Kentucky players walked off the court together after Thursday's NCAA Tournament loss. (Vicky Graff Photo)
As I listened to Saint Peter’s coach Shaheen Holloway discuss his team’s shocking 85-79 overtime win over Kentucky Thursday night in the NCAA Tournament, several things that the coach said jumped out at me.
Let’s see what you think.
— “I give the guys freedom to play offense. As long as they do what they have got to do for me on defense, on offense, they have their freedom.”
Yet Kentucky coach John Calipari talked before the game and then again after the game that he could not get his players to play “loose and free” against Saint Peter’s, a No. 15 seed and a decided underdog against Kentucky. Maybe that freedom is part of the reason Saint Peter’s hit free throws in overtime while Kentucky missed five of six.
— “I don’t have a starting five. You look at my team, I play, you know, ten guys double-figure minutes, so anybody can play for me any time.”
Holloway did play 10 players Thursday. All had at least eight minutes and nine had 13 or more minutes. Kentucky played eight players and one — Lance Ware — played only two minutes. How can Saint Peter’s have more depth than Kentucky, the “gold standard of college basketball” according to Calipari?
— “I don’t ever let my guys look forward too far. We concentrate on the task at hand. And right now it’s whoever wins tonight and then the one after that.”
Compare that to Kentucky where everything is geared toward March Madness. How often do you hear Calipari mention that during the season? Even before the SEC Tournament, Calipari talked about how it would be nice to win but it was more important just to be ready for the NCAA. Maybe the Cats were looking ahead to future NCAA games and not locked in on Saint Peter’s.
— “Like you just have to be good on this night. It’s not about your record. It’s not about what school you’re at. It’s whoever is good on that night, and tonight, it was our night.”
Holloway is right. And on this night Saint Peter’s was just better and also made CBS-TV NCAA analyst Charles Barkley look like a genius.
“As much as I love my Auburn Tigers, they (Kentucky) are the most complete team in the SEC,” Barkley said on the CBS pregame show. “One thing I hate about Kentucky is that they play to the level of their competition. That is one weakness of this team.”
He was right and now a season that had so much promise a month ago is over way quicker than any UK fan ever expected.
3 Responses
Very good article and on point. It is easy to see the mistakes that were made last night but harder to fix. A very fun year a great team to love. I have never liked dribble drive offense because it doesn’t maximize every player’s strength. Cal will figure it out.
There seemed to be very little of "the joy of the game" in the body language/faces of the team these last few games. So much pressure and such high expectations from us fans. The lack of pressure was apparent in the underdog winners. For UK, a really good season, really good players and good"human beings/teammates." Good luck to St.Mary’s and Murray State in what could be another barn burner.
I’m going to shell out the obvious one liner here and it’ relevant yet today. " If you can’t hit foul shots, you can’t win games."