The game started with John Calipari trying to make a statement, as Jarrod Polson started at the point over Ryan Harrow.
But that didn’t make much of a difference for the Wildcats, as Kentucky found themselves down 33-12 just 11 minutes into the first half en route to an embarrassing, 88-58 loss at Tennessee on national television on Saturday afternoon. Things were so bad that CBS actually cut away from the game early in the second half in order to air a Pitt-Marquette game where the Golden Eagles had a 15 point lead at the time.
And, as you might imagine, Coach Cal was not to pleased with the performance, as he ripped his team in the press conference after the game:
“They deserved to beat us by 50 today,” Calipari said. “They played harder, they played rougher, they competed better, they were stronger with the ball. We just had passive guys that did not want to make plays, tentative, and that means you’re going to have a 50-point bulge.”
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“They were awful in practice. I [saw this coming]. Yesterday was the worst practice in four years and I think it was because guys were a little bit (makes shell-shocked expression). That’s what I believe. It makes you anxious, tires you out, doesn’t give you energy, you’re worried that, ‘Uh oh, I’ve got to step up and I’m not sure I have it in me.’ We all believe. We look at it and say we do have it but you’re going to have to practice that way, prepare that way and cover for each other.”
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“We talked about it, but we’ve got a couple of guys that are basically not real coachable. You tell them over and over and over what you want them to do, what we have to do, and they do their own thing. That’s where we are. When they realize if we don’t do this all together we’re going to have many more of these, then (it will) change. I’ve got to do my thing – what’s our schemes offensively and defensively? – but we can’t go out there and fight for them. We can’t battle. We can’t beat them to 50-50 balls as a staff.”
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“We’re leaving every timeout, ‘This is what you must do, boom, boom, boom,’ and the guy comes out and does the opposite three things. We had a guy exhausted in practice yesterday 30 minutes in. It’s the middle of February. You cannot be tired. Well you’re tired when you’re a little bit shook. You’re scared. You’re anxious. It wears you out. We’ve got some growing up to do.”
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“If they weren’t embarrassed by this, to come to me and say, ‘Tell us whatever you want, we’re going to listen to you,’ then they shouldn’t be at Kentucky.”