Everything John Calipari said after short-handed UK got a big win at Arkansas

Kentucky men’s basketball closed the regular season with arguably its most impressive win so far.

A short-handed Kentucky team without a true point guard (both Cason Wallace and Sahvir Wheeler were out injured) went to Arkansas and controlled the vast majority of what was an emotional and physical game against the Arkansas Razorbacks.

Kentucky won 88-79.

The Wildcats will be the No. 3 seed for next week’s SEC Tournament in Nashville.

Senior transfer guard Antonio Reeves scored a career-high 37 points on Saturday afternoon. Oscar Tshiebwe recorded a 12-point, 13-rebound double-double and fouled out, and was also involved in several flashpoints with players and officials during the game.

Kentucky improved to 18-0 this season when tied or leading at halftime with the victory over Arkansas, which also snapped a three-game losing streak for the Cats against the Razorbacks.

Afterward, UK head coach John Calipari met with the media in Fayetteville. Here’s everything he said.

Question about Antonio Reeves’ performance.

Well, the most impactful player, who do you think got it? We don’t win the game unless CJ (Fredrick) decides to play hurt. If he did not play, we would not have won the game. And he was hurt. And he played anyway. He was the most impactful player.

That means, like, you’re not going to be able to damage yourself, but you may hurt your stats. But I play anyway... I said, ‘I need five minutes a half.’ He said, ‘You got it.’ He said, ‘I will tell you if I can’t go any more.’ Near the end, he told me ‘I can’t go anymore.’ That was the most impactful player.

And let me say this before I move on. With all the stuff that went through our state, again, you know, our thoughts and prayers are with everybody back in Lex and west, where that stuff went through. And I want to tell you, don’t think we weren’t thinking about that as a team. Because we know what this team means to the state of Kentucky. We know what it means to the state of Kentucky, can’t tell me any different.

And people watching it, maybe it picked them up a little bit. Maybe, I don’t know where they watched it because there’s still electricity off. They may have had to go somewhere. My guess is wherever they had to go to watch the game they did. So I’m hoping they enjoyed it.

I mean, you know, you’re playing without a point guard. Playing at the end with two guards. That’s it, and one had four fouls.

Question about how many assists Kentucky had and the overall quality of the guard play without a point guard.

No, we had 16 (Kentucky had 14 assists and 15 turnovers). But our key was, we didn’t want live ball turnovers, where you’re leading them out on the break. And in the second half. We started sending two guys back on defense because they were leaking out.

Someone from our team shot it, they had two guys just running, like thinking they could rebound it anyway. Again, I think we ended up out rebounding them by six. But you know the last game they played against us they shot 63 (percent).

You notice we played different? Now, I hate to tell you we talked the same way. But this time we demanded. And then we got a zone ready. Yesterday. Now we have a zone, but we just haven’t worked on it. Well, we did yesterday.

And the kids did great. They did great. You know, long rebounds a little bit hurt us in the zone. But we made them take the shots we wanted them to take, now they made some of them, but that’s fine.

Question about using more screens with Adou Thiero up the court in today’s game compared to Vanderbilt game.

Well, we were trying to, but the biggest thing with he and Chris, they’re freshmen, and you saw the lazy play, or the casual play by Chris, and Adou does the same thing. The intensity, the fight, is a level they’ve not seen.

So at the end of the game, the kids’ dribbling, here comes a kid stealing it. What? Or you’re coming down and you’re messing with the ball like it’s a workout drill and the guy tips it from you and goes. They gotta learn that lesson. And I think Adou learned it last game. He played good today. Played good, missed some shots. But you know, he’s not perfect.

But our offense, again, that we kind of talked about yesterday and put it in practice. We couldn’t practice Thursday. We didn’t know all these guards would be out Thursday. But I demanded to know yesterday before we practiced, so they had to tell me whether they were playing or not before we practiced. Bang, okay. And then I went in and we prepared a practice with who was there.

We had Jacob bringing it up some, that was planned. You know, he can handle it. So we’ll bring it up with somebody else. We put Jacob on (Anthony) Black because Black really hurt us last game. I’ve done that before. I haven’t done it this year, but I’ve done it before and I’ve done it with Jacob before.

The other thing we did. We absolutely short closed on everybody knowing that they would make some shots. And they did they made 31%. They made seven threes. The way we played, you’re going to give some of that up. But the way we played offensively, the way we moved the ball, the way we posted it, what we did (with) Oscar early in the game was really good stuff.

Question about the resilience of Antonio Reeves and this UK team as a whole.

Yep. Chris missed some free throws today. Can’t do it. Adou missed one. Adou held the ball to get found like he’s in high school. Well, you know what I said, ‘Alright, you make them both.’ You don’t hold the ball, and then go miss free throws. That means, (if) you’re not sure give it to somebody else. Let them shoot it.

And that’s what Jacob said. Throw it, I’m right here. And then he missed one. Chris made some plays at the end. But here’s what I would say. Did I even sub Chris maybe for a minute? Did I even sub Antonio at all? (Chris Livingston played 34 minutes, Antonio Reeves played 40 minutes.)

And they made free throws and plays down the stretch, they fought to win. Does that make us in third place? (In the SEC Tournament). Yes. I was thinking we’re gonna have to leave a day early if something happened.

Question about the benefit of getting an extra day of rest for Cason Wallace before the SEC Tournament as the No. 3 seed.

No, what I’m saying from this point and through the weekend tournament: We have to understand how we’ve got to play, how we’ve got to fight, how we have to execute.

If that means win games like today, great. If it means they make a bank shot, they make a step back and drag his foot walk and make it and they don’t call it and boom and you lose the game, stuff like that happens, it happens.

But as long as we play, we fight, we execute. We’re preparing for that next tournament. And that’s the most important thing.

Question about today being an example of position-less basketball.

It was, it was that. Played the two-three zone. You know, it’s funny there will be people taking credit for us playing zone... I’m amazed that somebody who’s never coached or played and you know, they’re finally listening to us. I don’t listen to anybody.

I don’t listen to my wife. That I do. The princess. Yeah. When she calls, I pick up the phone, even if it’s right now.

But they knew when it was time to go zone: Oscar had four (fouls), Antonio had four. And Jacob said, ‘Coach, let’s go to the two.’ I said ‘All right.’ And then, Lance was the one that said ‘Let’s go back man.’ In the last minute. I said ‘Let’s go.’

If they make suggestions, I’m always taking them because they’ll make it work.

Question about status of Cason Wallace for next week’s SEC Tournament.

I have no idea. No idea.

Question about the impact of the ejection of Arkansas guard Davonte Davis.

They called a technical on us, too... I don’t know. I mean, he’s a really good player. And this is a really good team. Are they top 20? In the NET? (Yes). It ain’t going to change. They’re in the NCAA Tournament.

You know, I just want to get home. Make sure the electricity is on at my house. My wife was at her father’s birthday. So she’ll be in before me which is good. She can clean up the place.

I’m joking about it, but they were showing me trees down and somebody was killed when a tree went down... We did this and these kids knew about it because we talked and it’s another uplifting thing that these guys have done.

Question about the altercations that Oscar Tshiebwe was part of during the first half.

He starts getting frustrated. You know, you just get grabbed and pushed and held enough. You get frustrated. Watch the tape. They’re not allowed to block out facing him. As soon as they do it, it’s a foul. No it isn’t. But that is a foul. The rulebook says you cannot face a guy and block him out. That’s a foul.

So he gets frustrated with it. He’s trying to go rebound and a guy. It’s like alignment in football, putting two arms around a defensive player. It’s frustrating. You’re going to throw your arms and go crazy to get around him. So, but that’s not him. I mean, he’s been here two years.

You’ve not seen him do anything like that. So for him to be upset, you know, but I’ll watch the tape. I’ll watch it on the way home. Anything else?

Question about if this was the best way Kentucky could have entered the SEC Tournament.

We had no point guard. We’re playing with guards, and hoping they can get it across half court. Now the adjustment (Arkansas head coach Eric Musselman) made was he put number 13 (Jordan Walsh) on my point guard, and we were struggling, because we were going to stay pick and roll the whole time, except when he did that. And that guy was great.

He had two hands on the guy, he was pushing, you know, he was and that made it a little bit harder for us to play that way. So it was a great adjustment by them.

But we made some threes... You do understand how many times that’s happened to us? The shot clock’s winding down and they bank one. So we made a couple, it’s okay, we’re supposed to, too. But Jacob made them. Antonio made them. I didn’t look at Antonio’s points (37). Yeah, but he had one turnover. That’s crazy. Wow, I didn’t know.

This story was originally published March 4, 2023 at 5:56 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