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Maybe there’s nothing else he can say, but Kentucky coach John Calipari might need to take a more realistic evaluation of his roster.
“I think we’ve got great players. But they’re not playing great,” he said after Missouri pummeled his team 89-75 Wednesday night in the Southeastern Conference opener for both teams.
I kind of liked what SEC Network analyst Dane Bradshaw said after the game ended.
“They (Missouri) dictated tempo and got whatever they wanted and took the fight to the Wildcats,” Bradshaw said.
He was right.
Kentucky’s only lead was 3-2 and that didn’t last long because the Tigers ran Kentucky in the ground. Twice the Tigers scored in under six seconds after a MADE UK basket. Missouri had 17 fast-break points to eight for Kentucky.
The Tigers were 10-for-25 from 3-point range and had six different players hit a 3. Kentucky was 8-for-23 from 3 but only three players hit a 3 and Cason Wallace had five of the eight.
Kentucky won the rebounding battle 37-28 because Oscar Tshiebwe pulled off 19 rebounds. Wallace, Sahvir Wheeler and Antonio Reeves played a combined 85 minutes and did not have a rebound between them.
But this loss was about more than numbers for frustrated Kentucky basketball fans. It was about a lack of overall effort and efficiency. Kentucky players just looked lost and out of sorts at times. Some played hard, but not all of them.
“Missouri is the aggressor. Winning all the 50-50 balls. Just outplaying Kentucky in every way,” Bradshaw said in the second half.
Disagree? You cannot.
But wait. Bradshaw had more.
“I am stunned right now. If you are Kentucky you have to take more pride. You better be ready to play or you are in the situation you are right now. Missouri just knows its identity better than Kentucky does,” the SEC Network analyst said as the Tigers pulled away in the second half.
Another SEC Network analyst, Patric Young, talked about UK not having a “sense of urgency” during the halftime break. He said the intensity was “not there” and he was right.
How can that be? Missouri was 11-1, had a sold-out crowd and had just beat Illinois.
This team clearly has many issues that no one anticipated when the season started. Obviously Calipari doesn’t know what to do. He talked about another “tweak” last week — but that obviously has not worked.
Kentucky’s shooters don’t make shots. That’s a big problem … but not a new one. It’s been happening the last few seasons.
But what Tshiebwe, last year’s unanimous national player of the year, said is even more troubling, especially after last week he talked about players not knowing plays or where to be.
But then he dropped this bomb after the loss when asked if UK’s team chemistry was what it should be.
“No, no. I think we’ve got a lot of work we need to do,” Tshiebwe said.
Lot of work? Yes.
Now the question is will Calipari do what it takes to try and make changes or does he even know what changes to make on a team that misses shots, gets beat in transition, seems discombobulated too often on offense and just does not play with intensity all the time.
If Wednesday night’s butt-kicking does not jump start Calipari’s thinking, then nothing will and that might be the biggest fear many UK fans have today.
10 Responses
Last week I said the ship was sinking, well now the ship has sunk. I been following UK basketball for 57 years never seen a team as this so distraught. We the fans don’t deserved this and it’s not all on Cal it’s also the players as well that’s not representing Kentucky that they wear across there chest.
It is all on Cal. You can’t let a Sharpe situation happen as it did last season. It took the steam out of last season.much of this roster was here last year and they think you don’t have to play hard or even play at all to get drafted.
absolutely disgusting. Cal and this team should be embarased. They have no Offense, no Defense. no play desighn , have no idea how to break a press. come on this is Ky basketball and they have no clue how.. even how to get pass inbounds. Offense is having dribble. run as fast as he can out of control toother end and then too deep he cant find where to go with ball. How can Cal play Ware most mnutes ever . he may work hard but he cant shoot, including FT’s. can’t rebound. can’t guard. how can he play all this time as lead keeps getting larger and two 7 footers are sitting on bench . not ONE DANG MINUTE. Oganna is a blocking machine.Collins was exepcted to have coming out year and not ONE MINUTE PLAYING TIME IN LAST 2 GAMES. WHY?? CAL WHY. thank goodness we arn’t playing St Petes today , sacasingly, and most will ,even Louisville is going to be shaky. Saturday if he doesn’t get his act together
For a team who was forcasted to be an easy Final Four will not even make the NIT and bottom of SEC. with all this talent, WHY CAL WHY????
Call has told us all how he feels about UK basketball and wins and losses. They don’t matter. NBA draft night is our National Championship. Nothing else matters.
He has convinced the players of this, and now they play for themselves with a coach that has spewed so much BS he has confused himself. Cal has rode on the coat tails of so many great players for so long he has forgotten what an actual coach needs to do.
One more thing Toppin. who was to have awesome year played 13 minutes, only 2 shots. low insulting minutes . Cal has undermined him so bad can see another transfer in the making if Cal doesnt wise up,
MORAL, SPIRIT on this team
NOPE
Cal’s M/O for years has undermined good players while coddling his NBA futurist favorites. I won’t go into those details yet again.
Why would Calipari lose faith in his players, because come June, he will be in the NBA green room with some of them, and all will be well in the world ….
Does anyone remember the world according to garp?
Welcome to the UK version, the world according to Calipari. The only question I have is what body part did the dog bite off Calipari?
Wow, where to start? We got bitchslapped last night. Our next coach needs to get the team in the weight room in the Summer and Fall and bulk them up. The Missouri kids were stronger, meaner, and played with a determination to not just beat us, but embarrass us…and they did. The home cooking from the refs was as bad as I have ever seen it and that seems to be the norm for SEC road play…except, in Lexington, lol. Missouri’s coach is just a punk kid, but he schooled the hell out of Calipari. Calipari has become a "has been". The officials don’t take him seriously anymore and the SEC coaches know he is nothing more than a flim flam man. The only people who say anything good about Calipari are the washed up coaches on ESPN. They won’t say it but they wonder…how has this guy lasted so long there? Active coaches everywhere say…he is a hall of famer, snicker snicker. BBN should be glad they have him…chuckles, cough. Whatever you do, don’t fire him, he is a guaranteed "W" on our schedule now…HEE HAW, HEE HAW!!!
The worst of it all is I don’t see this changing now…it should have happened with the first round loss in the NIT. Calipari has some dirt on Barnhart, so he is not going to fire him. UK administration apparently doesn’t watch the games and couldn’t care less as long as the money keeps rolling in. There are still a lot in BBN who are afraid of getting another Billy Clyde, so they say nothing.
I see at least 12 losses before SEC tourney play. Throw in 2 more losses, if we get an NIT bid, and the rest of the basketball world will be eating up March Madness knowing that Kentucky will not be there. It’s going to be easier to get rid of Putin than Calipari! I never thought I would live to see the day where one man would single handedly dismantle the Kentucky men’s basketball program, but Calipari has done it.
When I was young, I watched Big 10 basketball, primarily Michigan and Michigan State, as a youngster in southeastern Michigan. Then my family moved back to Kentucky in 1962, and I figuratively cut my adult basketball teeth watching Coach Rupp’s teams starting in the early 1960s.
The contrast between the style of play in the Big 10 in those days and the style of play I saw UK play was like night and day. The Big 10 game was slow. Players walked the ball up the court to give the players time to get into position to start their offense, and the offense stiff and controlled. Scores in the 60s were commonplace, and when teams scored more than 30 points in the first half, it was the exception, not the rule. However, UK scored 80 to 100 points in games with great regularity.
It did not take long to see that UK’s style was fast, driven by a fast break style of basketball that started on the defensive boards. The UK players all were trained to race to the other end of the floor, and to advance the ball up the court as fast as possible, without any dribbles when possible.
The rebounder started the fast break with a quick outlet pass, typically to a guard who moves into designated position on the floor as the opponent’s shot moves toward the basket. The rebounder knew where to throw the outlet, and did so without delay or lost motion, as the player was returning to the floor with the rebound in his grip, he was starting the outlet pass motion.
As soon at the outlet man received the ball, he would move the ball to a teammate racing down the center portion of the court at or just across the time line while two additional players raced to fill the right and left outside fast break lanes. The right outside lane was usually filled by the outlet man, while the other wing player filled the left outside lane.
Often this fast action produced a 3-2 player advantage, and the UK players knew how to score on the 3-2 fast break, and did so with great efficiency. The UK 3-2 fast break was beautiful to watch, and the total possession would require no more than 5 to 7 seconds from the instant of the defensive rebound at the defensive end to the ball going through the hoop at the offensive end of the court.
This is Kentucky fast break basketball that Coach Rupp taught. He taught it well. Players did not walk the ball up the court. They only dribbled the ball up the court following an opponent basket, but even after a made opponent basket, the UK big men were taught to get the ball out of the net and make the inbounds pass to the outlet guard as quickly as possible, so the team could capitalize on any fast break opportunities that could occur even after an opponent’s basket.
That style of play would result in about 85 to 95 possessions per game and UK scored in the 80 to 100+ point range often in those years. This occurred without a shot clock, without a 3 point shot, and in an era when opponents would even try to put the ball into a deep freeze stall to reduce the number of scoring opportunities for the Cats.
Yes, opponents would try to prevent UK from getting out on the break, but that usually required them to start moving toward their defensive end as quickly as possible after they attempt a shot, thus surrendering the rebounds for UK to secure on their misses.
The grind that Tubby Smith taught and John Calipari teaches are not UK basketball.
I believe these players look lost and frustrated because they really are!
But I do not believe it is an effort, intensity, motivation, or desire problem.
I believe it appears that way, but people are mistaking those issues because the players don’t know what to do to and their coach only has one play in the playbook. Opponents have now figured out how to stop Calipari ball.
These players want to win. How could they not be motivated after so many losses? Only 2 of them are guaranteed an NBA career so they should all be wanting to put in the effort to improve their status.
No matter how much "hustle", Ware is a liability on defense and offense. He is not the answer and should not be playing.
Ugonna and Thiero are both pure hustle and should be playing more in hopes of improvement in time to make a difference.
Ugonna is a shot blocking machine who can score too. Thiero is really good on the offensive end while he is learning the defense.
There very well may be a poisonous locker room and it has carried over from last year. He only returnees are Oscar, Wheeler, Toppin, and Collins.
We can rule out Oscar and the ultra quiet Collins.
That only leaves 2 possibilities.
Toppin is a goofy jokester who didn’t play much last year, and this year, he doesn’t demand the ball enough or shoot often enough, so he is doubtful.
I hate it because I really like him, but that only leaves one as the problem….
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