Calipari’s message after UK loss at Tennessee: ‘Own it. We got manhandled.’
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Game day: No. 16 Tennessee 76, No. 4 Kentucky 63
Click below for more of the Herald-Leader’s and Kentucky.com’s coverage of Tuesday night’s game between Kentucky and Tennessee at Thompson-Boling Arena in Knoxville, Tenn.
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Kentucky Coach John Calipari was succinct when assessing his team’s not-as-close-as-the-final-score suggested 76-63 loss at Tennessee on Tuesday night.
“They needed it more,” he said of the Vols. “(They) wanted it.”
After having said repeatedly during his 13 seasons as UK coach that he always tries to see implications for the NCAA Tournament during the regular season, it came as no surprise that he put that perspective on Kentucky’s most lopsided loss of the season.
“It helps if they don’t let anybody alibi for them,” he said. “If they own their performance. … You can’t put it on anybody else.”
Calipari suggested that friends and loved ones might try to soften the blow — or deflect blame — when talking with UK players. He advised a telling response.
“When the phone call is made, you tell him, ‘I’m not talking about it. Goodbye,’” Calipari said. “Because you have to own it. You can’t let anybody alibi. Own it. We got manhandled. It was a revenge game.”
Tennessee, 19-6 overall and 10-3 in the Southeastern Conference, avenged perhaps an even more surprising outcome a month ago in Lexington when Kentucky won 107-79.
That was Kentucky’s fourth-largest margin of victory in the border state rivalry since 1955. And it was the most points UK has ever scored against Tennessee. Kentucky had its best shooting game of the season overall (67.9 percent) and from three-point range (61.1 percent). UK’s 67.9-percent shooting was the best by a Tennessee opponent since Rick Barnes became coach in 2015.
In Tuesday night’s rematch, Kentucky’s shooting percentage was about half as good at 34.3 percent. This helped Tennessee defeat Kentucky at least once for a seventh straight season.
Jacob Toppin, who returned from an ankle injury and scored 11 points and grabbed six rebounds, said he did not sense beforehand what would happen.
“We wanted to dominate, but clearly we didn’t do that,” he said. “We didn’t start the game well and it trickled to the rest of the game.
“We didn’t make shots, (did not) execute. Defensively, we weren’t disruptive at all.”
Kentucky got off to a good start, taking an 8-2 lead. But Tennessee used a 17-1 run to take a 32-18 advantage.
Toppin found such a run by an opponent unacceptable.
“We’re a good defensive team,” he said. “And today, we didn’t show that. There’s no way we should have let them go on a 17-1 run.”
Kentucky trailed for more than 32 minutes.
Down by 18 points early in the second half, Kentucky reduced the deficit to 53-45. Then UK did not score again for more than five minutes. Calipari lamented turnovers and poor shot selection in that span.
“I’m, like, why did we go nuts?” he said. “We could have grinded it out, made it six, made it four. All of a sudden it’s on them.
“But we’re not ready for that.”
Tennessee’s lead reached its zenith at 65-45, which represented Kentucky’s largest deficit of the season. That surpassed the 15-point deficit in the season’s opening game against Duke.
More than once, Calipari suggested Tennessee be given credit for outplaying Kentucky.
“They punched us in the mouth,” he said, “and we didn’t do the same to them.”
More than once, Toppin spoke of Kentucky using the defeat as a teaching tool.
When asked what UK could learn from the experience, he said, “that we’ve got to fight. They definitely out-fought us. We’re not going to make every shot. So, we’ve got to get in the gym (and) try to make more shots.
“Defensively, Coach (Calipari) always emphasizes how defense is just fighting and effort. We didn’t bring that.”
Kentucky, now 21-5 and 10-3 in the SEC, had won its last six games. Toppin said he could not explain why the fight was not there.
“There’s no excuses … ,” he said. “We live with it and just move on.”
Next game
No. 25 Alabama at No. 4 Kentucky
When: 1 p.m. Saturday
TV: CBS-27
This story was originally published February 16, 2022 at 1:12 AM.
