Kentucky beaten soundly 79-62
In Friday's press conference, Coach John Calipari told reporters that he does not know when this team may hit rock bottom. Hopefully for BBN, Sunday evening's game versus Georgia Tech is the very bottom of the rock.
The 79-62 loss saw them not being competitive and lost for most of the second half and dropped them to 1-3 for the first time since the 2000-01 season.
“If you turn the ball over 20 times and the other team scores 30 points, you’re not beating anybody. Hardest play, fumble balls, got out-toughed again. It is what it is. I’ve got so much work to do," said Coach John Calipari about his young team's play.
He continued, "“We’ve been here before. There’s thing that I could do. Some of the stuff I’ve got to hold them accountable like turning the ball over. I mean again, I’m just telling you we have guys trying to make the hardest play they can make. Why would you just not throw to that man? ‘Because I’m trying to show I can play.’ Well, what happens is you show that you don’t realize, you don’t understand. Just make easy plays and attack."
The one bright spot was the emergence of Terrence Clarke, the much-ballyhooed freshmen that was seen as one of the scoring options and best players on the team. After struggling out of the gate in the team's first three games, he was the only scoring weapon for the Cats in the first half.
He had a career-high 22 points and made his first three pointer of his career finishing with a trio.
The Cats had 21 turnovers for the game leading to 30 points for Georgia Tech.
"Turning the ball over, I thought we had a better game plan, man to mans, I have a better idea. Now, we just have to look at guys and if you’re a turnover guy, I can’t play you. Now, I’m going to work with you in practice. I’m going to do whatever I can to keep you, to get you to drill you, to get you to understand. And again, the plays if you look at them, they have an easy play but they try and do something tough. It’s, ‘I’m trying to make my plays.’ But we’ll get it.”
Pendleton County's Dontaie Allen had three turnovers in the first half in his limited play a stat Coach Cal seem to allude to.
"“But we had one in the first half that had three." Cal said while conceding that the turnover issue is throughout the whole team.
"I mean there’s things that we can do and there are things that I’ve got to do. But, again, there’s a lot of stuff that we’re working on. And losing games makes it harder. If we play bad or do stuff and then win a game, there’s some like, ‘Ok. We can do this.’ But we don’t have any wins. We’re going to have to fight, not turn it over, play aggressively, make really easy plays, be more physical. I mean everybody is knocking us around right now."
Its a problem that guard Davion Mintz acknowledged, "“I’m a little worried about it. Starting with me, I’ve got to protect the ball a little bit better. We have to come together as a team and understand the importance of protecting the ball."
The Cats schedule does not get any easier as the youthful Wildcats play ACC foe Notre Dame on Saturday, Dec 12 at noon in Rupp Arena.
It's their next chance to get a win after their opening season victory over Morehead State.
“Fairly deep, honestly. I mean, we had high expectations coming into the season. But in all honesty, this team is very inexperienced. At the same time, as it is a hole, I think it’s something that happened that it needed to, and we’re going to keep battling through this, honestly. We dropped three (games). It’s nothing to just come back and win three in a row. So, if we put those together and figure this out, I think we’ll be just fine," said Mintz about the 1-3 start.
A light at the end of the tunnel is that the 2000-01 team that also went 1-3 finished the season ranked in the top 10 of both major polls, were co-champions of the Southeastern Conference and won the league tournament.