Everything John Calipari said after Kentucky basketball suffered a deflating loss at Georgia
READ MORE
Game day: Georgia 75, Kentucky 68
Click below for more of the Herald-Leader’s and Kentucky.com’s coverage of Saturday’s men’s basketball game between Kentucky and Georgia in Athens, Ga.
Expand All
The 2022-23 Kentucky men’s basketball season is officially on the brink.
The Wildcats suffered another damaging defeat on Saturday afternoon, this time inside Stegeman Coliseum in Athens, Georgia: UK lost to the Georgia Bulldogs 75-68.
Kentucky is now 16-9 overall and 7-5 in SEC games.
UK was without both CJ Fredrick and Sahvir Wheeler for the game due to injuries, and the Wildcats missed 13 of 14 shots to start.
Kentucky trailed by 10 at halftime and led for less than four minutes in the game.
Antonio Reeves and Oscar Tshiebwe both scored 20 points in the defeat.
Afterward, head coach John Calipari met with the media inside Stegeman Coliseum to recap the defeat, why it occurred and what comes next for a Kentucky team that’s currently projected to miss the NCAA Tournament.
Q. John what do you think was the biggest difference in the game?
Two breakdowns defensively that led to six points and they were critical. We get up four and I gotta go back because I thought we got great looks. We miss. They make. I call it a will to win. You can’t lose a ball in a three-point game: I am not losing it, and we lose it.
There was some good stuff, but played Antonio too many minutes, had no choice. Played Chris Livingston too many minutes. I tried to get him out and one play cost us three points. Adou in the first half played well, Cason fouls twice. Kind of reminded me of Alabama. The same, like if you’re not ready, just we’ll go you know. And then being short-handed. I mean, I know that will be said publicly around the nation: Well, they got two guys out. No it won’t, but that’s OK.
And let me give Georgia credit. Mike had them ready. They physically, Oquendo just went right at peoples’ shoulder, had 20 at half. And we did what we do, we came back in the second half we’re up four alright?
My teams win that game (slapping table). Alright, what happened? Now, I had a couple guys out. So would they have made a difference? Maybe. But give Georgia all the credit. They deserve it.
Q. Question about UK’s bench energy.
I’ll look at it. You know, obviously, I’m not looking at the bench. So you know, we got a lot of guys out. When I get on the bus, I’ll say this was said to me. I’ll ask them.
Q. Question about the shot clock violation committed by Kentucky with about three minutes left in the game.
The guy that was supposed to catch it and dribble to the top didn’t. We had, we still, there’s some execution problems. Like we looked, and we knew they were gonna go with Oscar.
So we were, ‘You got it’ and we threw it to who we wanted to. And then he passed it, and then we were like, ‘Woah, what.’ And then all of a sudden, like ‘Woah, what.’ I mean, but the defensive ones, too.
I mean, we were trapping the post and the guy didn’t trap. We were trapping a post from the baseline and a big guy let him go middle and throw to that corner. No. We’re doing this stuff every day.
So all I can tell you, here’s what’s great: We’ve got the kind of schedule that, let’s go win games, and we’ll be fine. Just you’re gonna have to win games. They’re games, that we’re playing against teams, that you beat those teams, you’re fine. And whether we’re healthy or not, we’re going to have to go at those teams. And those are going to be important games for us. But we have them, it’s not like we don’t have any other chances to go get this right, and we do.
So, I’m fine. I’m not happy we lost. Not happy when you’re up four (and) we do the stuff we do. Not happy for some breakdowns, but we’re gonna learn and get better. And then we got game (that) we gotta get.
This one coming up Wednesday, is it Mississippi State? Hard game, down there. Come on, and they’re gonna smell blood in the water. Are we going to be healthy? I have no idea, but we’ll see. Last question.
Q. Question about what he thought playing time for Adou Thiero would look like against Georgia.
I thought he’d play 10 or 12 minutes in the game. And he ends up playing how many? In the first half? Come on, and we were only down 10. I walked in and said if we didn’t give up that three, and we’re only down seven, it would have been a miracle.
Like we were playing basically without a point guard. But the second half, you know, I liked what I saw. But again, the guys that had to make some daggers missed every shot, didn’t get a basket until there was three minutes in the game. Think about that. You have an opportunity to throw the dagger and whether you don’t shoot it, whatever it may be.
We got a good team. Now we’re gonna have to pull it together and you know my job is to keep letting them know I believe in them, but they’re going to have to do some things here now. Thanks.
This story was originally published February 11, 2023 at 3:45 PM.
