John Calipari pits “tweak” against “Aggies” and demands that the media deduce the difference.
On Monday night, the Kentucky Wildcats defeated the Santa Fe State Aggies 86-46 to begin the season 1-0.
John Calipari attributed it to a “tweak” he implemented during halftime, and he issued a challenge to the media to discern the reason.
Particularly on offense, the first half exhibited a degree of sluggishness that could have been anticipated by many.
As the new set of players continues to develop chemistry against additional opponents, the Cats’ 49-17 victory over the Aggies in the second half marked the beginning of a turnaround.
The BBN does not typically hear the dreaded word “tweak” until late December, when conference play approaches, but it appears Coach Cal is satisfied with what he has seen thus far and has decided to use the detested term earlier.
As of now, Kentucky has completed 12 contests this season, with eight victories and four defeats.
Since the victory over Florida A&M last week, John Calipari as well as his staff are experimenting with lineups during practice, occasionally employing two-a-days.
The 89-75 defeat to Missouri tonight signifies that a substantial amount of improvement remains.
Following his commendation of the Tigers and enumeration of his own team’s errors, John Calipari declared that he must once more examine his roster to determine which players he is capable of playing and which he should avoid.
“We got a score of eight or nine,” Cal said of the second-half surge by Kentucky. Subsequently, a series of turnovers occur. It is a run of 8-0.
Such are not my organizations. Therefore, I must return and thoroughly investigate—you know, a portion of its personnel. “While I believe that we have excellent players, there are a few who aren’t performing at their best.”
You will fight back when a squad performs that admirably. We also came within a whisker of winning the game, but ultimately faltered, turned the ball over, and committed some foolish errors. I must examine a portion of the personnel present.
Simply put, the players in these events are not performing. And it is your responsibility to execute the minutes.
You receive the minutes; you have to go do it. However, as previously stated, we have various lineups and tasks that require our attention. Nevertheless, we shall see.”
The metrics associated with tonight’s loss are quite unattractive. In the first quarter, Kentucky struggled to make three-pointers, going 2-12 and thereby enabling Missouri to establish a 12-point advantage.
The Cats converted just 15–24 free throws and committed 14 turnovers. Calipari was dissatisfied with his squad’s tendency to commit errors during crucial situations, but appeared perplexed as to what was transpiring with his players behind the arc of a free throw.
“At least a portion of the play was passable, but there were fourteen turnovers, and they all occurred at crucial moments.
However, they are excellent. Free throws are once more missed when they execute the shot as if it were their own.
And I’m attempting everything, to mental to shooting 100 to shooting 1-on-1s; we run if you miss.
I am attempting to accomplish a great deal, but I don’t want to create it that much of a problem; however, it was when you got the game to the point it was.
“Had we attempted free throws, the current count could be five or four, and the atmosphere is somewhat altered.”
A query that recurs in my mind is, What does that Kentucky team do exceptionally well? Even feeding Oscar Tshiebwe in the post, which was his go-to play last season, does not appear to be as effective as it was last year. Despite this, Oscar finished tonight with 23 points as well as 19 rebounds in 40 minutes.
John Calipari stated that his shooters’ inability to make three-pointers would deter opponents from suffocating Oscar in the paint; however, this is not transpiring.
“We differ from others in that we have an Oscar. One could propose, “All of you to descend and join me on the floor.”
Oscar is in your possession; therefore, you must play somewhat differently. If they do not play a couple for the players on the floor, Oscar is now surrounded by three individuals, which becomes a problem. We are experiencing a problem with that.