Despite loss to Vols, Cats still in ‘great spirits’ heading into NCAA tourney
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Game day: No. 9 Tennessee 69, No. 5 Kentucky 62
Click below for more of the Herald-Leader’s and Kentucky.com’s coverage of Saturday’s men’s basketball game between Kentucky and Tennessee at the SEC Tournament in Tampa, Fla.
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Kentucky lost a game Saturday. Nothing more.
That was the message both teams seemed to apply to Kentucky’s 69-62 loss to Tennessee in the Southeastern Conference Tournament semifinals.
“They’re as good as any team in the country,” Tennessee Coach Rick Barnes said.
UK Coach John Calipari noted that his team made only two of 20 three-point shots. And foul trouble limited SEC Player of the Year Oscar Tshiebwe to eight minutes of play in the first half.
Yet, Kentucky closed a 14-point first-half deficit to three with 90 seconds remaining.
“I thought we were going to win,” Calipari said.
Not for the first time, Kentucky stumbled down the stretch. UK did not score in those final 90 seconds.
But if Kentucky had …
“If we had pulled this off, what would everyone in the country said?” Calipari asked in his postgame news conference before answering his own rhetorical question. “‘Oh my God, they just played like that and won. You do not want to play them.’
“And that’s what I told them after (the game). We’re fine. Let’s go home.”
The UK coach said he hoped to be home by 8:30 p.m.
“See my dogs,” he said. “Kiss my dogs.”
That suggested he saw nothing alarming about losing to a higher-seeded team on what Tshiebwe called an “off day” and still being on the verge of winning.
When asked about the team’s mood heading into the NCAA Tournament, Keion Brooks echoed his coach’s all-is-well theme.
“We’re still in great spirits,” he said. “Looking forward to what we got coming up next week. We were really happy with the way we continued to fight. We could have given up. …
“Tough loss. We hate to lose. But we’re still in good spirits moving forward.”
Both teams saw Kentucky’s 2-for-20 three-point shooting as a product of good defense and poor offense.
Freshman Kennedy Chandler, whose team-high 19 points included several clutch baskets down the stretch, credited his team’s following the game plan. “Knowing who the shooters are” and knowing who to play off of in order to concentrate on shooters.
“You’ve got to give them credit,” said Brooks, who made one of the three-point shots (his first since Feb. 19 and only his second since Jan. 15). “They played a really, really good game. … It was just one of those days when the ball didn’t go in.
“Sometimes we weren’t shot-ready.”
Calipari lamented that players became reluctant to shoot after the missing began mounting. Not for the first time, he pointed out that players are not benched for missing shots.
Besides, Tshiebwe, who leads the nation in offensive rebounds, cannot grab one if a shot isn’t taken.
“If you shoot it and you miss it, we have a beast standing under the basket,” Calipari said. “Just shoot it!”
The beast agreed.
“(Players) just got to shoot,” Tshiebwe said. “I’m down there fighting for rebounds.”
Depth has soothed whatever ails Kentucky much of this season. After the game, Calipari said Kentucky was three-deep at every position.
But …
“If eight of you guys play like crap, then it doesn’t matter,’” the coach said of his team’s wealth of talent.
Of the 2-for-20 shooting, Calipari said a couple were air balls. Even Kellan Grady, who came into the game with the sixth-best three-point shooting percentage in Division I (43.7 percent), was not immune. He made one of eight shots (zero for five from three-point range).
Grady was not alone. Davion Mintz missed all six of his shots (three from beyond the arc). TyTy Washington, the hero of Kentucky’s quarterfinal victory over Vanderbilt on Friday, made one of seven three-point shots.
Calipari reminded listeners that his team also had to overcome Tshiebwe’s foul trouble. He mildly chastised reporters for not asking about the impact of Tshiebwe’s limited playing time, which the big man reacted to by saying, “I’ve just got to play smart.”
Brooks noted that Kentucky had “seen it all” in this season of adjustments on the fly. Tshiebwe suggested the loss to Tennessee was just one more reason to live and learn.
“We still have confidence,” Tshiebwe said. “And we’re going to be ready for next week.”
This story was originally published March 12, 2022 at 8:05 PM.
