Cats Get a Lesson in Closing
John Calipari went into the halftime locker room happy.
His team had turned in its best 20 minutes of the season, asserting itself on the glass and flying around on defense. In turn, Kentucky seemed poised for its most comfortable win to date.
It was a good thing the Wildcats made those strides in the first half. The cushion they built in doing so allowed them to survive when they reverted in the second half.
“If that game were closer we lose the game,” Calipari said.
Visiting Troy (2-3) put together a late-game rally that continually trimmed the UK lead, with the No. 8/8 Cats (4-1) eventually escaping with a 70-62 victory. The eight-point final margin was closer than the game had been since the 11-minute mark of the first half.
“Defensively, you just don’t have letdowns when you’re up 21 and you’re ready to bury somebody and you just start acting like it doesn’t matter anymore,” Calipari said. “That’s that old AAU high school stuff.”
While in the first half UK allowed Troy to shoot just 35.9 percent from the field, the Trojans made 13 of their final 29 field goals. Similarly, the Cats lapsed in the focus that limited their turnovers to four before the break and committed 12 over the final 20 minutes to open the door for Troy to close within single digits.
“I mean the first half, I’m telling you for 20 minutes, I told them, you played a great half,” Calipari said. “We’re just not ready to play 40 minutes because they will revert. They let go. They go back to their old ways. And that’s the fight.”
The thing is, none of that is surprising to Coach Cal. This group is the youngest he has ever coached – and the youngest ever measured in the 12-year history of kenpom.com’s Experience statistic – so he knew that would happen. He was ready to pounce when it did.
“Today I was harder on them in the second half than I want to be, but I told them, I said, I had to fight you in the second half so we could win the game,” Calipari said. “You guys were giving up on the game and you just can’t do it. You got to be man enough to know if you’re breaking down or someone’s got to fight to go get a ball. We got a good group of kids, it’s just a lot of growing, a lot of learning.”
Outside of Calipari and his staff, Wenyen Gabriel – the only returning contributor from last year’s team – understands that learning process better than anyone. That’s why he also understood why Calipari got after them the way that he did in the second half.
“He had to,” Gabriel said. “He was loud. It was almost like he was in the Kansas game again. He’s just trying to challenge us to be good. He’s not focused on the game that we’re in right now. It’s about how we’re playing. He doesn’t look at the scoreboard every minute.”
Ever the competitor, Calipari cares deeply about wins and losses, even in November. That’s why he wasn’t about to let this one get away.
Ever the developer, he cares much more deeply about the long-term development of his team team. That’s why he challenges the Cats at every turn.
“My job is to get them to do the impossible, do things they never thought they can do, play in a way they never thought they could play,” Calipari said. “That’s what my job is.”
