Calipari's three daggers: "We're finally starting to throw some"

John Calipari doesn’t want shooters, he wants makers. And the makers must throw daggers. You should know all of this by now.

After Kentucky beat Tennessee last weekend, Calipari said he told Antonio Reeves to be a dagger-thrower for this team. “I told him, Man, you got to be the guy with three minutes to go you’re making a dagger shot, you’re making dagger free throws.”

Reeves took the message to heart because in Wednesday night’s win at Florida, he went to the line with under five minutes to go and hit two big free throws to extend Kentucky’s lead from four back out to six. After the game, it was one of three daggers Calipari singled out in his postgame comments for being big moments in the win.

“Chris’ tip-in. Antonio’s two free throws. Jacob’s three.”

Chris’ tip-in is, of course, Chris Livingston‘s clutch offensive rebound with 49 seconds left in a four-point game. He came from behind the three-point line in the corner to grab his fourth offensive rebound, then went up for the score and a foul. He made the free throw to complete the and-one and seal the game.

In his postgame comments on ESPN, Livingston spoke about his new rebounding prowess following his 15-rebound performance in Gainesville, a new career-high and his second straight game out-rebounding Oscar Tshiebwe.

Livingston explained it as, “I just know what this team needs for me, you know, just being a star in my role and just you know playing how you know the team needs me to play and how to coach needs me to play. I feel like the team has been successful when I’m playing that way, so I’m gonna continue to do it.”

Calipari said, “Chris Livingston was ridiculous today.”

The third dagger was Jacob Toppin‘s three-pointer right after Reeves’ dagger at the free throw line. Toppin’s three extended the lead to nine with 4:11 on the clock and he would add five more points before it was over for a 19-point night. Toppin has now scored in double figures in 11 straight games.

Collectively, “Those are daggers and we’re finally starting to throw some daggers at other teams who have thrown it at us all year,” Calipari said after the win.