Starting with the 2015 Final Four loss to Wisconsin, there has been a common thread to these agonizing defeats. Most have come in tight, possession-by-possession games in which the Cats failed to execute down the stretch — the 38-1 team’s 71-64 loss to Wisconsin in 2015, the 75-73 Luke Maye loss to North Carolina at the buzzer in the Elite Eight in 2017, the 61-58 Sweet 16 loss to Kansas State in 2018, the 77-71 overtime Elite Eight loss to Auburn in 2019.
Thursday was a different movie with the same ending. Up 68-62 with 4:12 remaining, Calipari’s Cats failed to close the deal. Again. Turnovers. Missed shots. Worst of all, when it mattered most, Kentucky exhibited a puzzling inability to either get the right play called, or run it correctly.
“I wish I had some answers with three minutes to go to help them through it,”
said Calipari, the man paid almost $9 million a year to have those answers.
From the Lex Herald Leader.