RUPP ARENA AT CENTRAL BANK CENTER
FEB. 9, 2021
ATTENDANCE: 3,075
Final Score: (RV) Arkansas 81, Kentucky 80
Final Score: (RV) Arkansas 81, Kentucky 80
Team Records and Series Notes • Kentucky is now 5-13 overall, 4-7 in the Southeastern Conference.o UK has lost four in a row and seven of its last eight games after starting league play 3-0.• Arkansas is 15-5 overall, 7-4 in league play.• Kentucky leads the series 33-12 but tonight ended an eight-game winning streak by UK. o Kentucky leads 15-4 in games played in Lexington. • Next: Kentucky plays host to Auburn on Saturday. The game will tip at 1 p.m. on CBS.
Player Notes • Brandon Boston Jr. led the Wildcats with 17 points. o He made a season-high 60% of his field-goal attempts(6 of 10).o Boston made 4 of 5 on 3-point shots, a season high for 3-pointers made.o He has made two or more 3-pointers in three of the last five games.o Boston added seven rebounds and tied his season high for assists with three. o He has scored in double figures in a team-high 13 games and led the team in scoring a team-high-tying seven times.• Olivier Sarr totaled 13 points and 10 rebounds, his third double-double at Kentucky, adding a career-high-tying four assists. o He made a career-high three 3-pointers and has made 6 of 8 long balls over the last three games.• Devin Askew scored 11 points, his seventh double-figure game of the season and second in a row.o It is the second time this season he has made two 3-pointers, the fist time taking place in the season opener.o He added a game-high six assists, just one under his season best, and had only one turnover. • Davion Mintz pitched in with 11 points, his 11th double-figure scoring game of the season. • Keion Brooks Jr. notched 10 points and seven rebounds.o He is averaging 11.6 points per game since returning nine games ago.• Jacob Toppin had nine points tonight, one shy of his season high, and tied his season best for rebounds with six.o He made 2 of 2 on 3-point shots, the first 3-pointers he has made this season.
Coach John Calipari • Calipari is now 335-90 at UK.• Calipari has a 780-230 all-time on-court record. • UK is 272-52 under Calipari against teams unranked in The Associated Press Top 25.• Calipari is 13-7 in his career vs. Arkansas.
Team Notes • Kentucky lost despite scoring 80 points, just two shy of the season high. Prior to tonight, UK had won every game in which the Wildcats had scored at least 76 points. • Kentucky made 14 of 26 3-pointers, 53.8%.o The 14 3-pointers tied for the third most in a game under Calipari and the most since hitting 15 treys vs. Georgia on March 1, 2012.• Five Wildcats scored in double figures for the first time this season. o The last time was Feb. 18, 2020.• Kentucky tied its season high for assists with 18. UK had won the other three games (Morehead State, Mississippi State, Florida) with 18 assists.• With 18 assists and only 11 turnovers, UK is now 5-2 this season when winning or tying turnover margin. • Although Kentucky had only 11 turnovers tonight, Arkansas had just six miscues and the visitors won points off turnoversv 12-4.
In the First Half • Kentucky started Devin Askew, Davion Mintz, Brandon Boston Jr., Isaiah Jackson and Olivier Sarr for the sixth time this season. UK is 1-5 with this lineup.• UK has used seven different starting lineups this season, none of which have started more than sixgames.• Keion Brooks Jr. and Dontaie Allen were the first substitutes at the 15:14 mark. • Boston opened the game with a 3-pointer. Four of UK’s first six baskets, coming in the first 8:09, were 3-pointers as UK staked a 21-15 lead. • One of the 3s was by Jacob Toppin, making his first long ball of the season.• Arkansas came back with a 7-0 run to take a 22-21 lead.• Jackson had spectacular one-handed dunk at the 6:20 markon an alley-oop from Boston. • The teams battled evenly the remainder of the half, with Arkansas leading 36-35 at intermission.• UK was by Boston (nine points), Brooks (eight) and Jackson (seven points).• Kentucky is 2-8 when trailing at halftime this season.
In the Second Half • Kentucky opened the second half with the starting lineup.• Arkansas hit three 3-pointers in the first three minutes, with back-to-back 3s giving the Hogs a 47-42 lead. o UA added a steal and layup, plus a steal, layup and free throw for an 11-0 run and a 52-42 lead with only 4:33 gone in the second half.• Ahead 68-60, a UK foul and technical foul gave the Hogsfour straight free throws, which they converted for their largest lead at 72-60 with 6:11 to go.• UK made an 8-0 run to get it within 72-68. • A Sarr 3-pointer with 2:14 left got it within 76-73. • A Boston 3-pointer with 27.8 seconds left pulled it to 78-77. • Arkansas’ JD Notae made the second of two free throws to make it 79-77.• Mintz’ 3-pointer with 12.3 seconds left put the Wildcats ahead 80-79.• Arkansas’ Jalen Tate got an offensive rebound and was fouled with 4.3 seconds left. He made both free throws for an 81-80 UA lead. • Arkansas got a steal at midcourt to preserve the win.
#3, Brandon Boston Jr., Fr., G
On the perseverance of this team …
“Coach tells us every single game to keep fighting, no matter the outcome, keep fighting all 40 minutes. That’s what we did today, but unfortunately it didn’t go our way today.”
On if you will take away more positives than hurdles from this game…
“Nah, I always keep it positive. I feel like this was a game where we grew and learned. We finally fought the last five minutes of the game, and I feel like we just came out ready to play from the start, and that’s what happened today.”
On the difference in this second half vs. others …
“You know, just us getting in the gym every day, early mornings, late nights, just trying to perfect our craft.”
On if the team’s mindset has shifted to just improving ahead of the SEC Tournament …
“For sure. We can’t worry about the losses. You know, we take those as lessons and continue to work hard and grow every day.”
On Devin Askew leading the huddle at the end of the game …
“Definitely. He was just getting us fired up, telling us we have tofinish this game out. Just be ready to shoot and be ready to defend.”
On if you need more leadership in the huddle from Devin Askey or anyone else …
“Definitely. Definitely need those encouraging words down the stretch.”
On his thoughts on the chemistry of Olivier Sarr and Devin Askew…
“You know that’s something we work on every day with those two. Just try to let Devin read the screen and roll and find help with a man and get the shot that he needs to take.”
On handling Terrence Clarke’s absence for four weeks …
“He’s just trying to stay positive through this whole thing. There’s a lot of adversity and hate this year. We just have each other’s backs and tell each other to just smile through everything.”
On if the last ball was meant for him and just wound up in the wrong hands …
“Yeah it was set up for me to take the shot, but we just didn’t think fast enough.”
On what got him going for tonight’s game …
“Like I said, just waking up early in the morning, waking up at night just going to the gym whenever I can to put up a lot of shots and make them. I’m just building my own confidence every day.”
On what his confidence is at this point …
“My confidence is always high, no matter if I’m going through ups and downs my confidence has to stay high.”
On if he could paint a picture of the rest of the season how it would play out …
“I told the guys after the game that I loved how we fought. As long as we keep fighting that way and playing with each other we won’t lose. That’s what I think.”
On how his views of toughness has changed over the season until now …
“Toughness is everything. Coming up with every rebound, with every ball if we lose the ball, playing defense, guarding your man, hitting those dagger shots. Toughness is all of that.”
Kentucky Head Coach John Calipari
Q: What were you trying to do on the final play there?
What do you mean? On the final play?
Q; Yeah, when there was 4.3 seconds left and you were bringing the ball up and turned it over.
You mean the one where Olivier (Sarr) had it?
Q: Yes.
Yeah, that ball was supposed to go to Olivier and then one of the guards and then we kind of didn’t get quite open. But, we were also going to look at BJ (Brandon Boston Jr.), who was open, and we passed him up, if you know what I’m saying. If you look at it, it was supposed to go to either BJ. If he’s open, throw it. He was open. We didn’t, which is OK. We threw it to Olivier. Olivier is catching it and throwing it to somebody and we’ve got our best 3-point shooters out on the corners and the wings. So, that’s what we were trying to do.
Let me just say this, guys. This team, that’s the best we’ve finished a game. So I’m like, I can’t be that upset. There were things that happened. I’ve got to go back and look at the last call, I mean, was it a jump ball? Was there body contact? Because this game was physical. To give up two free throws to win the game, I don’t know. We’ll see it when I watch the tape.
But this team fought. You know, B.J. (Boston) played better. We took open shots. We didn’t make them all but we took open shots. We flew it up the court. We posted it. We added a little wrinkle or two today — for today. We did some things defensively different. We’re just trying to see if we can bring some aggressiveness out now.
I was going crazy in this game. I was not going to let them hang their head. I had to tell them, we’re down four baskets. There’s five minutes to go. They look like the world ended. What? And so this was a breakthrough that way. Am I happy we lost? No. I want to watch the end of the game and make sure I know exactly what happened. But the plays and the execution that we had, flawless.
Q. I know you don’t like to run plays specifically to set up threes, but Olivier has shown such an attitude for that recently, is that an option to get some more offense going to have him do what you were doing in the second half more often?
COACH JOHN CALIPARI: Well, you don’t want him to take — well, how many you want him to take?
Q. He’s 8-for-15 on the season.
COACH JOHN CALIPARI: I’m asking. Do you want him to take ten a game?
Q. No.
COACH JOHN CALIPARI: How many did he take today?
Q. Four.
COACH JOHN CALIPARI: All right. So maybe he takes one or two more. I mean, yes, but he’s also pretty good when he squares up shot. He can do both. He can do both. He’s — I’ve been saying all along, you saw Davion make some shots, Devin made some shots, B.J. made some shots, Olivier made shots and I keep saying, most of this is mental for these kids. It’s hard. It’s hard. How we started this season and what the gauntlet was I threw at them, it was hard mentally. This has been hard. So they — let’s just hope this was a little bit of a breakthrough.
Q. You’ve spoken to a little bit, but not just in this game, at 5-13 now, you have a bunch of guys who have had a lot of opportunity to kind of just punt, you know, to just lay down a season and for all the agonizing losses, doesn’t seem like you have any guys, or many guys, who have done that. How significant is it to you —
COACH JOHN CALIPARI: Well, we don’t — we don’t have anybody — we don’t have anybody (who has done that).
And Kyle (Tucker), I want to say this, and I need everybody to listen and our fans to listen: the medical people, I’m not going to be specific of what’s wrong, but he (Terrence Clarke) has an injury that he cannot play. So everybody on this team, he cried. I cried. Because he’s out another four weeks.
So it’s not like anybody doesn’t want to play. He was supposed to be our best player. We haven’t had him, and now, you look at this team, I’m proud that they are fighting. We still make mistakes and we do some stuff.
But here’s the biggest thing I said to them prior to the game the last two days. If you’re not in and looking like this and you look like that, the game is really hard and you’re out there about by yourself. If you’re like this, the game is a little easier because you have a bunch of guys looking after you.
There was one point in the first half where we didn’t pass the ball and you probably heard me, I as was yelling, loud, “Just pass it to somebody! Pass it! Pass!” We stopped. Well, second half we went back to moving the ball. Pass the ball. Get it to the next guy. Throw it to a guy who is open. How about this? Create a good shot for your teammate. We did a bunch of that today.
Guys, this has been one of those — I told them today, they worked hard enough and had enough bad things happen to them. They deserve something good to happen. But no one is giving it to you. You’ve got to take it. We got closer today to taking it.
Q. It seems like on most of the losses this year, in the second half, the team has lost focus, had a lot of turnovers. What was the difference tonight? It seemed like they were a lot more focused and had a lot of fight in them.
COACH JOHN CALIPARI: Because they were playing together. So instead of each guy worrying about how I play, I played so bad, I cannot be engaged with this team. And that’swhat we do, and then it leads to turnovers. I’ve got to get a basket because I’m 1-for-7, so I’ve got to get a basket. So you take a bad shot, you throw a crazy pass or you try to hit a home run because you’re playing poorly.
Today they were a team trying to create shots and execution for each other so that we can win. You know, again, we had some breakdowns defensively. We were — there were some guys that, you know, the game plan was we broke it off a couple times and they made us pay with layups. And so you know, but the reality of it is guys who are in there fighting, battling, you know, did some good stuff.
But look, this game of basketball, the key is, when I’m not playing well, how do I help the team win. If you want to be a really good player. Or when I’m not playing well, I don’t care if we win or lose or what happens. You can’t be that guy.
And what I’m continuing to say, we’re looking for singles and bunts. I don’t need home runs. We’re not capable of hitting home runs. So let’s not. Let’s just do all the bunts and great screens and execution and everybody do their thing together. Like I said after the game, hard for me to be mad. I wanted to win the game. I’ll look at the stuff down the stretch to see how I feel.
But the reality of it is the team fought and they executed and they threw daggers today. Finally, guys threw daggers.
Q. It was just a couple weeks ago that you said the team was listening but they weren’t hearing. And now the things that you’ve been emphasizing, the turnovers, getting out on the break, it seems like they are really hearing for the first time. What do you attribute that to, and does that give you encouragement for the rest of the year?
COACH JOHN CALIPARI: I think, again, you know, this is us — we’re still trying to figure out different things with this team. You probably didn’t know but I changed some stuff up today on how we had spacing on the court, what I did defensively on the halfcourt, you probably didn’t notice, but we are trying different things to see what works for this group.
And I’m not going to stop. I’m coaching. I’m fighting. I’mbattling. I’m playing every game. We’ve got one game Saturday. I’m not worried about anything else. We’ve got a game Saturday.
So my day will be spent watching this, learning from the tape. It’s done. Let’s get on with the next game. I’m going to be honest with you, I don’t even know who we’re playing. I know we’vegot a game Saturday.
Q. I know you mentioned you wanted to go back and look at that last foul that was called, but earlier in the game, you had a long talk with officials. Isaiah (Jackson) gets a tech and has to leave — what can you say about the guys being frustrated —
COACH JOHN CALIPARI: I just told Isaiah, “Isaiah, if you miss a call, you’ve just got to let it go.” You can’t get technical in a game like this. And they keep the ball and all of a sudden the stuff changed on us.
Now from that point, we had our chances and got the one-point lead but we don’t want it. It’s the same, again, you know, you look at — in a game for us in our team, there are game-ending calls that we’ve seen. At Auburn, it’s a game-ending call. Not a jump ball. It’s a foul. Now those game — they are done. The game ends. That was a game-ending call. I’ve got to watch the tape. I don’t know. You guys could tell me. You probably saw it. If it was a foul, it was the right call. If it wasn’t a foul, it was the wrong call.
Q. I guess looking back, it’s kind of a minor thing in some ways, but toward the end when I saw your team huddle up on the court, Devin (Askew) got in and looked like he took charge and almost barking at the guys. Is that a step forward for him? First time I can remember somebody doing that.
COACH JOHN CALIPARI: Yeah, and we’ve been talking about that. We’ve been talking about it. You guys don’t even huddle. You’re so disappointed in how you are playing, you can’t even huddle and talk at each other.
Again, we’ve got inexperienced guys who have only played for themselves. I’ve had it before but I’ve had the summer and the fall. And they figure out at some point in the year, we need each other, so I’ve got to stop this, or you’re not going to play. I’m not going to put you in the game.
And so now they are starting to huddle. They are starting to talk. I mean, how about how we had to finish the half. How about the stuff we’re doing, had to go zone, Davion (Mintz) playing, and then I said, “Let B.J. play for you.” Are you kidding me? He didn’t play point at one time in any practice at any point.
So we ended the night, I looked, I said, we’re right there, we shot 31 percent in the first half and we’re down one — I loved it, but I’m still saying the same thing. You know, there were points in the game, one or two or three plays, bang, that changed the complexion of the game and we’ve still got to get it under control.
Thanks, guys.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports