Blaming Kentucky’s big-game losses on a lack of practice? What about the Bahamas trip?
Amid a brutal eight-day stretch for his Kentucky basketball team — bookended by losses to Michigan State and Gonzaga — John Calipari kept falling back on an argument that was met with eye rolls and incredulity.
Why did his Wildcats look so out of sync — especially on the offensive end — in the only two games they played against top-notch competition?
To paraphrase what the UK coach said on several occasions over those eight days: “We haven’t practiced together.”
That excuse yielded a collective, “Huh?” from anyone who heard it.
Yes, the team’s star player — reigning national player of the year Oscar Tshiebwe — had been out for a month with a knee injury prior to returning to practice the day before the Michigan State game. Yes, the team’s starting point guard — all-league senior Sahvir Wheeler — had been in and out of practice late in the preseason while dealing with his own knee injury. And, yes, another expected key player on this Kentucky team — sophomore forward Daimion Collins — had to step away from the program for several days following the unexpected death of his father the week before the season started.
All of that meant that three important Wildcats were unable to join their teammates on the court during a crucial stretch of the preseason. But Calipari’s continued attempts to paint Kentucky’s less-than-stellar play in their biggest games as a symptom of those earlier absences clearly rang hollow.
This is, after all, the most veteran team Calipari has had in 14 seasons at Kentucky, a roster stacked with players who have performed at a high level in college basketball, including several who have been in UK’s system for multiple years. And, more to the point, this group spent weeks practicing together over the summer in conjunction with an August trip to the Bahamas, where the Cats played four exhibition games and looked like a legit national title contender.
So, with all that extra practice time, with all those experienced players, how could Calipari be presiding over a team that didn’t even “know the plays” as he said of them last week. He made the excuse of Tshiebwe and others being out, but he never really explained why it should matter this much.
Finally, following Wednesday’s beatdown of North Florida — and perhaps sensing that his previous excuses were not being taken seriously — the coach went into a little more detail.
Calipari said the practices around that Bahamas trip — including the games themselves — were more about building “team camaraderie” and less about actual Xs-and-Os against opponents the caliber of Michigan State and Gonzaga.
“None of the stuff that we’re running now we really ran down there,” he said. “The Bahamas trip is to go play competition. Who will fight in those situations? Who is not afraid to make shots when the lights are on? And let’s get together and have a ball and get to know one another. And that’s what the Bahamas trip is.”
In other words, the summer was more about these Wildcats getting used to playing with one another, feeling out their teammates’ games, and trying to figure out how the pieces might work together. The fall was supposed to be about the actual basketball of it all. And, Calipari says, with Tshiebwe and Wheeler and Collins all sidelined, his Cats never really got to that until the real games had already started.
“That’s why I kept saying, ‘It’s going to take us a little time.’ I’m not happy that we lost two games. I want to win every game I coach,” Calipari said Wednesday night.
The UK coach had declined to go into more detail despite plenty of chances to do so previously. One of his veteran players, CJ Fredrick, articulated those thoughts first, during a meeting with reporters Tuesday morning.
“The differences — when we were getting ready for the Bahamas, we were just out there learning how to play with each other,” he said. “We weren’t putting in any of our sets that we run in the season. It was all based off feel and stuff like that. So when we get back and Oscar goes out and then Sahvir goes out — and that time period is (supposed to be) when we put our sets in. And we learn to grind. With three minutes, what we’re running. And stuff like that.
“So when you have Sahvir and Oscar out — two big pieces — it changes a lot of things.”
What’s next for Kentucky?
Even with Tshiebwe still out for UK’s first two games of the regular season, the Wildcats were thinking to themselves that those games were easier than the practices that came before. Of course, those games were also against Howard and Duquesne, two overmatched opponents.
Once Kentucky got to Michigan State and Gonzaga, the reverse was true. The games were harder than the practices, and UK’s players said that’s not something that should be happening, even against elite competition.
The coaches obviously noticed it, too. They went to Kentucky’s players, told them what they were seeing. UK’s players talked among themselves about it and came up with a solution. Now that everyone was healthy, they wanted to scrimmage more. Get back on the same page by playing with and against their teammates at game speed.
“And it’s the right thing,” Calipari said Monday on his weekly radio show. “Let’s go five on five. We haven’t been able to do it in a while.”
That starts now.
Kentucky has five free days between the North Florida game Wednesday and the Bellarmine game Tuesday, with the team’s trip to London to face Michigan set for next weekend.
The Cats also have more than three months until the postseason begins.
“This is the greatest time to learn. It’s November,” Fredrick said. “Obviously, competitors — I hate losing. … We hate losing. But at the end of the day, it is November. And these are the experiences that are going to help you late in the season.”
By this point, many Kentucky basketball fans — as well as outside observers — are in we’ll-need-to-see-it-to-believe-it mode. Calipari’s claims likely still won’t hold much water to those who bought into the hype of this Wildcats’ team and watched them plod through their two biggest games to date.
But, it’s not just the UK coach saying this. The players clearly feel it, as well.
“I don’t want to make any excuses, but Oscar’s been hurt. There’s been guys out,” senior forward Jacob Toppin said. “So, if you’re not practicing with those type of guys — and going through plays, and understanding how you play with them — for a couple of weeks, it’s gonna shake things up. So just having Oscar back, having our whole team back, and being able to do that — it’s gonna come. We’re working on it. We’ve been working on it since the Gonzaga game. So, as we keep meshing well, as we just keep working on it, it’s going to get better.”
Calipari also accepted blame Wednesday night. The fact that some of his players didn’t know the team’s plays, that some couldn’t answer basic questions about what the Cats were trying to do — there’s no excuse for that.
“You ask them the question and they can’t answer it. That means, as a teacher, you haven’t done your job,” Calipari said. “They need to be able to answer the question. … So now we’re talking about it every day. I’m asking ’em questions, ‘What are we supposed to do?’ Because you think they know. And when you think they know something, you’re always wrong.”
Playing teams like Howard and Duquesne and South Carolina State and North Florida won’t tell a coach much about his team. These Cats had enough sheer talent to get past those overmatched foes pretty easily. Playing Michigan State and Gonzaga? That’s different.
“It’s hard when you’re winning by 30 or 40,” Calipari said. “It’s hard, because you get intoxicated. Like, ‘We’ll be all right.’ Every time we broke down against Michigan State and Gonzaga they scored. Every time. That’s what good teams do. That’s why you gotta play a good team and let them do that, so you can get with your team and show ’em on tape and say, ‘You’re not beating anybody that’s good if we don’t get this right.’”
Kentucky still has plenty of time to get this right. The Cats have the nation’s best player and a whole lot of talent around him. And everybody associated with this team still seems to have the same expectations they had before Tshiebwe went down with that knee injury in October.
“I love this group,” Calipari said Wednesday night. “They’re great teammates. There are still some guys unsure of themselves. Most of ’em have a ways to go. Some of ’em want to play a different way than the way this team needs them to play. …
“We’re a work in progress. We’re going to work every day. We got some time.”
Tuesday
Bellarmine at No. 15 Kentucky
When: 7 p.m.
TV: SEC Network Plus (online only)
Radio: WLAP-AM 630, WBUL-FM 98.1
Series: First meeting
This story was originally published November 25, 2022 at 7:00 AM.
