John Calipari looking more players to make plays as Cats take on North Carolina

John Calipari says UK cannot just feed the ball inside to Oscar Tshiebwe. (Vicky Graff Photo)

During his Thursday press conference, John Calipari did not know that his team’s game against Ohio State in Las Vegas Saturday would be canceled due to COVID issues with the Buckeyes or that the Cats would then be matched against North Carolina — which had its game with UCLA cancelled for the same reason.

However, Calipari made it clear then how he felt coming off a loss at Notre Dame.

“Our kids just want to play and get the taste out of their mouth of that last game. I come back to, give Notre Dame credit and their crowd. Give them credit. We went 2-for-19 (from 3-point range). When a team goes 2-for-19, they lose by 20. We had a two-point lead with a 1:30 to go. Did not play well,” Calipari said.

“Give the credit to Notre Dame. They did some things that kind of confused us. But it’s kind of like you’ve got five fingers and five fingers and the dike has a leak and the dike — all of a sudden we’re good and then all of a sudden one hits up here.”

Calipari said he grieved for 24 hours after the loss at Notre Dame and then started “experimenting with some stuff” he hopes will make his team better.

“I told them, ‘This is a different place now. You go somewhere else and you lose games, it’s fine. Lose games here? It’s a totally different deal. But you know what? Playing in Rupp Arena when it’s packed is a different deal too. So, you’ve got the advantages and the disadvantages. Yeah, you’re on the main stage but you can’t hide. No cracks to jump in. You want to jump in the crack and is it over yet? Can’t do that here. Cracks are real tight. You can’t jump down. You’ve got to perform,'” Calipari said.

Calipari worried about Ohio State’s physical play. Now he has to worry about how North Carolina (8-2) has regrouped after losing to Purdue and Tennessee to win its last five games against  UNC Asheville, Michigan, Georgia Tech, Elon and Furman. The Tar Heels have five players averaging double figures, led by sophomore guard Caleb Love at 16.2 points per game. Junior forward Armando Bacot is adding 14.3 points and 9.8 rebounds per game.

North Carolina has won its last five starts allowing 58.0 points per game. No opponent has scored more than 63 points in those five games, the first time UNC has held the opposition to 63 or fewer points in five straight games since 2010-11. The last time UNC held six straight opponents to 63 or fewer points was 1984-85.

Carolina ranks first in rebound margin, second in field goal percentage, three-point percentage and rebounding, and third in assists and scoring in the ACC.
 
Kentucky lost 75-63 to North Carolina in Cleveland last year in the CBS Sports Classic but has won five of the last eight matchups in the series. The two rivals played a thrilled in Las Vegas in the 2016 CBS Sports Classic when freshman Malik Monk scored 47 points and hits the game winning shot. The Cats also beat North Carolina 80-72 in the 2018 Classic in Chicago when Ashton Hagans had a school-record eight steals.

Calipari said Thursday that UK’s late-game execution at Notre Dame was not good but the Irish still scored only 66 points.

Let’s keep focusing on keeping people around 60, 65 (points), but we’ve got to score. We’re trying to do some things. We can’t go through one guy,” Calipari said.

Center Oscar Tshiebwe is averaging a team-best 16.2 points per game and shooting 67.8 percent — also a team high — from the field. He’s also the team leader — and second in the nation — in rebounding at 14.4 per game.

However, Calipari said Kentucky cannot just throw the ball inside to Tshiebwe all the time because opponents are going to double team him.

“You’ve got to have other people step up and play and take over the game at different points. Please, that’s why I’ve always tried to have five guys in double figures,” Calipari said.

Two years ago in Las Vegas Kentucky lost to Utah and then Ohio State. Calipari used those losses to learn about his team that he still thinks could have contended for the NCAA title if COVID had not canceled the NCAA Tournament.

“When I watched the tape of that game, we played some guys that later we did not play much, but my good heart, I was trying to get guys minutes and let them get in there and try and all this,” Calipari said. “At the end of the day, it’s not — it’s a meritocracy. It’s merit based. Not communism. We don’t give out ribbons for everybody and we’re going to have to have some guys step up and play.”