John Calipari discusses UK’s struggles to put together winning lineups after loss at Missouri

Conference play got off to a jarring start for the Kentucky Wildcats on Wednesday night.

The Wildcats led for just 23 seconds and trailed by as many as 21 points in a blowout loss at Missouri that wasn’t as close as the 89-75 final score indicated.

Despite a monster statistical performance from Oscar Tshiebwe — 23 points and 19 rebounds — Kentucky was rarely competitive against the Tigers in a comprehensive defeat to start SEC play, and with a rivalry matchup against Louisville looming.

After the game, Kentucky head coach John Calipari discussed everything that went wrong for the Cats in Missouri, and how some of it could be fixed.

Here’s everything Calipari said after the loss to Missouri:

Q. Missouri’s Kobe Brown is a fantastic player. Why was he so difficult for you guys to stop?

He was difficult last year for us to stop. And what he’s added is now you gotta space out on him because he can make threes. And, look, Missouri would have beat a whole lot of teams the way they played tonight. And they beat us pretty good.

But that first half was just, you know, we were still in the game. And then you start the (second) half and give up a basket and one, and now you’re down 15 when you were down 12 and you had a chance. We got it to eight or nine. And then we go turnover, three turnovers, it’s an 8-0 run. Those aren’t my teams, so I gotta go back and really figure out you know, some of its personnel. I think we got good players, but some guys aren’t playing great.

I mean, CJ (Fredrick) being out hurt us, but it gave Adou (Thiero) a chance and Adou did pretty good. But look, you gotta give them credit. That was what they did to us. You know, I look and you know, some of the stuff like wasn’t bad, you know, 14 turnovers and some of them, all of them at like critical times, but they’re good.

When they shoot the ball the way they shot it. And again, we missed free throws again and I’m trying everything from mental to you know, shoot 100 to we’re shooting one-on-ones, if you missed we run.

I’m trying to do a lot of stuff, but I don’t want to make it that big an issue, but it is when you get the game to where it was. If we had made some free throws now it’s maybe four or five and it’s a little different feel to it. But I give them credit, they deserved to win the game and they deserve because of how they played.

Q. The deficit was cut to eight or nine points, and then Missouri went to a zone defense and then hit two three-pointers in a row on offense. Just reacting to that.

We ended up playing it a little different. You know, I was trying to do some lob stuff and they muscled a guy off and we weren’t able to get it, but we ended up saying, “We’re going with our two bigs, you’re spread out,” and that’s what we did.

But we had a turnover. We got it in the middle where we wanted it and the guy bounces it out. Boom, they make a three I gotta call a timeout. They come back, but I thought when we settled in we were fine against the zone. I thought we were playing too wide at the top but.

Q. John, you’ve dealt with difficult lineup challenges before and you’ve been successful. What is it about this team that makes it so challenging?

Well, we’re different because we got Oscar (Tshiebwe). You could say well, let’s just come down and have everybody out on the floor. You have Oscar. So you got to play a little different. The issue becomes if they don’t play a couple of the guys on the floor. Now Oscar’s got three guys around him. That’s an issue for us.

So we’ve got to figure out some of it. I told them at halftime. “Come down and throw him the ball.” And we still, I thought some of them, what happens (is) he’s open. It’s a dogfight in there. So if you go like this and then try to pass it to him. That guy’s fighting to get around. He’s fighting to keep them behind. There were opportunities to throw it in and do that, but again, you know, we had like five wide-open shots and didn’t make them. That takes the wind out of your sails, and you don’t have to make them all, but how about for one-for-five or two-for-five? So, but we’ll see.

Look, I haven’t lost any faith. I’ve been through tough stuff. And I knew this would be a hard game, but I thought we would play better. I knew they would play better because they just beat Illinois and they’re making shots and they’re being aggressive and doing some good stuff. I liked the fact that they were going to spread the court on us, because I thought we could get run downhill and get threes. And we did and we missed them all.

I thought this was the game we wanted to play, but they did a good job in the end ,they ground it out like my teams do. You get that lead and now we’re gonna grind it, we’re gonna shoot late in the clock. Get a back door. Make a tough three. They were good today. I give all the credit to Missouri.

Q. John, Oscar said the physicality maybe wasn’t where he thought it needed to be tonight from your team. Did you see a difference in that between the two teams or not?

Well, (Missouri) has played physical most of the year, they’re going to bump and grind, they’re older. We had a couple guys that when the game got physical, they couldn’t be in there. And so that’s what I did was, “Okay who will fight, who’s gonna battle,” and that’s who I put in.

Now you’ve given up some offense, you’re given up some stuff. But like I said, we’re a work in progress. I said it a while ago. It’s gonna take some time. Oscar being out. He did some better stuff today. But he’s still not where he was a year ago. He had knee surgery. He was out four weeks. So again, we go from the foul line 15-for-24.

Q. What has impressed you about Dennis Gates and what he’s done at Missouri so far?

He’s done a great job. What he’s done is he’s put in a formula that this team, this is how they will succeed, the way they’re playing. We need to steal some baskets. So we’re going to fly it ahead. In the first half they get 10 transition baskets on us, or 10 points. You know we had our share, too, but that’s one of the things he’s doing and then they’re being aggressive with the press and cutting into your time in the half court and he’s okay if you’re getting shots off.

So when someone makes them they’ll probably play different. The zone, we knew and we had worked because he has done it most games where at some point he’s just ‘Alright, we’re going zone and we’re playing it.’... Lance fought like heck. I still like the group. I like the locker room. You know, we’re a work in progress and there’s things we got to do that we’re not doing. But you know, I grabbed a couple guys after by themselves with me.

You know, “Are you okay?” and you know, “I love you, you’ve got to play better,” you know. But losing stinks, can’t stand it. But we got to step up to the plate and maybe play less people. Daimion (Collins) is the next guy that gets his opportunity now, let Daimion get in there and play and do his thing and we’ll see.

Q. Do you have an injury update on CJ?

I did not see him, but the trainer told me at halftime he said, “He’s out for the game.” And I think the kid told me he did something to it. He dislocated it (finger).

Okay. Thanks, folks. Happy New Year.

This story was originally published December 28, 2022 at 10:28 PM.

Cameron Drummond

Lexington Herald-Leader

859-242-5257

Cameron Drummond works as a sports reporter for the Lexington Herald-Leader with a focus on Kentucky men’s basketball recruiting and the UK men’s basketball team, horse racing, soccer and other sports in Central Kentucky. Drummond is a second-generation American who was born and raised in Texas, before graduating from Indiana University. He is a fluent Spanish speaker who previously worked as a community news reporter in Austin, Texas. Support my work with a digital subscription