In Taking Ownership, Calipari Models Important Lesson
John Calipari, perhaps more than anything else, has been trying to impart to his team the importance of owning mistakes, of not making excuses.
He had an opportunity to practice what he has been preaching on Tuesday night.
“This one’s on me,” Calipari said. “It’s not on this team. This team did everything they could to try to win the game.
With 26 seconds left against Tennessee, Kentucky took over possession trailing by one after a 3-pointer by the Volunteers. Calipari’s normal approach in that kind of situation is to let the action go without calling a timeout to put the defense on its heels, but it wasn’t the right one on this evening. No. 24/24 UK (17-7, 6-5 Southeastern Conference) committed a turnover and No. 15/14 Tennessee (18-5, 6-3 SEC) escaped Rupp Arena with a win in a hard-fought 61-59 affair.
“This is such a young team and I could see with how they crowded the court and they were being physical, pushing guys around and into each other, I should have called a timeout,” Calipari said. “At least 10, 12 seconds to go I should have seen it and with—when I saw it I kind of let it going hoping he would make it. You can’t hope, not with these kids.”
In spite of the loss, Calipari was pleased actually with the Wildcats because they went toe to toe with of the hottest teams anywhere in spite of starting the night ice cold. UK managed to hang around in a game that saw neither team lead by more than four points in spite of making just two of its first 14 shots, then was well positioned with a lead in the final minute.
“That game was in my hands to do something with and I dropped the ball,” Calipari said. “It’s not these guys. These kids did what they were supposed to. That was a hard-fought game against a team that’s winning five games in a row, now six. We’re struggling a little bit and we come out and have that kind of effort? Proud of these kids.”
In taking responsibility, Coach Cal might have given his players the final push they need to fully understand what he’s been trying to tell them. The Cats appreciated their coach standing up and taking the blame, but they weren’t going to let him be alone in doing so.
“We can’t really put the whole blame on Coach,” Nick Richards said. “We, as players, we gotta take responsibility for mistakes that we did on the court.”
That’s what Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is doing.
It was Gilgeous-Alexander who had the ball in his hands and committed a turnover when Calipari thought he should have called timeout. Soon after he hit the go-ahead shot with 1:28 left, it was also Gilgeous-Alexander who committed another turnover to give the ball back to the Vols for the eventual game winner.
“I take full responsibility in that,” said Gilgeous-Alexander, who had 15 points, six rebounds and six assists. “I turned the ball over twice in a row at the end. I could have…made a game-winning play or could have my teammate a shot or something like that. I take full responsibility.”
Singing much the same tune was Quade Green, who carried the Cats by scoring 10 of his 15 points in the first half when his teammates could hardly make a shot. Green, however, was thinking much more about the 3-pointer Lamonte Turner hit over him with 26 seconds left.
“It was my fault, really,” Green said. “Gave the game winner up. I was supposed to get that stop and didn’t.”
Those mistakes were costly and sure to come up in film review in the coming days, but Calipari was generally positive about his team postgame. Maybe it was the fact that UK had just held a potent Tennessee offense to 61 points on 42.3-percent shooting. Maybe it was the way his team took to the more “grind-it-out” style UK played. Or maybe he could sense the Cats were finally starting to understand excuses only lead to the next mistake.
“We had some guys not play great defensively, but they played well enough, we fought, we did some good stuff, we still had some turnovers that were unnecessary, but we’re on the right track now,” Calipari said. “If this is who we are, I’m feeling good.”
