John Calipari explains playing starters for entire second half

Kentucky Basketball has finally found a lineup that has won them some games lately, and it may be by pure randomness. Two weeks ago, guards CJ Fredrick and Sahvir Wheeler were both sidelined as the ‘Cats lost to Georgia on the road, a crushing result for a team that was battling on the NCAA Tournament bubble. Well, since that setback, Kentucky has found success with a certain five-man lineup: Cason Wallace, Antonio Reeves, Chris Livingston, Jacob Toppin and Oscar Tshiebwe.

Wallace and Reeves are the only true guards left on the roster and have had to play just about every minute of each game since the other guys went down. But…it’s working, because Kentucky is 3-0 since the UGA loss, picking up three Quad 1 wins over Mississippi State and Florida on the road and Tennessee at home. That above lineup is to thank, especially Wednesday night against the Gators.

Florida fell behind by 15 early but rallied to take a one-point lead by halftime. After that come-apart, UK head coach John Calipari did away with substitutions in the last 20 minutes and played those five the entire second half. That’s some Adolph Rupp type coaching right there — just play the best five until their limbs fall off. Again…it worked! Kentucky fended off Florida to further nestle themselves away from the bubble as the starters logged 39, 39, 38, 38, and 35 minutes apiece.

After the game, Calipari was asked about his lack of subbing in the second half, to which he answered:

“Yeah, it was a two-bucket game, now how fair would that have been for Adou (Thiero) or Daimion (Collins) or Lance (Ware)? If I was going to do it, I would have done it in the first five or six minutes.”

He just couldn’t find a time to get those front-court subs in there with Livingston and Oscar playing so well while the game was also close.

“But after we got by and it was 11, 10 minutes, I told the staff if I’ve gotta use the timeout to give them a break,” Cal added. “I almost called one at 4:26 because I thought okay, let’s get one, let’s get a long break here. But you know he ended up calling one I think at 4:09.”

Down a couple key guys and in need of another huge Q1 win, John Calipari rode his starters all the way down the stretch of the second half. Turned out to be the right call, but the question remains: how long can Kentucky ask Reeves and Wallace to play north of 35 minutes every single game? Eventually they’ll need some breathers.