Dontaie Allen missed two first-half shots and didn't play the second half. (Vicky Graff Photo)
After Kentucky trailed Missouri by 13 points at halftime Wednesday, the Cats made a strong move to turn a 40-27 halftime deficit into a 41-40 Missouri lead with 14 minutes, 33 seconds still to play. Kentucky was making shots and getting stops. Maybe coach John Calipari had been right Tuesday when he said he thought the team was close to righting the ship after a disastrous 5-10 start.
However, Kentucky could not close the deal and lost 75-70 — even though it was the first time this year the Cats had scored over 65 points in a loss.
But in the second half, Dontaie Allen never left the bench except to stand up to cheer or at timeouts. He played seven minutes in the first half and missed two shots, grabbed one rebound, and made one turnover.
Why didn’t Allen, UK’s best 3-point scoring threat, play the second half? Was he hurt or sick? No. Coach’s decision kept him on the bench and Calipari made it clear it was his choice to keep Allen watching and not playing.
“In the second half we shortened the rotation because those guys were playing pretty good,” Calipari said.
They were — at times. But not to play Allen the entire second half? Come on now.
“We were trying everything we could. When we got going in the second half, we just left it alone,” Calipari said. “We shot 60 percent (16 of 27) the second half and I just ran with guys who were playing well.”
Calipari tried to justify not playing Allen by saying Missouri was “going right at Dontaie” on defense. But did he not see the Tigers doing the same thing to point guard Devin Askew.
“Our biggest thing was getting stops and scoring. Next game he (Allen) may get 25-30 minutes. It was my choice. I rode with the team that was playing the hottest,” Calipari said.
The coach admitted he played a “funky” lineup part of the time in the second half for defense. Nothing wrong with that when it worked. However, to just forget Allen for 20 minutes the second half was just more stubborn behavior by the coach who left Allen mainly watching the first seven games when UK went 1-6.
“With my other teams I knew exactly what we were doing the last four minutes (of games),” Calipari said. “This may be game to game. Might be player to player.”
Just on this night, it was not going to be Dontaie Allen no matter what. Not saying giving Allen a chance to play would have produced a UK win but in seven of UK’s first eight SEC games he made two or more 3-pointers and played at least 15 minutes. In UK’s four SEC wins, he had 13 threes.
