It’s not going to be merry few days for the Kentucky basketball team. Not after the Wildcats lacked consistency and urgency way too often in an 83-75 loss to UCLA Saturday in New Orleans.
“We are better than this,” Kentucky coach John Calipari said.
He better hope so.
Kentucky fell behind early against UCLA’s early pace but stormed back to take an 8-point lead twice late in the first half. However, the Bruins stormed back on a 10-2 run to end the half that tied the score 39-39.
But that was just the start for a UCLA team that ended up getting its biggest win of the season. The Bruins opened the second half with an 11-0 run to take a 50-39 lead and the Cats never regained the lead.
Kentucky (9-2) did go on a 9-0 run to trim the margin to 50-48 with 15:50 to play and a Kevin Knox 3-pointer tied the game at 52-52 to compete a 13-2 run in 3:30. However, the Bruins never lost their poise and used a 10-0 run to eventually build a 71-59 lead when UK went over four minutes with a field goal and missed five straight shots.
Too often it just seemed that UCLA beat UK to loose balls and did it way too often for second-chance points.
“Kentucky seemed to be a step behind and they (UCLA) took advantage of it. Their was a 20-10 advantage in second-chance points for UCLA and they also got to a lot more loose balls,” UK Radio Network analyst Mike Pratt said. “Kentucky had been playing better defensively. UCLA moved the ball move quickly, found the open man and made UK chase the open man. Kentucky didn’t do that.”
Calipari basically felt the same way.
“Today we played a team that wanted a game worse than we did and this is usually what happens. One team wanted the game more than the other. We deserved to lose it,” Calipari said after the game. We had a chance to just grab the game. They were teetering. We had a chance to grab the game but we didn’t.”
Hamidou Diallo led UK with 18 points on 7-for-18 shooting while Knox had 15 points on 6-for-12 shooting but he was not a factor offensively the final 10 minutes. Wenyen Gabriel came off the bench to contribute 16 points — he was 3-for-4 from 3-point range — and tied Kevin Richards for rebounding honors with six.
“I was just playing my game. I just had open shots and my teammates found me. Defensively I was staying engaged. I just felt like I was brining my energy to the game,” Gabriel said. “I just try to uplift my team any way I can. Make sure we stick with the game plan. Games like this we learn.”
They better because this will not be the last time UK is going to lose if it plays like this. Calipari even said the next four games — Louisville, Georgia at home and then LSU, Tennessee on the road — would be losses if the Cats play with the same effort level they did Saturday and could be even if they play harder.
UCLA put five players in double figure and three of them had to play 35 minutes or more. The Bruins were also 12-for-30 from 3-point range while UK was 6-for-21.
“We left some guys. We didn’t go (at shooters) with hands up,” Calipari said when asked about UK’s 3—point defense. “Today they made a bunch of shots. We didn’t.”
UCLA guard Aaron Holiday not only had 20 points, but also eight assists as he consistently beat UK’s point guards to score or set up others to score.
“This shows that we’re actually good. I’m tired of people saying we’re not good,” Holiday said after the game.
Calipari said his team “screwed up like 10 times” on pick and roll defense against Holiday and every time he made the Cats pay.
Kentucky point guard Quade Green didn’t come close to doing that. He was just 1-for-7 from the field and had only two points and two assists in 20 minutes. He also had three turnovers.
“Probably played some guys too many minutes. Quade just seemed out of sync. I don’t know why. Was not his night. We needed him to make some baskets,” Calipari said.
UCLA coach Steve Alford said Holiday’s passing was key for the Bruins because it negated UK’s shot blocking ability. The Cats blocked only three shots.
“They are an elite shot-blocking team, so we wanted to drive and kick, not drive and finish,” Alford said.
Calipari blamed the loss partially on him using a “different” pick and roll defense that obviously didn’t work. He also said maybe playing so close to Christmas took a toll on his team even though it didn’t bother UCLA.
“Sometimes we have got to get knocked in the mouth and lose and it’s got to hurt every player,” Calipari said. “We tried to make the hardest (individual) plays in the guts of the game. Freshman make those kind of (wrong) plays.
“We had a great shootaround today but it shows you that you just don’t know. They are young. Who knows what they are thinking. Obviously we need guys with more of a mentality of a will to win and blocking out everything else.”
The coach still insisted his team was getting better. Maybe it is, but it sure was hard to tell Saturday when UK lost to a not so good team and looked so lackadaisical doing it most of the time.
