Here’s everything that John Calipari said after Kentucky ‘got rattled’ in loss at Alabama

Things are looking grim for the Kentucky men’s basketball team.

The Wildcats suffered their worst loss to Alabama on Saturday afternoon, as the No. 7-ranked Crimson Tide toppled the Wildcats 78-52.

Only two UK players — Antonio Reeves and Sahvir Wheeler — scored more than four points in the game, which also saw star big man Oscar Tshiebwe struggle mightily on defense and senior forward Jacob Toppin exit the game with a shoulder injury.

There was plenty for John Calipari to discuss and explain after one of the worst defeats of his UK coaching tenure.

Here’s everything Calipari said after Kentucky’s historic defeat to Alabama:

Opening statement: That’s one (where) I don’t know if I want to watch the tape. And we shouldn’t have been down 11 at half, we screwed up the first half. We did what we wanted to do, but we missed every shot.

You can’t have your starters go 3-for-27, three of your starters that you’re banking on to make baskets, and expect to win. But that being said we get in foul trouble, we’ve got to sub, we’ve got to do stuff.

We’re not as good, we look discombobulated again because everybody held the ball. Instead of that ball whipping around and moving everybody caught it and bounced it first or you know, and you gotta give (Alabama) credit, they played well. In the second half, they went right after us.

I’m disappointed that we did not play better because I thought we were ready to play a good game on the road. And we’re gonna have to prove (that) we can play on the road. We’re gonna have to prove at some point we can play on the road.

Question about Kentucky being an experienced team, yet struggling to know what’s going on during games:

Well, again we had some breakdowns, we were playing some guys that hadn’t been playing that much. I wanted to go with a short rotation and all of a sudden, Oscar played the beginning of the game, he gave up five dunks and then Cason gets two fouls, and now we’re playing guys we hadn’t been playing a whole lot.

But like I said, we are better than we played. I told them afterwards, most times you’re not as good as you think and you’re not as bad as you think. Let’s just hope we’re not as bad as we look today.

Question about how Alabama was able to attack Oscar Tshiebwe:

He was fading away on some of the stuff, and that gave (Charles) Bediako a chance to block shots instead of going through him.

He’s seven foot, he’s long. I thought they collapsed (on Oscar) and he needed to kick out. But we got rattled, he got rattled, we got a bunch of guys that got rattled in the game.

And, you know, even in the second half where we just opened it up and let’s go dribble drive straight. You know, we weren’t able to move and get where we needed to go …

I can remember going to Kansas and doing what we did (to Kansas) and they won a national title. It’s a long season. So let’s learn from this and let’s get this right. We’ve got to start playing better away from home. Just have to.

Question about Alabama’s Jaden Bradley and Mark Sears:

They did good. They did good. In the end when the game’s over and they can just hold the ball and do their thing, they’re able to get downhill, they’ve got great ways of getting it off the glass. They did good.

Question about Alabama’s Brandon Miller:

The biggest thing (is) he’s consistent in shooting the ball. You’ve got to be aware of where he is in spaces on the court, he gives the guards more room to move. He’s good. Good player.

Question about what his message is to the Kentucky team after this game:

We’ve gotta regroup. We’ve got a game I think Tuesday, and we got to regroup and go. I just don’t even know if I want to look at the tape. I may watch the first half.

And again I came in and said we fouled two guards that we didn’t need to foul and we gave up a three to Brandon (Miller) which was seven, and we gave up five dunks off of Oscar.

I went back with the starters … we played better when they weren’t in. Well, that can’t be who we are. There’s no way, and the other guys can play in spots. But when you try to play them 12 minutes they’re gonna break down, they haven’t played that much. I thought Adou (Thiero) did some great stuff today. But his stuff is not to be playing, you know, 15 minutes in a half.

Question about UK’s poor performances on the road:

I don’t know we’re gonna have to talk about it and figure stuff out … And it’s coming off a couple games where we really look good together.

And I think when it got away or we were playing without the guys that you’re counting on, it got harder. Now all of a sudden we’re not Kentucky, those guys they gotta perform.

Question about how the UK coaching staff approaches these struggles:

Again, if we can figure out the mentality on road games, we’re gonna have to talk it through.

I think offensively again, just demanding that that ball moves with space higher. I’m trying to get guys to space higher, we’re still down. Because it’s an easier play when you’re down to try to go to the baseline. When you go middle, it’s a little … (We) can’t be spaced the way we are.

And you know, and then Oscar, I just said, there were rebounds that he got last year, that he didn’t get, many of them he was rebounding with one hand. Well, these guys are too big and they’re active. I mean we were up on the rebounds at halftime. And then all of a sudden we look around and I haven’t looked at that stat, but my guess is they outrebounded us, we missed enough shots that they could rebound.

Question about potential fatigue with Oscar Tshiebwe:

What I’ve been saying to him is sub yourself, and he came to me and said, ‘You know what? Coach, I don’t know how to do that. So I’m just going to count on you subbing me.’

But what happened to start the game, it wasn’t how we were playing those pick and rolls. Then I’m trying to do it on the board and explain it again. And they got another lob and I said, ‘You can’t be in.’

I got a good group. We just got to come together, all of us, and say ‘Alright, how do we do this?’ We have been good defensively. How do we break down? Was it because the score was what it was? Or was it us?

And then offensively, you know, we’ve got to look at the shots were missing: Are they make-able shots? Or do we have the wrong guy shooting? Some other guy should be shooting. Should we space it out more? We have Oscar, how do we utilize him? He’s still player of the year, reigning player to the year, didn’t play that way tonight, but none of us did.

And I didn’t coach that way. We all got beat. I got beat. And our team.

Another lopsided UK basketball loss. Oscar Tshiebwe benched. ‘We’re not Kentucky.’

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