In reviewing a 66-59 loss to Auburn on Saturday, Kentucky coach John Calipari used the f-word more than once. No, that that f-word. It was another that might have summed up a UK team falling to 4-8 for only the fourth time in the proud program’s history.
“You can see I’m frustrated,” Calipari said after lamenting the players not always following instructions on both ends of the court.
On defense, Calipari said he directed the players to contest Auburn shots around the basket but not swipe at a shooter and send him to the foul line. Auburn hitting 15 of 21 free throws indicated the instruction was not always followed.
“That kind of stuff is what gets frustrating for coaches,” Calipari said.
On offense, Kentucky players passed up shots.
“No one wanted to shoot,” Calipari said, “till I was yelling at dudes, ‘Shoot the ball!’
“That’s what it came down to.”
With all that, Calipari acknowledged that Kentucky competed and had a chance to win.
Trailing by 10 with barely five minutes left, and by eight inside the final three minutes, Kentucky closed to within 60-58 with 59.4 seconds left.
Devin Askew led the charge, scoring or assisting on three straight baskets.
But Auburn held on by making 4 of 4 free throws in the final 18.7 seconds.
Kentucky fell to 4-8 overall, which was only the fourth time a UK team lost eight of its first 12 games. The first three came in 1910, 1923 and 1926-27. The Cats fell to 3-2 in the Southeastern Conference.
Not for the first time, Calipari said to expect more possession-by-possession games where a margin for error is not large.
“We’re not going to have that much of a gap with everybody we play from here on in,” Calipari said.
Calipari’s message to the team after the game?
“Toughness,” Jacob Toppin said. “We’re supposed to be the tougher team every time. And today we were not the tougher team.”
The familiar bugaboos of too many turnovers (18), too few assists (seven) and poor 3-point shooting (four of 17) led to a pointed question: Is it time to concede that Kentucky will not be a good offensive team?
“You know me,” Calipari said. “I’ll never stop tweaking and trying and try to figure something out that clicks in their minds.
“A lot of it was, ‘I’m getting mine.’ OK. You didn’t get yours and we didn’t get ours.”
Auburn, which got a big boost by Sharife Cooper’s improved play in the second half, ran its records to 8-6 overall and 2-4 in the SEC.
Calipari has said he enjoys victories that come despite poor shooting. By that standard, he had to like the first half.
Kentucky led 25-21 despite making only eight of 24 shots.
Auburn shot even worse. The Tigers made only eight of 33 shots, which included two for 17 on its signature 3-point attempts.
Cooper, the player the Auburn team is built around, missed all eight of his first-half shots (four coming from 3-point range). He had three assists and two turnovers in a pedestrian first half in which he was mostly guarded by Askew or Toppin.
Kentucky took its first lead on a Dontaie Allen 3-pointer with 13 minutes left before the break. Except for a 47-second period when Auburn was ahead 17-16, UK led the rest of the half.
Anyone looking for an omen to signal a Kentucky victory might have focused on a 3-pointer made by Brandon Boston with 6:01 left. He had made only six of 37 previous shots from beyond the arc. This one gave UK a 14-8 lead.
With Kentucky leading 25-21 at halftime, the ESPN announcing crew pointed out that it was only the second SEC game this season in which neither team scored 30 points in the first half.
Auburn came into the game averaging 77.2 points. That average was 92.5 points in the two games in which Cooper played.
But Auburn did not reach 30 points Saturday until the 14:32 mark of the second half.
Auburn came out in the second half driving more than shooting 3s. The Tigers matched their 21 first-half points less than 10 minutes.
A 3-pointer by Devan Cambridge put Auburn ahead 46-43 with 10 minutes left. That put UK behind for the first time since 2:48 remained in the first half.
A basket by Cambridge off a fast break put Auburn ahead 48-43. UK called time with eight-plus minutes left to ponder its largest deficit.
The timeout didn’t help. After Davion Mintz made a 3, UK committed three straight turnovers. Auburn converted two of them into transition baskets to extend the lead to 56-46.
That prompted another Kentucky timeout, this time with 5:36 left.
