Kentucky fans were hoping to see the Cats make a SEC Tournament run. Instead, UK fell behind by 14 points in the first half, rallied to get the lead and then lost 74-73. (SEC Photo)
It’s hard to imagine Kentucky starting the game any worse than it did Thursday against Mississippi State in the SEC Tournament. The Cats were dominated inside as State scored at will in the paint and dominated the backboards. Offensively, UK missed 23 of 34 shots in the first half and trailed 44-30 at intermission before almost coming back to win only to lose 74-73 in what likely was the team’s final game unless it surprises me and accepts an NIT bid after a 9-16 season.
“My teams historically played like if they lost, they were going to the electric chair. This team did not,” Kentucky coach John Calipari said. “Times we did. But maybe physically we weren’t capable of that.
“But you know what, here is what I would say. For them to play how they started that game, then to play the second half the way they played, says something about them. They never quit on anything. They didn’t quit one time this year.”
The Cats didn’t quit, but they didn’t win, either. Calipari said earlier this season he didn’t feel that bad after his team barely lost at home to Arkansas because it fought until the end. He was singing a different tune in Nashville.
“I’m happy for them that they fought to get back in it. We had a chance to win. If you noticed, me or the staff, none of us stopped. We didn’t stop coaching. We’re doing everything we can to give them a chance to win,” Calipari said. “Here is the problem: We’re not on the court. They’ve got to finish things off. You have to make winning basketball plays. I’m not shooting a shot that cannot be rebounded. I’m not. I’m either getting fouled or I’m making a basket. Or I shoot it and we rebound it. I’m not taking something that we can’t.”
Calipari was just warming up.
“On defense, they’re not beating us at the foul line. We’ve had it happen how many times now? They’re going to have to make a basket, not free throws. And we foul. That’s not winning basketball,” the UK coach said.
“I’m the coach at Kentucky. One, being in the game, being down at half, no, I’m not happy. How they fought? I’m happy for them to get them to understand. It’s a great lesson for them. This season was a lesson for them. Hopefully, if they self-evaluate, they know where they are as an individual player. They also know this is a team game. If you don’t play together, you can’t win.”
Kentucky’s loss came because of the huge hole it dug with its uninspired first-half play.
“The way we started the game was so disappointing. Basically, we got punked. I mean, they’re plus-15 rebounds. Are you kidding me? I’ve never seen that. Division I against Division III maybe, but I’ve never seen 15. Are you going to be down 30 rebounds? They’re going to outrebound you 15 to 20? I never heard of such a thing,” Calipari said.
That’s kind of like giving up 36 points in the paint like UK did in the first half. That’s how you lose games.
“He weighs 260, our guy weighs 195. We said you got to sit on ’em. You got to get around. What happened in the second half was we started switching ball screens. When you watch what was happening, they were going ball screen, we just switched everything, had our bigs guard their guards and our guards guard their big until we could switch back. That’s where we made a run on them,” Calipari said.
“In the first half, they were driving it down and throwing it to the post. Our guards got beat on the dribble. Then they were dropping balls to the post. We were standing behind.
“The other thing is they rebounded. When you talk about how they scored, they probably scored seven, eight baskets by just offensive rebounding, where we just couldn’t come up with balls.”
