Ben Jordan’s death makes for ‘an emotional day’ for Kentucky players
Kentucky players remembered Ben Jordan by wearing T-shirts bearing his No. 33 during pregame warmups. There was a moment of silence to reflect on his life before the game. And tweets reacting to his death Monday at age 22 were shown on the Rupp Arena video boards.
“It was a rough day today,” UK Coach John Calipari said Tuesday night. “It was an emotional day. … We’ve got four or five (players) that will go to the viewing tomorrow.”
Dontaie Allen, who was among Jordan’s teammates on the UK basketball team in the 2019-20 season, said it had been a “pretty emotional” day. “Everybody’s trying to get through it together,” he said.
Calipari suggested that Jordan’s death put the 85-65 loss to Alabama in perspective.
“I’m not worried about it having an effect on my team,” he said. “This is a basketball game.”
Calipari saluted Jordan as a selfless player looking to contribute. Jordan, a 6-foot-9 pitcher on UK’s baseball team, joined the shorthanded basketball team last year as a practice player who could compete against Nick Richards.
“This kid was here only to help the team,” said Calipari, who added that Jordan would turn down opportunities to play in favor of teammates who might be called upon to help in future games. “He had a great smile and a great way about him. …
“I just feel bad for his parents,” Calipari said. “I feel bad for his sisters. It’s just a bad deal all the way around.”
Anthem update
Calipari defended the players’ request to kneel during the playing of the national anthem before Saturday’s game at Florida. It was not meant to be disrespectful toward the military, he said.
Military veterans have been part of several players’ families, he said.
Calipari conceded that the timing of the symbolic protest was not ideal.
“In this political time, probably not a real good time to do it,” said the UK coach, who added that the players were motivated by recent events to want to make a statement that unified people around the idea of social justice.
When asked if he was saying that kneeling was a mistake, Calipari said, “No. I’m not saying (that). It’s what they wanted to do. The timing of it, with everything going on, they felt the timing was right for what they saw on TV.”
Isaiah Jackson said on Monday that seeing a noose hanging from a scaffold outside the U.S. Capitol during last week’s mob violence motivated him to want to make a statement. “It’s just crazy to me,” he said of the noose.
UK players will not kneel during the anthem at home games this season. UK’s policy is to have both teams go to their locker rooms before the anthem is played about 10 minutes before the introduction of starting lineups.
In previous seasons, the Southeastern Conference had required teams to be at courtside as the anthem was played just before lineups were introduced. Because of the coronavirus pandemic, the SEC gave teams the option of going to the locker rooms.
UK, Mississippi State, LSU and Missouri are among the schools that have players go to locker rooms. Florida, Georgia and Vanderbilt are among schools that have players at courtside for the anthem.
No Lance Ware
Calipari second-guessed his decision not to play Lance Ware.
“I said after (the game) if I had to do it over again, because we wouldn’t fight and battle, I would have put Lance in there,” the UK coach said.
Calipari said he chose to see if players would play their way through the doldrums.
‘I’m looking for five fighters,” Calipari said. “Five battlers who will come in and play confident.”
More than once, Calipari likened the game to a boxing match.
“If you’re hitting someone in the head, you’re confident,” he said. “If you’re taking all the shots instead of giving shots, then you won’t be confident.”
Sour 16
It was only the 16th time Kentucky had lost in Rupp Arena by a double-digit margin, and the second time this season.
Double-digit defeats also happened twice in 1986-87, 1991-92 and 2007-08. It’s never happened three times in a season in Rupp Arena, which opened in the 1976-77 season.
More footnotes
Kentucky had won 58 of the previous 68 games against Alabama played in Lexington. Alabama had not won at UK since 2006.
Kentucky had not lost a home game to Alabama by a double-digit margin since a 69-55 defeat in 1987.
Home
Kentucky’s record in Rupp Arena this season fell to 2-3. In the 45 seasons playing in Rupp Arena, UK has lost more than two home games nine times. The last was the 12-6 record in 2008-09.
UK’s all-time record in Rupp Arena slipped to 612-74 (a winning percentage of .891).
In Calipari’s 12 seasons as coach, Kentucky’s home record slipped to 185-14 (.929).
Three for all
After UK made only four of 18 three-point shots against Alabama, Calipari offered a sobering assessment.
“Maybe you’re not a good three-point shooting team,” he said before adding, “but that’s OK.”
The UK coach voiced more concern about Alabama making 14 three-point shots, which were the most against a Kentucky team since Sam Houston State made 18 of 38 on Nov. 19, 2009 (Calipari’s third game as UK coach).
“They were either uncontested or we were late getting to somebody,” Calipari said of Alabama’s three-pointers. “Our game plan was we were not blocking the shot. But we were going to contest (the shot). . . . We weren’t even near people.”
‘Still Kentucky’
Even if Kentucky’s record fell to 4-7, Alabama Coach Nate Oats sounded happy about what he called a “big win for our program.”
Later, Oats added, “Kentucky is a little bit down this year. But they’re still Kentucky. I mean, they’ve got pros on that team.”
This story was originally published January 13, 2021 at 1:57 AM.
