John Calipari admitted he was not happy with UK's defense against Indiana. (Clay Jackson photo)
By LARRY VAUGHT
ATLANTA — Indiana managed to score 90 points against Kentucky and shoot 52 percent from the field Friday and did things to the UK defense other teams have not done.
Vanderbilt’s 74 points in a nine-point loss to UK were the most points the Cats had allowed. Indiana had 18 field goals in each half and during the season the Wildcats limited five teams to 18 or fewer field goals in a game and held nine more teams to either 19 or 20 field goals.
“We lead the nation in field‑goal‑percentage defense all year. Normally, we’re holding people to 56, 55, 59 (points). They had more layups in the first half than we have had scored on us for the year,†said Kentucky coach John Calipari after the 102-90 win. “Now part of it was Anthony (Davis) was out (with two early fouls). The other part was we were just getting broken down. We were playing pick‑and‑roll defense so poorly that they were getting whatever they wanted.
“And so I was aggravated. But offensively we have worked all week on we’re attacking that rim. We worked on some dribble‑drive action so that we could get to that, and we did it. But, yeah, I was somewhat frustrated. I’ll be honest with you. I’m coaching them like I’ve coached them all year. We haven’t changed. I told them forget about this tournament. We’re playing a basketball game. Now we’ve got another one here Sunday (against Baylor). Forget about this tournament. We’re playing a basketball game.
“I like my team, I like our players. I want them to play as well as they can play. If that’s not good enough, then it’s not good enough.â€
Davis, who has already won several national player of the year awards, got a foul in the first minute of the game for the first time this season and had two fouls in less than six minutes. He still finished with nine points, 12 rebounds and three blocked shots and helped limit Indiana’s second-half inside shots.
“I got in early foul trouble. By the second half, my teammates told me, ‘You’re fine. Just come out and play your game. We need you to steal, block shots, rebound, and score the ball.’ So that’s what I did in the second half. Don’t let the first half get to me and just come out with the same intensity the players came out with in the first half,†Davis said.
He says his rare foul problems won’t impact his play against Baylor in a game UK must win to reach the Final Four.
“It’s game over. Can’t worry about it now. Just go out and get ready for Sunday’s game. Just play the way we normally play. Can’t worry about the past. This game is over, so I’ve got to put it in the back of my mind,†Davis said.
Kentucky senior Darius Miller said part of UK’s defensive problems were due to Indiana’s stellar play.
“They were knocking down shots. They were being really aggressive and getting to the rim. We just had trouble guarding them tonight. That was pretty much them,†Miller said. “I don’t think we came out lacking intensity or lacking focus or anything like that. They just did a great job of executing their game plan and coming out ready to play.â€
7 Responses to Calipari admits UK’s defense “aggravated” him against Indiana
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The current UK front line may be remembered as the one of the greatest. Memories of dominating front lines from the recent past:
2011: Terrence Jones and the emergence of Josh Harrellson with Enes Kanter as a student assistant help end the longest Final Four drought.
2010: Demarcus Cousins and Patrick Patterson are lottery picks. Sub Daniel Orton goes first round.
2003: Marquis Estill, Erik Daniels, Chuck Hayes. Remember the passes from Daniels to Hayes. Team runs the SEC table and is a Kirk Penny cheap shot away from a national title.
1999: Jamaal Magloire, Michael Bradley, Scott Padgett, Heshimu Evans and freshman Tayshaun Prince.
1998: Nazr/Magloire, Scott Padgett, Heshimu Evans off the bench, Allen Edwards starting SF
1996: Antoine Walker, Walter McCarty, sixth man Mark Pope, SF Derek Anderson and backup Ron Mercer. Big men who could shoot and play in the full court press.
1984: Melvin Turpin, Sam Bowie, Kenny Walker with Winston Bennett off the bench.
1978: Rick Robey, Mike Phillips, James Lee is sixth man. Jack Givens is the SF. Al McGuire won the ’77 championship with Marquette said he saw in UK the future of basketball and knew it was time to leave.
1975: Bob Guyette, Freshmen Rick Robey and Mike Phillips, swing men Kevin Grevey, Jimmy Dan Conner, and Jack Givens. The senior/freshman team avenged the loss to Indiana when Bobby Knight rabbit punched Coach Hall. Last time UK was this close to playing UofL in the final four.
1971: Tom Payne, Tom Parker, Larry Steele. This team had to put up with a lot of stuff during the SEC run.
1970: Dan Issel, Mike Pratt, Tom Parker, Larry Steele. Mike Casey car accident short of ending UCLA’s run.
1956: Bob Burrow, Jerry Bird, Phil Grawemeyer. Big front line for the mid-50s.
1952-54: Cliff Hagan, Frank Ramsey, Lou Tsioropoulos. Think Hall of Fame, paying the price for the death penalty and an idiotic NCAA rule about not letting grad students play in the post-season. Ramsey and Hagan are second and third in career rebounds for UK trailing Issel.
1951: Bill Spivey, Shelby Linville, Frank Ramsey and Walt Hirsch help UK win their third national title.
1949: Alex Groza, Wallace Jones, Cliff Barker. Wah Wah starred for Bear Bryant and Coach Rupp. The Germans allowed Barker to have a ball but not a hoop in his POW stalag. The guy was tough as nails and could pass. As CBS wags made fun of film of this team prior to the game last night, let’s remember they were last team to handle the ball in transition as well as this current UK team.
Larry, from what I saw on the little 46″ neither the Cats nor the Hooosyers were allowed to play defense. There were three old f#r#s in striped shirts, holding little tin whistles and taking each and every attempt that a player for either team made away with a quick “tweet”. Touch fouls were called as a norm !! There was more than one tv shot of a player with a look of complete frustration, following a strutting, preening peacock to the foul line to watch his opponent shoot free throws.
Cals guys played extremely well as did Creans, within the narrow guide lines established by these clowns.
I saw some fouls where players were a good foot away from any contact at all Gene. The game was called horribly. The first Davis foul was a joke. He did commit the second but IU was jumping right through him trying to get more fouls on him in the second half. You’d think they could find some refs that could keep a game under control without making everyone play like they were scared to move. It’s no wonder so many points were scored. Everyone was afraid to play tight defense.
When a team scores 90 points on just 74 possessions, is it horrible defense or stellar offense? Could be either, right? Could be a mix of the two as well. I don’t know any way to distinguish one from the other for a particular game.
Here is what I do know. No other team has scored over 1.2 points per possession on this UK team this season. To find the last such example, you must go back about 14 months to last year’s loss at Vanderbilt, and prior to that it happened last year at Maui against UConn 1.25 ppp.
Calipari’s first team never allowed an opponent to run so wild. So 3 times in 113 games.
Look at Gillispie’s record of opponents putting up 1.2 ppp or higher:
2009: VMI 1.21, UGA 1.20, Notre Dame in NIT 1.26
2008: UAB@Freedom Hall 1.22, @ Vandy 1.29, NCAA Marquette 1.28
That is 6 times in his 2 seasons. But, that was an improvement over what Tubby Smith was providing in his last 2 years at UK. 9 times in his last 2 years.
2007: last tubby game, Kansas 1.33, @ Florida 1.31, @ Tennessee 1.22, South Carolina 1.22
2006: North Carolina 1.19, South Carolina 1.30, @ Florida 1.20, @ Vandy 1.27, Florida 1.22
Given the way Calipari’s teams play real defense, I am more inclined to write off last night’s result to a great IU effort more than a poor UK defensive effort. I give Calipari’s team the benefit of the doubt. I would not be so generous with either of the last two coaches regarding the 1.2 ppp plus defensive performance.
I saw Davis lay off of nearly every shot in the game even late when the team was up about 10 points with little time left. He was worried about overtime being a possibility I guess so he didn’t do the things he usually does. He was absolutely playing weaker defense than usual. The refs made him afraid to play aggressive. It was very, very obvious. And when the national defensive player of the year plays less defense than usual it’s going to give the other team a chance to score more often and on a higher ratio per possession than usual. Just as an example check out how Davis plays defense at the 18:25 mark of the second half. This was just one example I found quickly. Davis sticks his hands up but doesn’t jump at all to try to stop a shot by Zeller. That’s not how he usually plays defense. I’m sure there are some examples of him playing that way but normally he is far more aggressive than that. Zeller tried several times to get Davis in the air at which point Zeller would stick his hip into Davis and take his legs out from under him so that Davis had no choice but to fall on Zeller. That’s how Davis got his first foul. The foul should have been called on Zeller but again bad calls were the norm in that game.
I’m thoroughly convinced the restrained defense was what accounted for so many points being scored and that’s on both sides of the ball. The fouls called on Zeller were clearly called because the refs realized they had given IU a huge advantage and they wanted to make things equal. The calls on Zeller were pretty much calls that are never called in most games. They had to know Zeller was using the hip check to get Davis in foul trouble by that point and they their first call on Davis had been a mistake so they quickly made Zeller a bench rider too.
It’s just my opinion of course but I think I saw plenty fo evidence to back up what I think. As always YMMV.
Coach Crean is reported to have said to Coach Calipari, “I hope you have enough left to win it all after this.”
I don’t think there is as much effort expended when there’s not as much defense, so that should not be a problem.
Knowing the outcome, I could watch the replay and enjoy every bit of this game.
This being the NCAA Tourney, I have seen some of the worst Officials and calls that I have ever seen. I believe these officials must have just gotten their Licenses or Tags to be able to call games. The NCAA Director of Officials should be fired from his position for letting these so called stripped shirts call these games, worst that I have ever seen.