Kentucky got the close game Calipari wanted, but lost: Here's what we learned
The Wildcats showed some resiliency in the game's final minutes
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8 min read
It's still a wonder that UCLA was able to go into Rupp Arena and give John Calipari only the fifth home loss in his career as Wildcats coach. The 97-92 defeat on Saturday afternoon catalyzed aftershocks in the national polls, vaulted UCLA's reputation back to national prominence and humbled a Kentucky team that, prior to the game, looked more dominant than anybody in the sport.
Calipari said UCLA "physically manhandled" his team, adding, "you don't see that very often, especially in this building."
Given the weight of the game and it being Kentucky's first loss, there's still plenty to look back at -- and push forward on -- now with the clarity of hindsight.
Calipari's go-to talking point in the two weeks prior was how he wanted to see his team perform and react in a close game. Or, at the very least, he wanted to see how they would respond. On the surface, it looks like a failing grade. But the thing is, UCLA 97, Kentucky 92 was good game on the whole but it wasn't close throughout. Kentucky led by as many as nine; UCLA by 14. From the midway point of the first half through the midway point of the second half, there was a 23-point swing.
"I wish we would have come back and won," Calipari said. "I would have liked to learn from that lesson a little bit more. But sometimes you need to get hit on the chin, especially at home."
This was no jab. UCLA landed hook after hook, finishing in the final minutes. Those final minutes were supposed to give us more insight to Kentucky's gumption, but on closer inspection, there's still a lot we don't know.
The positive here is Kentucky not getting blown out in its own building. UCLA plays the way it did against most teams, it's winning by double digits, if not 15-plus. Kentucky didn't quit, and that's a positive sign for Cal's team. Remember how young this group is. Isaiah Briscoe, just a sophomore, is considered the savvy vet and leader. So with a batch of first-year players, it wouldn't have been stunning to see them fold up and just take a loss after UCLA continued to just rifle UK with different guys beating them seven ways from Sunday.
I'd be shocked if Calipari ever utters the words "we quit" or "our guys didn't care" with this team this season. Character seems too good with this group.
2. Kentucky showed resolve but lacked a basketball-killer's mentality
The surprising element to the entire game was how Kentucky chased and chased and chased in the back half of the second half. With 9:32 to go, it was 76-62, Bruins. So yeah, Kentucky outscored UCLA 30-21 down the stretch -- but it couldn't get enough defensive stops. Kentucky had four missed layups, three missed jumpers and seven missed 3-pointers in the final 10 minutes. (It also had three turnovers, which is actually a good rate across 10 minutes, but UCLA is a below-average defensive team.)
The final stretch showed good things (De'Aaron Fox was better on the whole than Lonzo Ball), but nothing that really gave us an idea of how Kentucky will play against a good team in a tight game in the final five minutes or so. This was a catch-up job the whole way, and UCLA's offense was too good for Kentucky to steal it back. That huge UK run we all expected -- the type of things you see in NBA games seemingly every night -- never materialized.
3. Kentucky has to learn how to adapt and play big
Another wrinkle from late in the game: Calipari couldn't afford to go big against UCLA because he needed his guards to keep up with the Bruins. That continued to play into UCLA's hands, as it was able to feast in the paint and get emphatic second-chance points from T.J. Leaf and Thomas Welsh.
"We had no one, unless I was going to go big lineup, which we haven't done a whole lot, which shows me maybe we have to be prepared for that," Calipari said. "But [Leaf] killed us. Straight line drives, rebounds, making shots."
So here's what happened. Kentucky stayed small, but it didn't matter when a critical sequence transpired. When Kentucky was down 78-71, Monk had the ball with the six-minute mark approaching. He turned it over, and Lonzo Ball turned that into a dunk. On the next UCLA possession, another 3-pointer by Ball -- and the lead was back to double-digits. Calipari cited this is a critical juncture. The game was never up for grabs after that.
So, a two-fold lesson: 1) Calipari is still searching for answers to how his team will play in a tight game with less than four minutes to go, because we didn't see that and 2) He's still not sure if he can run a lineup out there with three big guys (a mixture of Bam Adebayo, Isaac Humphries, Wenyen Gabriel and/or Derek Willis).
4. Illness an issue? Don't even think about it
This is something to put to bed, as it's been used by some Kentucky fans in the 48 hours since the game ended. Calipari outright refuted sicknessas a reason/excuse, no matter the outcome.
"No, no, no," he said in the postgame presser. "Had nothing to do with anything."
Turns out, some Kentucky players were battling the bug earlier in the week. Calipari did not say whether or not that bug was why he opted not to have a traditional shootaround sessions hours before the game, but nonetheless, UK didn't have one -- and maybe it had an impact? Maybe Kentucky wins if the entire team was healthy throughout the week?
Via the Louisville Courier-Journal, Derek Willis referenced the illnesses, and that report also cites a massive sanitation effort by Kentucky prior to the UCLA game.
"You can hear it now in my voice," Willis said. "We came back from the Bahamas, noticed people having coughs. I've been having nausea and stuff. I haven't been to sleep in probably 20-something hours. I didn't even go to sleep last night. Not to make excuses, but we had some people not feeling well."
The Kentucky staff had everything sanitized -- locker room, dorm rooms, bathrooms, etc -- after returning home from the Bahamas. And perhaps the illnesses led Calipari to roll into the game without a shootaround Saturday. Knowing the result, Calipari said he would have held a morning workout before the game.
"Not having the shootaround, I feel like we just got a slow start and we kind of didn't match their energy," Willis said.
Illness or not, I'll say this: It was a big-game environment. A top-three hyped games of the season so far. Even in the loss, Kentucky looked alert, capable and its usual self. There was nothing to suggest, on face value, that the team was sluggish or fatigued. Given how UCLA plays, and loves to run quick offense, it could have been way worse if illness was truly a factor.
5. Malik Monk can't be scared to take the big shots -- free throws
Malik Monk ain't scared. Dude is hoisting more 3-pointers (63) than 2-pointers (59) at this point in the season. It's bothering Calipari. He wants Monk (who has made 16 of his 19 foul shots this season) to take the hacks and get to the line. He didn't shoot one foul shot against UCLA. In general, Kentucky needed to draw more fouls.
"Malik is not getting fouled enough," Calipari said. "He's trying to avoid the contact and flip balls. You've got to get fouls. He had no free throws. I told him at the half I wanted him to get to the line 10 times. Obviously we're going to have to work on that and show him what that means."
Lack of free throws as a team and a depletion in ball movement prevented Kentucky from getting close, let alone taking a lead, down the stretch. Calipari learned that his team can't afford to play a Grade-A offense and think that the length, athleticism and NBA prospect-level players he has will be enough. I can't emphasize enough how impressive it was that UCLA did this in Kentucky's house. It's going to be even tougher for UK when it has to play well-functioning North Carolina at the CBS Sports Classic, on a neutral floor in Las Vegas. The same can be said for inevitable NCAA Tournament games on neutral courts against teams who can put up 75-90 points.
"We were trying to do something, and a guy just said, 'Well, I'm going to do this,'" Calipari said. "That happened late. These were all lessons that if you're going to win at the highest level, like playing UCLA or any other top-10 team, you can't break off stuff. You've got to do what your job says you do, especially defensively."
We saw that De'Aaron Fox can handle a big stage. We also saw that his team's defensive efforts fail beyond mere turnovers. UK will turn teams over more than 15 times almost every game (UCLA had 17), but defense is not just about turnovers. It's about stopping the good offenses from doing what they want to do. UCLA did what it wanted to do all over Kentucky. Possession totals matter. This game had 83 possessions. Seventeen turnovers (20 percent) is manageable.
Calipari wants this team to be the best defensive team in the country. He believes that can still happen. UCLA's performance has me questioning, for the first time this season, if UK being No. 1 in the country on defense is a sustainable goal against the nation's best.
