John Calipari shoulders blame for Kentucky's errors in overtime

Kentucky came up on the wrong end of a thriller vs. Texas A&M, losing 97-92 in overtime. For every remarkable play the Cats made to force extra time, there was an equally disappointing one on the other side that spelled their doom.

Let’s start with the good. Rob Dillingham’s three straight threes in the final 2:11 of regulation were the stuff of legend. The freshman guard showed why he’s one of the most exciting players in college basketball, unleashing a string of clutch shots that even had Draymond Green talking. His backcourt partner in crime Reed Sheppard almost topped them with two free throws to tie it up with less than a second on the clock. Had this game gone the other way, this picture of Reed smiling before his foul shots would live on in Big Blue infamy (it still might).

From there, it was a disaster. Kentucky didn’t make a single field goal in overtime, going 0-8 from the field and 0-3 from the outside. The Cats’ only points came from the free throw line, with Tre Mitchell and Sheppard missing one each from the charity stripe. Meanwhile, Texas A&M also struggled shooting (1-7 FG) but did enough on the glass to control the game and get back to the charity stripe, where they connected on 6-8.

Beyond the box score, Kentucky looked out of sorts in overtime, playing uncharacteristically tight. Gone was the beautiful ball movement we’ve gotten so used to with this squad and its place were questionable decisions left and right. Afterward, John Calipari shouldered the blame for Kentucky’s errors in overtime, telling reporters they got away from what they do best.

“I think our young and inexperience showed through,” Calipari said. “I did a bad job down the stretch. We have stuff we run and I got away from it because they were switching and I should have just done what we do. The other thing is, we had Justin [Edwards] trapping on that out-of-bounds when [Wade] Taylor took it out and shouldn’t have trapped. Just stay. Don’t let Taylor get it back. So that’s on me.”

“How — we’re not a team that just comes down and goes pick and roll,” Calipari added in his conversation with Tom Leach. “That’s not who we are. We move the ball. Everybody can play, they can make plays, and then we play. We didn’t do that today. And so, you know, obviously, I didn’t communicate what I needed to to the guys but I must say they fought and tried.”

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Too many “Hero Shots”

Another issue was shot selection. Calipari was asked specifically about Kentucky’s 0-8 mark from the floor in overtime, but his comments about his team’s shots extend to most of the game.

“We took some awful [shots] — like, why did you shoot that? It had a 1 in 10 chance of going in. We’re trying to win the game.”

“The end of regulation, when we had a chance, and the overtime, it was almost like, ‘I’m just going to do my own thing,'” Calipari said. “And that’s on me as a coach. That means that what I’m trying to communicate to them is not getting through to some guys. Everyone one of them thought and helped us to be where we were.”

It’s a message that’s already resonating with one Wildcat. Reed Sheppard hit a clutch three to put Kentucky up by seven with 12:14 to go in the second half. On Kentucky’s next possession, Sheppard rushed the ball down the floor, fired away, and missed, the start of a string of bad possessions that allowed Texas A&M to reclaim the lead.

“Freshman shots,” Calipari said. “Like, I’m just shooting this. What? We took about four of those. But we fought.”

After the game, Sheppard owned up to his “hero shot.”

“We were taking shots we needed to to get the lead and then we got the lead, and like you said, we probably had four possessions where we kind of shot bad shots, hero shots, so that’s part of it,” he told Goose Givens. “We’ve got to grow up from we got to learn from it. You especially can’t do that in a close game like that, especially on the road.”

Learn from it and move on.

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