Olivier Sarr (Vicky Graff Photo)
After Kentucky coach John Calipari ripped into senior center Olivier Sarr for committing the “dumbest foul” he has seen in his coaching career in Tuesday’s loss to Kansas. Sarr got his third foul early in the second half about 70 feet from the Kansas basket. His fourth foul came a few minutes later on a Kansas fast break when Calipari would have preferred he just give up a basket and not foul. Instead, he fouled and spent most of the second half on the bench.
After three games, Sarr leads the team with 10 fouls in 73 minutes — or one foul about every 7.3 minutes he plays. He is also the team’s second-leading scorer at 11 points per game, third in rebounding at 6.7 per game and second in blocked shots with five.
Sarr is shooting 52 percent (13 of 25) from the field and 75 percent (7-for-11) at the foul line.
“I didn’t play that much last year because of foul trouble, so it’s something that I need to get used to now,” Sarr said about having to play extended minutes if not in foul trouble because of UK’s lack of depth at center.
Sarr is the only Kentucky big that seems to be a consistent threat from 15 feet. If he’s not in the game and Calipari plays two of his other bigs together, the lane is going to be even more clogged when BJ Boston, Terrence Clarke and others try to drive.
Kentucky has lost consecutive games to top 25 teams Richmond and Kansas. Poor 3-point shooting, turnovers and inconsistent passing have doomed UK in all three games going into Sunday night’s game against Georgia Tech in Atlanta.
“We have to pick our heads up because we have a whole lot of games coming up. Learn from our mistakes and just move on you know,” Sarr said after the Richmond loss.
That also applies to Tuesday’s loss against Kansas where UK wasted a 15-0 run in the first half with its atrocious shooting and passing.
However, Kentucky coach John Carlipari is not ready to panic despite the 1-2 start.
“They’ve got to go through this. I mean this is all part of the growth of this,” Calipari said.
