Kellan Grady had 18 points, two rebounds and two assists against Mississippi State. (UK Athletics Photo)
He had eight straight points in overtime that Kentucky desperately needed but Kellan Grady didn’t mince words about UK’s play that put the game into overtime. Kentucky had a 15-point lead before Mississippi State rallied to tie the game 72-72 and force overtime Tuesday night in Rupp Arena before UK won 82-74 thanks in large part to Grady’s scoring.
He said the win showed “resilience” by Kentucky before admitting what UK fans knew.
“Let’s be frank. The last 10 minutes were atrocious. Not good,” Grady said. “Overtime was a rest. We made big stops, got a couple of loose balls, turned them over.”
Grady said the Cats got stagnant on offense the final 10 minutes of regulation and that “didn’t result in good things” for UK.
That certainly was true on UK’s last play of regulation. Coach John Calipari said he didn’t call timeout after two State free throws with 22 seconds left tied the game because UK had practiced the play it wanted ran about 100 times.
“I am glad I didn’t call timeout. We had two guys open and threw it to the wrong guy (Grady). We panicked,” Calipari said.
ESPN analyst Jimmy Dykes had a slightly different view of the final play.
“Nothing about the last possession for Kentucky was good. The play just breaks down. Cal had two timeouts left,” Dykes said. “You have got to get the ball on the rim sooner and give (Oscar) Tshiebwe a chance to get the offensive rebound.”
Grady said maybe it was good that UK had to fight to win a close game, something it had not done previously this season.
“Atrocious might be a little too harsh but we did not play well the final 10 minutes,” Grady said. “I think we were up 53-38 and it went south from there. We didn’t put our foot on their throats and finish the game.”
Calipari also tried to see the positive out of winning in overtime, especially with leading scorer TyTy Washington not playing because of an ankle injury.
“We had to be in this type of game to understand how do we finish it out,” the UK coach said.
4 Responses
Why would Cal waste a timeout? He has no plays in his back pocket.
They just need to “run….shoot” like he talked about during the halftime interview.
Grady bailed Cal’s horrendous coaching out in OT by hitting big shots.
In the past we’ve seen Brandon Knight do it in 2011 and Aaron Harris in 2014.
In 2015 against Wisconsin and 2019 against Auburn a player didn’t step up and bail Cal out.
“Go make a play” as Cal likes to say.
John Calipari has won 800 games and is near the bottom IMO as an X and O guy. That’s why he doesn’t call timeout. If he calls TO and they fail at the end it’s his fault, if he doesn’t call timeout at the end and they fail, guess who’s fault it is then? “We panicked”. Can you imagine a scenario in football where it is the last play of the game at say the 5 yd line & a team needs a TD to win. If the offensive coach had a timeout left and the defense didn’t would the offense use the timeout to make sure they got the right play in. Absolutely. Very few coaches would yell out on the field “go make a play” to his offense, especially if he saw them scrambling around, out of position with no idea what they were doing. His coaching methods absolutely blow my mind and yet he has won 800 games because at the end of the day 99 times out of 100 he can recruit better players than his opponent can.
Looks like if Allen has a decent playing time. something good happens. less than a minute at best when he does get in. which is very seldom. This has been insulting to a young player of his potential. 30 point leads and maybe he gets in with less than a minute left. not a good way to develop an addition to a team. any guy who can average. say again average almost 40 points a game, I don’t care if it was high school.. the basket is the same in college.. should have potential to help a team, last year when he got decent minutes, he did great. but if he makes one mistake in first 30 seconds Cal benches him forever. Like against Texas he played 18 seconds. that’s right, 18 seconds n yanked him why? Cal complains about lack of D. but never mentions Minz and Brooks for allowing multiple back cuts for wide open dunks every game or doesn’t stay close on a 3 point shooter. And last night he stood under the basket dazed with his hands in back of his head instead of trying to help Oscar stop another dunk. He made terrible shot selections and only made 4 points 4 turnovers in 31 minutes PT.
Was great to see Cats fight to win under tuff conditions being short handed.
This game exposed a lot. Calipari recruits, but once they get here, he just rolls the balls onto the court. He recruits pampered, entitled NBA wannabes who never play defense in high school and we are surprised when they can’t guard straight line drives to the basket. His "players first" philosophy coddles these kids while kids like Dontaie Allen get lost. Sahvir is a one trick pony who has decided to look for his shot first and pass only as a last resort. Oscar could be a 40/20 guy if we had a guard who could and would make a correct post pass. With Ty being hurt, we have become a wounded pigeon. If Oscar goes down we will all be dead ducks.