John Calipari on NCAA Tournament loss to Oakland: 'This one is painful'

Thursday night, Kentucky took to the big stage in the NCAA Tournament. A No. 3 seed in the South Region, the Wildcats took on Oakland in the opening round in John Calipari’s hometown of Pittsburgh, hoping to make a run with a group filled with NBA talent.

Instead, UK will make the nearly six-hour drive back to Lexington. No. 14 seed Oakland – led by Jack Gohlke – made 15 three-pointers to stun the Wildcats 80-76 and advance to the Round of 32. That meant Kentucky’s season came to an end with a 23-10 overall record.

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But unlike Kentucky’s other nine losses, Calipari said Thursday night’s hit a little harder.

“I told them after, this one is painful,” Calipari told TNT’s Evan Washburn. “And the reason is there are other times you lose a game and you know your team is what it is. But this team, I really felt, was built for this moment. Even though we were young, I knew that could catch us. But we had our chances. We threw the ball away, took a bad shot. There were things that happened, and then we give up a corner three the last play.

“But you’ve got to give Oakland credit. They made unbelievable shots at the buzzer. They deserved to win the game. I hate to say we didn’t, but we didn’t.”

Kentucky got a big game from Antonio Reeves, who led the way with 27 points on 11-of-18 shooting, including 5-for-9 from three-point territory. However, the stars who generated the professional buzz were largely quiet. Rob Dillingham started to come on late in the second half and finished with 10 points while going 2-for-9 from the field. Reed Sheppard struggled mightily, finishing with just three points while handing out four assists.

Dillingham and Sheppard will likely be among the NBA success stories to come out of this year’s team. However, when looking back on this season, John Calipari said he hoped the loss to Oakland wasn’t the only thing people remember about the group.

“What I hate is this team, that really worked and did some good stuff – we didn’t play great. They did,” Calipari said. “They made some unbelievable shots. We even went to a box-and-one and we fouled him one time, he makes another one. They shouldn’t be, our team in the season, defined by that game. But it will be. This is the profession we’ve chosen. But we had some guys that didn’t play the way they’ve been playing all year.

“We did everything we could. We knew the zone would be tough, but we missed shots we don’t miss. The preparation, I thought they were in a great – trying to keep them loose. But when the game started, you had some guys not play to the level they could play.”