John Calipari describes the ‘ridiculous’ Chris Livingston after UK wins again at Florida
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Game day: Kentucky 82, Florida 74
Click below for more of the Herald-Leader’s and Kentucky.com’s coverage of Wednesday night’s men’s basketball game between Kentucky and Florida in Gainesville, Fla.
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What a difference a few weeks make.
From down and out of the NCAA Tournament picture after a loss at Georgia, the Kentucky Wildcats have now padded their postseason credentials with three straight wins against Mississippi State, Tennessee and Florida.
These most-recent triumphs over Tennessee and Florida represented season sweeps over each school for UK.
Kentucky relied heavily on its starters Wednesday night in Gainesville to beat the Gators 82-74: UK’s starting group of Cason Wallace, Antonio Reeves, Chris Livingston, Jacob Toppin and Oscar Tshiebwe combined to play 189 out of a possible 200 minutes in the victory.
Tshiebwe had 25 points and was 12-for-13 shooting from the field. He also became a 1,000-point scorer at UK during the game.
Livingston finished with 10 points and a career-high 15 rebounds for his second straight double-double.
Toppin added 19 points and 11 rebounds, while Wallace shook off a potentially scary incident with fans courtside to lead all players in the game with six assists.
Kentucky was without both CJ Fredrick and Sahvir Wheeler for a fourth straight game.
Postgame, Kentucky head coach John Calipari met with the media in Gainesville to discuss Wednesday’s win, and the factors that have led to Kentucky’s late-season surge:
Opening Statement: It was a terrific game, Florida was undermanned. We’re still missing a couple guys but they’re undermanned. (Colin Castleton) was a guy that was getting big usage from them, and i saw him after. The year he was having, it just stinks for him that that happened because he was having a fabulous year.
But that team didn’t quit and they fought and they made shots and they made threes and they made every free throw. Again. Another team makes all those free throws against us.
But it was a good gut-it-out win for us. Chris’s tip-in. Antonio’s two free throws. Jacob’s three. Those are daggers, and we’re finally starting to throw some daggers at other teams who have thrown it at us all year. Questions.
Q. Question about what allowed Florida to go on a run at the end of the first half and how Kentucky corrected things in the second half.
Well, we had a couple of guys I’d gotten on individually. Like, when you look like that, you’re not a very good player. The other guy, you’re one of the best players in the country. And he played really well in the second half.
I had to tell the team after because Adou played well, Daimion played well, Lance played well. And I just went with the five guys, just trying to win the game. But they were happy in the locker room and doing it.
And then the other thing is Chris Livingston was ridiculous today, but he’s been ridiculous for the last couple weeks. His stuff is that energy, the diving on the floor and going after offensive rebounds because he attempts stuff, and then rebounding defensively with two hands. He’s been a monster.
But at halftime I just said look, they’re gonna try to beat us shooting threes. Do you understand? So you have to be closer and you must have hands up. Make them drivers. Make them be the shooting twos.
They need to shoot threes and I said it at half, they had five at half, what did they end up with? (eight) So they had three (in the second half). We wanted to hold them to five. Obviously they got eight.
Q. Question about Jacob Toppin’s improvement as a three-point shooter in SEC games.
He’s working at it.
But I’m telling you the best part of him is going at the rim, those little pull ups, the little floater. But now it becomes dangerous because if you don’t play him and we drive it and throw to him he can make it.
Q. Question about playing Kentucky’s starters (Cason Wallace, Antonio Reeves, Chris Livingston, Jacob Toppin and Oscar Tshiebwe) the entire second half.
Yeah, it was a two-bucket game, now how fair would that have been for Adou or Daimion or Lance … If I was going to do it, I would have done it in the first five or six minutes.
But after we got by and it was 11, 10 minutes, I told the staff if I’ve gotta use the timeout to give them a break. I almost called one at 4:26 because I thought okay, let’s get one, let’s get a long break here. But you know he ended up calling one I think at 4:09.
Q. Question about Oscar Tshiebwe’s confidence with the mid-range jumper and what that does for Kentucky’s offense.
Well, he’s done that. That’s one of the things he can do, but what happened early in the season, he wasn’t making them, now he had an operation, he was out four weeks, but he was out of kilter a little bit so he missed a bunch of those, but now he’s making them.
If you just put him near the basket he’s got three guys around him, then it’s a slugfest. It’s not fair to him, so we’re trying to bring him up so that he’s up: Start him up, push him down, screen across, do some stuff.
But the biggest thing is he’s just got to keep guarding better defensively in that pick and roll. And we knew because Castleton’s out, they were going to set more ball screens and more dribble handoffs. Which is what they did.
But I’ll tell you... I didn’t like the start of the game. I didn’t like the start of the game because I knew we would then relax. And we did. And they kept coming and they made plays and all of a sudden we’re down at half. And I told you guys, ‘Hey, this is what happens when you’re not on it the entire half.’
But it’s a good win. This time of the year, on the road, you just win and move on. Change my clothes, get on the plane and get out of here.
Q. Question about CJ Fredrick and Sahvir Wheeler’s return from injury.
They’re working out... And the trainers, the weight room and all the stuff they’re doing. They got two different kinds of injuries, but they’re injured. And one of the things that I know is you trust a player because only he knows his pain. You know, don’t question it. If he’s in pain they shouldn’t be playing …
CJ said, Coach when I come back Antonio and Chris are playing so well. I know I’m gonna go in and if I make some threes I may play more, but I know my position right now because I’m watching and Sahvir makes us different. Cason plays one way, Sahvir’s that flying and a couple easy baskets and you know creating a turnover because of his defense.
We need them both to be honest with you. But I’m gonna say it again, Adou did great again today.
Q. Question about if the process will be difficult to work CJ Fredrick and Sahvir Wheeler back into the lineup after their injuries.
We’ll just have to see.
Q. Question about Florida freshman guard Riley Kugel.
Oh, he’s playing great. And what he’s done is he’s been averaging like 15, 16 a game, but because they need him to do more. He’s happy as heck. He’s like, I’ll do more, let me do more. So he played great again today.
Q. Question about Chris Livingston’s recent offensive emergence.
What I’m asking each guy (is) what does the team need you to do? I don’t care what you want to do. What does this team need you to do? And I’m going around the room. Some of them I had to help. But I went around the room and Chris knew exactly what this team needs him to do. And he said to a tee.
I’m like looking at the other guys: Some of you guys, you want to play for you and do your thing. What does the team need you to do? Just do that. And if you’re doing that you’re playing to your strengths, too.
This has been a grind to get this to where you know, we’re comfortable. And we’re still not there, you know, we’re still some errors, some tip-aways, some late game, people that we have buried and then we let them back in it, just like we did today. So there’s things that we got to get better at and work on.
Q. Question about Kentucky having a 15-0 second-chance points advantage over Florida.
Their big man wasn’t in there, too. Like we wouldn’t have gotten all of those with him being in there. They double teamed too today, which they didn’t last game, because they didn’t have to. So we kind of thought they’re gonna have to double team (Tshiebwe).
Q. Question about what Calipari was told about the second-half incident between Cason Wallace and Florida fans courtside.
My whole thing was, you know, come on... The guy grabbed him around the, you know. But anyway, it’s fine. That game was a roughhouse game. And Florida never stopped playing. And they were gritty as hell. And you know, I wish them luck I’m glad we’re not playing them again. Because this, if they play that way, you watch what happens. You watch, if they play the way they just played us. I don’t know what their schedule is and who it is. But if they do that, they’ll be fine.
This story was originally published February 22, 2023 at 11:00 PM.
