15% capacity but no single admission games. Considering Rupp Arena holds 23,500, I think allowing a few thousand in is certainly enough space to allow for safe distancing.

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I see. That's good progress! I haven't followed the NCAA so I can't really talk much about the game. But with the NBA coming soon, we might gonna bump each other on each post.

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We'll be a good one-two combo then. I've never been a huge NBA fan but I get exposure since former Wildcats are scattered throughout the league. I guess if I had to pick a team it'd probably be between the Knicks or more recently, thanks to AD, the Lakers who I'd cheer for. If the league ever expands to bring a team local to Lexington, Louisville or Cincinnati I'd probably quickly change course.

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(Edited)

We'll be a good one-two combo then

Yeah. I'm looking forward to it!

When I read of Kentucky Wildcats, AD came first in my mind. I knew he was from Kentucky in college because he was first introduced in London Olympics playing for the USA.

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Richmond is one of those "dark horse" teams that can surprise a lot of people. This isn't the first time this has happened. I wonder when they started investing in their basketball program because I don't really remember anyone talking about Richmond at all 15 years ago.

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