John Calipari explains what went wrong for UK basketball in lopsided loss at South Carolina

Kentucky basketball had a night to forget, in a lot of ways, on Tuesday at South Carolina.

The No. 6-ranked Wildcats (now 14-4 overall and 4-2 in the SEC) suffered a lopsided loss to the Gamecocks (16-3, 4-20) by a 79-62 final score.

It’s the second straight year that Lamont Paris has led his South Carolina team to an upset win over UK. And while last year’s came in front of a stunned Rupp Arena, this year’s came in front of a rowdy home crowd at Colonial Life Arena that couldn’t wait to storm the court postgame.

It was an all-systems failure for John Calipari’s Wildcats in the defeat: UK had just seven assists on 25 made shots, and only seven fast-break points in 40 minutes.

Kentucky freshman guard Rob Dillingham (16 points) and fifth-year forward Tre Mitchell (13 points) were the only players close to having a decent offensive night.

UK’s defense also had another nightmare outing: The Cats surrendered nearly 1.3 points per possession to the Gamecocks, and South Carolina (a 33.6% 3-point shooting team entering the game) made 11 of its 24 (45.8%) attempts from distance.

For South Carolina it was a historic result: The Gamecocks’ recorded their largest margin of victory against a top-10 ranked team in program history.

Paris’ team is now a perfect 13-0 this season when scoring 70-plus points in a game.

South Carolina controlled the tempo of Tuesday’s game from the start, led by eight at halftime and never trailed in the second half.

Afterward, Calipari met with media members to detail how the loss happened, and how Kentucky can quickly turn the page before another road test Saturday night at Arkansas (10-8 overall, 1-4 in SEC).

Here’s everything the UK coach said.

Opening statement: Congrats to South Carolina, really played a physical game and were a little bit too much for us. (They’ve got) bump and drivers, they’re strong on the post and really physical.

That’s, I guess people will watch that tape and say that’s how you’ve got to play, so we’ve got to protect ourselves somehow.

Question about Kentucky not getting good looks offensively.

Well, we drove it and we weren’t physical enough to hold our ground and we missed six layups. Six layups. And then we go 2-for-10 from the 3 where we had some 3s and guys were like, slowly, trying to get them off and South Carolina was bum-rushing us.

They did a great job. They came in knowing what they were going to do to us physically, all these young kids, you know, you guys are going to let a 19-year-old, you know one of those. And they played that way.

Question about Kentucky’s struggles to score at the rim.

I’ll say it again, if you get bumped and you shoot the ball like that, you’re not making layups.

Or how about this one, you have one and you go like this because you’re trying to avoid (contact) and you shoot it that way and you miss, versus, I’m going through this contact and I’m either getting fouled or making it.

We didn’t get the ball moving. I was in every huddle saying the same (thing) “Move the ball.” And I was saying it’s a call that we have where the ball goes from one side to the other, we wouldn’t even throw it up the court.

We’re the best team at getting it in and throwing it ahead. And if the guys is being guarded he comes back and catches it because we are throwing it ahead. We didn’t do it the whole game and we’re in there every huddle talking.

This is a great lesson for us. It’s a great lesson for a young team.

Question about the slow tempo of the game affecting Kentucky’s offense.

Yeah. It did. But we rolled into, instead of us playing how we play, again, we played a game this year (loss to UNC Wilmington) where we had 40 possessions of one or no passes. Now, we lost that game. So I’ll go back and look at this.

There was a lot of stuff that we were just saying ‘Let’s go pick-and-roll.’ And they were physical. So now when you went into a pick-and-roll, their guard came up and jammed you a little bit and the big would do his thing and they mucked up the game that way.

They did a good job.

Question about Kentucky scoring well below its season average for points, and what Calipari saw from his young players.

We were a little bit... Look, when a team is playing physical, you cannot dance with the ball, because they push up. And then you try to drive it and you can’t go anywhere.

So when you catch it, you try to go by them and then there’s contact and it’s a foul. And you won’t believe this, I said that tonight maybe 30 times. Quit trying to dance. Catch the ball. Drive the catch or just catch it square and go by the guy.

But they have habits right now and those dominant habits are not what we need. But my team will be fine. They got manhandled. They all know it.

And South Carolina shot the ball well. I mean, I don’t think they’re a 50% 3-point shooting team. Now, against us everybody makes shots. I was surprised I didn’t see a bank shot today, because we even see those.

But, I give them credit. They came out, came right after us, they deserved to win. We had no business... We started the half I thought ‘Okay, let’s get this in check.’ It’s four points for a while, and then all of a sudden you look up and its 12 and part of it is us just taking a bad shot and no ball movement.

Some of it was them creating it. We had seven assists. Last game we had 27. Now you could say it’s all about defense, they made us play... Did you hear what I just said? We had 27 (assists) last game.

Why? The game got physical and they reverted to their own habits. So it means the habits we’re trying to teach are not dominant yet. It takes time.

Question about South Carolina head coach Lamont Paris.

Done a great job. He’s got guys bought into how they’re going to play, so they’re a unit. They’re all doing what they are supposed to do for this team.

He’s doing a heck of a job. He really is. It’s a veteran kind of team. And he’s getting them to play the way they have to play. They’re the best defensive team in our league, and that’s saying something because this is a (league) with about 10 teams where their whole thing is ‘We’re going to be a great defensive team that can score.’

Question about how Kentucky can win ‘grind it out’ type games.

You’ve got to play together. If you’re not playing together, you’re not winning this kind of game. If you break off and are undisciplined about what you’re doing, you can’t win this kind of game.

If we’re trying to do certain things, I’ll just give an example: We were going to foul 30 (Collin Murray-Boyles) or 33 (Josh Gray) from 4 minutes on. They threw 30 the ball, and my man didn’t foul him. I’m like ‘Are you not even in the...?’

So what that tells you is, they’re shell shocked to where they can’t even hear. And that’ll happen to a young team. But it’s a great lesson.

You know, we got pounded. You go home. Get ready for the next one.

Question about South Carolina getting 20 assists on 29 made shots.

No, they threw it to the open man, they drove the ball and found him. When we tried to do some aggressive stuff, to pick up the pace of the game, they threw it to the middle and that guy found somebody.

They’re a veteran team. They can play. They can pass to each other. We knew a couple guys, (Jacobi) Wright really hurt us... We knew he could shoot, but when you go what he was doing, 4-for-7 (from 3), I don’t know what he is for the year, but that’s 55% from the 3. And he got three of those in the first half. Maybe four.

Question about Justin Edwards and how he can break through.

Just got to keep getting in, gotta break through. He’s got to know that this is a team that, we’ve got a lot of players. And if someone’s playing better than you, you won’t believe this, they’re going to play in front of you.

Or you’re going to get your opportunity to go do it. The easiest thing to do is defense, rebound, go block a shot, dive on the floor, take a charge. And then when you have plays, make them. But forcing it, with this team, you really don’t have to because we can create for each other.

We did not do it today. Just didn’t. So, and we would have had to make a bunch of 3s because of how they played: They pack it in, and it’s pack-line defense. You’re going to have to make some 3s. And we didn’t make many.

This story was originally published January 23, 2024 at 10:19 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