Keion Brooks had eight points and six rebounds before fouling out in Saturday's loss. (SEC Photo)
John Calipari admitted he was “frustrated” after Kentucky’s 66-59 loss at Auburn Saturday. But if he thinks he’s frustrated, it’s nothing compared to the frustration that Kentucky fans have with this team that is now 4-8 overall and has lost two straight Southeastern Conference games after starting SEC play 3-0.
Auburn is an okay team at best. The Tigers started Saturday’s game by missing 14 of 15 shots. Freshman point guard Sharife Cooper, the team’s best offensive threat since getting eligible two games ago, was 3-for-13 from the field.
Yet Auburn still won because Kentucky has no consistent offense. None. Kentucky has not scored more than 65 points in any of its eight losses.
Kentucky shot 40 percent (23 of 57) from the field and 23.5 percent (4-for-17) from 3-point range. Even at the foul line UK missed seven of 16 shots.
That’s why it was baffling when Calipari left both Dontaie Allen and Jacob Toppin on the bench to open the second half. They each had eight points the first half when UK managed just 25 total points.
Calipari really did not explain that decision when asked after the game other than Allen did not shoot some shots he had.
“He was in there to take shots. But Dontaie was not the issue,” Calipari said.
Maybe. But UK fans bewildered how a top 10 preseason team cannot score points it’s hard to understand why two players who carried the team offensively the first half did not start the second half.
“If you got beat to balls, I took guys out,” Calipari said. “We defended the way you defend to win games.”
They did that most of the game. Auburn shot 38 percent (23 of 60) from the field and only 21 percent (5-for-24) from 3-point range. The Tigers did make 15 of 21 foul shots and that was the difference in winning because it does not take scoring 90 points to beat this Kentucky team.
“I am disappointed in what we did,” Calipari said. “We left one slip away on the road. We should have been up big at half. I can’t believe we weren’t.”
I can because Kentucky has had trouble in almost every game this season. It was bad Saturday but not that much worse than what it has been all season.
I asked Calipari if he just had to accept this was not a good offensive team. Kentucky is averaging 67.4 points per game, shooting 41.8 percent from the field and shooting 29.7 percent from 3-point range. Kentucky has 49 more turnovers than assists.
“I will never stop tweaking and trying to figure it out until it clicks in their minds,” Calipari said. “They have got to make extra passes, play for each other.”
The frustration came out a bit more the longer Calipari talked.
“Everybody is trying to score versus creating shots for each other,” Calipari said.
Bingo.
“Sometimes when we are playing some people tend to go off and play me basketball and that’s what we don’t need,” Jacob Toppin, who had 10 points and six rebounds, said.
No, UK doesn’t need that but it seems like that is what the Cats keep getting way, way too much.
