John Calipari says it was his fault Olivier Sarr had the ball on the final play against Arkansas. (SEC Photo)
If you were confused by Kentucky’s final play against Arkansas that led to an Olivier Sarr turnover on a pass instead of a potential game-winning shot, then let Kentucky coach try to clarify it a bit better than he did after Tuesday’s 81-80 loss.
“Well, we walked out (of the timeout) and that’s a play that has two or three different options to it,” Calipari said Friday. “I told BJ (Boston Jr.), ‘You get this thing, go shoot a layup. You’ve got a lot of time.’
“But I didn’t tell Jacob (Toppin) to throw it to BJ (on the inbounds pass). So BJ was open, and he threw it to Olivier, and I said because I know what I said to BJ. I looked at Jacob and I said, ‘Jacob, did I say anything to you?’ And he said, ‘No.’ ‘Then it’s on me.’
“It’s on me. The last play, I wish we had it again because I would have been a little more thorough in the timeout. But you can’t blame the kids. That was on me.”
He said that play had won “five games for my teams over the years, six” and that is why he ran the play again … or intended to run the play again.
“But if a guy is open, and you don’t throw it to him, what does that mean? When you throw it to somebody else the other guys are not going to be open because you didn’t give it to the guy that was open,” Calipari said. That means they’re all … and that’s what kind of happened. No responsibility, that falls right on me.”
