John Calipari admits to big mistake during NCAA Tournament upset loss

Kentucky was destined to make a deep NCAA Tournament run this season, but its time in March Madness ended much sooner than it expected. Earning a No. 2 seed for the Big Dance, the Wildcats suffered a first-round upset loss to No. 15 seeded Saint Peter’s – shockingly sending John Calipari’s club back to Lexington.

While Kentucky has been back at home watching NCAA Tournament games on TV, Saint Peter’s has been enjoying its Cinderella run, which has been extended into the Sweet 16 after the Peacocks defeated No. 7 Murray State in the second round – and that isn’t sitting well with the Wildcats.

On John Calipari’s radio show on Monday night, the Kentucky head coach took all of the blame for the Wildcats’ early loss in the NCAA Tournament and admitted to one crucial mistake he made: not playing Jacob Toppin more. Toppin – who was averaging just over six points and three rebounds per game – played 16 minutes in the loss to Saint Peter’s.

“It was one of the first things after the game,” Calipari said, as shared on Twitter by KSR’s Tyler Thompson. “I looked at the stats and I said, ‘I should have gotten Jacob more time.’ He and I talked about it after. … He should have gotten more time, without question.”

Kentucky’s first-round March Madness loss gave the Wildcats a final overall record of 26-8 – which included a 14-4 mark in SEC play.

Kentucky athletic director sends clear message on expectations for Kentucky basketball

If there’s two things Kentucky athletic director Mitch Barnhart loves, its championships and checkerboards, in that order. The shiniest toy in Barnhart’s athletic program hasn’t lived up to historical expectations over the last half-decade as Kentucky basketball hasn’t won an NCAA Tournament game since 2018-19, and he addressed this on the radio Monday night.

“We won the SEC championship three years ago, and then the COVID tournament hit and knocked us out, we didn’t have a chance to play it. We’d love to have seen that team continue on,” Barnhart said on the UK Healthcare John Calipari Show Monday evening. “But at the end of the day, we’re built for championships. That’s what this program is all about. It’s about winning SEC championships in the regular season, it’s about SEC titles in the tournament, it’s about championships in March and in early April. Deep, deep runs, that’s what we’re built for. We’re supposed to do those things and we fell short of that this year.”

It wasn’t just last year — Barnhart failed to mention the 9-16 2020-21 season where Kentucky didn’t qualify for the NCAA Tournament. If Kentucky wins an NCAA Tournament game in 2023, it’ll be over four years since Kentucky’s last first round tournament win occurred. Calipari would have been paid nearly $33 million by UK throughout that period.

On3’s Barkley Truax contributed to this report.