‘I knew it was a mistake.’ Calipari chides himself for UK’s tough schedule.
After Kentucky lost 79-62 to Georgia Tech on Sunday night in Atlanta, John Calipari second-guessed the early-season schedule his team must play. This wasn’t a first for the UK coach.
“I knew it was a mistake,” he said of the schedule’s degree of difficulty.
After dipping a toe in the water with an opening game against Morehead State, Kentucky played Richmond, which is now ranked No. 19 in The Associated Press Top 25. Then came No. 7 Kansas and the game against Georgia Tech.
The next four games are against Notre Dame, Detroit Mercy, UCLA and Louisville. The latter two received votes in the latest AP poll, while Notre Dame played competitively at No. 8 Michigan State on Nov. 28.
Stats savant Ken Pomeroy ranks Kentucky without the injured Keion Brooks as the nation’s least experienced team.
“I feel bad for these guys because I said at the beginning of the year (that) the schedule is not fair for them,” Calipari said. “All Power Five schools or schools that have veteran players. It’s just not fair.
“But you know what? It is what it is. We’re going to go. … I’ve told them, I’m not cracking yet.”
Calipari added a hopeful note about the schedule.
“It should make us better,” he said.
COVID adjustments
Both Kentucky and Georgia Tech spoke of the impact the coronavirus pandemic has had on preparation for the season.
Calipari said social distancing complicates coaching, especially with his freshman-dependent team.
“There is no face-to-face contact,” he said. “Very little with me, and you need that when you’re young. You need to talk. You need the face-to-face.”
As for Georgia Tech, Coach Josh Pastner spoke of two changes he made.
One involved the coach needing to make sure he is heard during timeouts. Social distancing makes that more difficult. “I can’t tell you how many times we’re coming out of the huddle and Jose (Alvarado) or Michael (Devoe) said to me, ‘Where do you want me to go?’” Pastner said before the game.
The other involves players being spaced farther from the front of the locker room. This prompted Pastner to buy a larger blackboard. So players can read instructions, “I will write bigger,” he said.
Live and learn
To explain Georgia Tech’s 0-2 start, Pastner said he made a mistake by assuming his veteran players did not need a lot of contact in practice to prepare for the season. The recommended social distancing during the coronavirus pandemic prompted this assumption.
Lesson learned, Paster said.
“Let’s hope we never have another global pandemic …,” he said. “But God forbid there’s another pandemic, we will practice prior to our games.”
Assist-to-turnover
For the second time in three games, Kentucky committed 21 turnovers. And for the third straight game, UK had more turnovers than assists.
Going into the Georgia Tech game, Kentucky ranked 268th in assist-to-turnover ratio. Through four games, UK has 47 assists and 73 turnovers.
Of the six players averaging the most minutes, only Davion Mintz has more assists (11) than turnovers (seven). The players with more turnovers than assists include Terrence Clarke (10-13), Devin Askew (8-13), Brandon Boston (4-10), Isaiah Jackson (5-8) and Olivier Sarr (4-8).
When asked about Kentucky’s assist-to-turnover ratio, Mintz said, “I’m a little worried about it.”
‘A huge problem’
Georgia Tech scored 33 points off Kentucky’s 21 turnovers. Through four games, Kentucky is averaging 18.3 turnovers per game.
“I’m not, like, extremely down about it,” Mintz said. “But I know it’s a huge problem for us right now. And that’s something we can change.”
Bubba again
Kentucky again brought out a solid performance from Bubba Parham. He made seven of 10 shots (three of six from three-point range) and scored 17 points. He also had four assists and no turnovers in one second short of 36 minutes of playing time.
Parham is in his second season with Georgia Tech. UK fans might recall that he started his college career at VMI.
While playing for VMI, he scored 35 points in a 92-82 loss to Kentucky on Nov. 18, 2018. That’s the fourth-most points scored against a Calipari-coached UK team. He made 10 three-point shots in that game (one shy of the Rupp Arena record for a UK opponent) and moved one Kentucky player to liken the performance to Steph Curry.
Parham had 10 points in Kentucky’s 67-53 victory over Georgia Tech last season.
‘Awesome’
Pastner said Georgia Tech had seven “kills” in the game. He defined “kills” as three consecutive defensive stops.
Kentucky’s lead in the series slipped to 56-16. Only three times had Georgia Tech beaten UK by a larger margin: 48-16 in 1927, 65-44 in 1960 and 71-52 in 1958.
“Awesome team win,” Pastner said. “Awesome program win.”
This story was originally published December 6, 2020 at 11:45 PM.
