John Calipari criticizes multiple aspects of Kentucky's effort vs UCLA

No. 13 Kentucky fell to No. 16 UCLA on Saturday in Madison Square as a part of the CBS Sports Classic, losing 63-53 to the Bruins. Kentucky head coach John Calipari had a lot to say about the game, starting with the reasoning why Lance Ware and Chris Livingston received so many minutes in the second half.

“Toughness, it’s all we talked about and that was the same with Chris, just we needed toughness on the floor. When they started bullying us a little bit the game slipped, and when you get those two in there that was kind of negated, and I thought they played well,” Calipari said.

The Wildcats may have lacked toughness on Saturday, but also lacked an overall shooting touch, ending the game shooting 32.8% from the field and 38.5% from the free throw line.

“But you can’t go five for 13 from the line, not in a game like this, you can’t go for four front in one on ones, so really you’re five for 17, can’t do it. You don’t have to make every free throw, but you can’t go those numbers. We missed so many open shots it becomes demoralizing, the crazy thing is we still could’ve won the game,” Calipari said. “They put five and six guys, they were throwing guys at Oscar (Tshiebwe), and that’s why I said when they do that you’ve got to make shots. And we have good shooters, we’re one of the better three-point shooting teams and we missed.”

UCLA’s defense on Tshiebwe was effective, holding the reining National Player of the Year to just eight points in his 39-minute outing. The Bruins were also effective at generating turnovers and making things uncomfortable for just about ever Kentucky player on the offensive end of the floor.

“We played fast, we did some of the stuff that we wanted to do, we still held the ball a little bit. But 18 turnovers, and most of it just rough play that we can couldn’t bust through, get open on a screen, on a dribble hand off,” Calipari said. “But you’ve got to give UCLA credit, they made they plays they had to make, I thought we were gonna win the game. I’m looking at it like okay, we’re in good shape let’s just keep going and then you make a couple errors.”

Calipari also had an issue with his team’s shot selection on Saturday, especially toward the end of the game, but made sure to circle back to their toughness and turnovers as two of the bigger disappointments from the evening.

“And then we took a couple bad shots down the stretch when it was a two bucket game, and again what it was, I’m gonna take the easiest shot versus I’m gonna make a play where I can get fouled, I’m just gonna take this shot, no. The toughness that we need, and again there’s one way to do it, you get in the game and you perform, demonstrative performance. But this, I’m disappointed that we lost, but I’m also disappointed in plays that I thought we could make and some of the turnovers that I thought we just not necessary,” Calipari said

Saturday’s loss was just Kentucky’s second of the season, both against ranked opponents, as they will look to bound back in a big way on Wednesday when they take on Florida A&M.