Bruiser Flint took over at Mississippi State after John Calipari got tossed and liked the focus the Cats had. (SEC Photo)
Do you think John Calipari intentionally got ejected at Mississippi State Saturday night? I do. Sounded like Olivier Sarr did, too, after the game. That’s why I asked Kentucky assistant coach Bruiser Flint Monday if he thought Calipari got tossed intentionally to maybe inspire the team that had lost six straight games and then came back to win in double overtime.
“No, I didn’t,” Flint laughed and said. “No, I didn’t think he was going to until he turned to me and said, ‘Yo, Bru, I’m going to get kicked out of the game.’
“I’ll be honest with you, I thought they had some moving screens. Maybe I might get fined or something, but there were a few tough calls out there, to be honest with you, during the game. I understood why he was on the referees a little bit.”
Flint said you could see the team’s focus improve, especially on defense, after the technical fouls on Calipari that got him ejected.
“I thought we did a lot of good things defensively to get ourselves back into the game,” the UK assistant said. “We got some 3s in transition. We got a couple easy layups. But, I think the biggest thing for us, and it’s been happening not just this game, our focus. I know it was great for me sitting in the huddles, was our focus sitting in the huddle with the players.
“Just them guys knowing what we needed to do. We’ve been talking a lot about that. Seeing them able to do it without coach Cal being there, that was big. If they did not do that, then we were not going to win the game. So, when he got thrown out, ‘OK, let’s get focused on what we need to do.’
“That was a big part. We just carried it over from what we talked in the huddle, from what they talked about in their own huddles, and that’s why we were able to win the game.”
Flint said it is not unusual for a team to respond the way UK did when a coach gets ejected as UK went on a 10-0 run.
“You want Cal to get thrown out every game?” Flint joked.
Flint said teams will regroup and go on a run after something like that happens.
“I remember watching one of the games when I wasn’t a coach here and actually speaking to Cal in the locker room when he got kicked out,” Flint said. “They came together, they came back and they won. So, that’s one of the things they’ve done here a few times, so I’m sure you’ve seen it before.
“Hey, it is what it is. You’re talking about a Hall of Fame coach and he’s prepared those guys to do what we need to do to be able to win. Those guys said, ‘OK, we know what we need to do. Let’s go out and do it.’ That’s what we did.”
Freshman point guard Devin Askew said seeing the team “leader go down” created an even bigger sense of urgency for players to perform.
“We kind of felt like we just had to step up a little more because our leader wasn’t out there. But we did it. We knew we had to come through with a win, so that’s what we did,” Askew said.
