‘That’s basketball’: John Calipari discusses Kentucky’s late collapse in loss to Florida
Kentucky basketball let a win turn into a loss Wednesday night.
Leading 84-81 with 13 seconds to go, the Wildcats bungled the closing seconds of a home SEC game against Florida in stunning fashion.
Rob Dillingham missed the second of two free throws, keeping the game a one-possession contest. Reed Sheppard got lost defensively and allowed the hot-shooting Walter Clayton Jr. (7-for-13 on 3-pointers) to get open from distance and bury a game-tying shot for the Gators with just five seconds to play in regulation.
And while the Cats briefly led by one point in overtime, a 2:38 scoring drought in the extra period sealed their fate.
By a 94-91 final score, UK head coach John Calipari’s team has now dropped its second home game, its third SEC contest and its fifth game overall this season.
Wednesday night’s loss came with usual freshman starters Justin Edwards (leg) and D.J. Wagner (ankle) both unable to play due to their injuries.
Sophomore center Ugonna Onyenso had a career night with 13 points, 16 rebounds and eight blocks. But even this effort, combined with 24 points from Sheppard, 20 from Dillingham and 19 from Antonio Reeves, wasn’t enough to lift the Wildcats to a home win.
UK led for more than 28 of a possible 45 minutes in the game.
Afterward, Calipari met with media members at Rupp Arena to make sense of the loss, and how Kentucky can quickly regroup with No. 5 Tennessee coming to Lexington for a Saturday night matchup.
Here’s everything Calipari said after Kentucky lost to Florida.
Question about not fouling when up three points with 15 seconds left.
There was a little more time than we wanted. But everything we were doing was to make them shoot some (kind of) two. And the kid drove it in the lane and one of my guys just left his man and threw it out. So if we were going to foul with that much time against a really good rebounding team, it’s just dangerous and I would rather play it out. And I thought they played it out pretty good.
But, yeah, that was — we talked about it. I said, let’s play this out, make sure they are not getting 3s. I thought about calling a timeout before his second free throw and then I’m like, I will freeze the kid. Why? Let him shoot it, he’ll make it. So that’s basketball. Whatever decision you make, if it works you are a genius. If it doesn’t, ah, should have done it the other way.
But… I mean, the thing is, I mean, so many categories we did, we beat them in. And this was similar to the game down there, where you look at it and say how did we win? And the same thing here. We make a free throw, we are up four, it is a ball game, they come down and make that three, it goes to overtime. And we had chances before that to get it even more. So…
They deserved to win. They played and made plays and we missed plays. But I’m proud of how the kids fought shorthanded; you know, they are a good team, just like South Carolina. South Carolina is a good team. This league is good.
Question about the lack of substitutions in the second half and the fatigue that may have caused Kentucky.
Hard. It is really hard. And you have a guy like Ugo (Ugonna Onyenso) who has, like, an unbelievable game. And, again, probably should have had Aaron (Bradshaw) in for Tre (Mitchell) a bunch more than I did because — you know, but Ugo was playing so well, that’s why I did what I did. But, you know, we — you know, it’s kind of like we got tired out, but we didn’t — there was not a whole lot of subs. It was like here’s who we have. Adou (Thiero) hurt his back and was giving us whatever he could. So…
And, by the way, when I was at Massachusetts I played guys 39 minutes. And if it went to overtime, they played 5 more minutes. If you asked, would you rather play or sit, they all want to play. But it’s hard when you are in that kind of game.
Question about Reed Sheppard playing all 45 minutes in the game.
He did good. You know, there were some breakdowns, like why did you do that kind of breakdowns. And I’m owing it up to they were exhausted. Like the last three, why did you leave that guy? We were guarding the 3-point line and he stopped in the lane and you left your man. Why did you do that? Well, he’s probably exhausted. But we didn’t — you know, who are you going to take out and who are you going to put in? Robert even went back in with cramps.
Question about Ugonna Onyenso’s big game.
Yeah. And, but again, he was exhausted. So there were a couple of plays late where I kept telling him, you cannot get blocked out. They are going to try. Just don’t get blocked out, run, run left, run right. And he was just exhausted. But he blocked nine shots. Nine. (Onyenso blocked eight shots).
He got how many rebounds? (16). How many points? (13). I mean, he made those free throws. He missed one, but he made — I mean, he played. And that’s why I left him in. The way he played and the way some of our other guys played, you need to win that game. We just needed a couple of subs and we didn’t have them.
But I’m proud of how we fought. I’m just disappointed because we had our chances to get it to six and, you know, why did you throw that ball back? Shoot it and miss it, Tre lays in it. I mean, we just did stuff. I’m like, what in the world? But let’s put it to, played too many minutes. I had no choice. I had to.
Question about allowing 94 points and the defensive performance.
Well, this is a better team. And we were scoring on them the same they were scoring on us. And I thought we had the game in-hand and then all of a sudden you turn around. It’s funny, the last play was the same last play they had down there, to shoot it and miss it to win the game. It’s two pretty evenly matched teams, to be honest. But we needed a full roster in this kind of game. You can’t be shorthanded.
But, you know, we did some good things. They shot, what, from the floor? Forty what? You are asking me about defense. You should know it, right? I think it is 41 percent. It’s pretty good.
41 percent is like whoo. And a couple of 3s late, if we don’t give those up, you know. Now, we lost the foul line. They had seven more makes from the line than us. Probably the major difference.
I look, we — more points from turnovers, more points in offensive rebounds, more points in transition, more points in the paint. And I said, how the hell did we lose when you look at some of these numbers? But that’s why it was an overtime game. And then we missed a free throw, they made a three, boom, now it goes to overtime.
Question about how Calipari expects Kentucky to bounce back against Tennessee on Saturday, and if UK will be at full health for that game.
I don’t know about if we will have a full roster. But, you know, we have got no choice. They are coming in. They’re really good. They’re really veteran. They have got a couple... guys that can just break you down and score.
Rick (Barnes) does a great job. You know, like, this — if anybody watched this game, they were — this was a fun game to watch. It was not a fun game to coach. But to watch the game and how the guys went at each other and, you know, wide open kind of game and they broke us down. Their guard was able to jump over our guards and I thought we fouled a couple jump shooters. Again, that’s four points. In a game like that, that is huge.
And, you know, we have got stuff to work on. You know, I haven’t lost any faith in this team. I believe in the team. We just have to get healthy and have a full roster. In these wars like this, you are going to play a 45-minute game, 45 minutes, and some of the guys played 45 minutes. If Antonio (Reeves) didn’t get in foul trouble, he would have probably played 42 minutes of the game. Thanks.
