John Calipari explains what went wrong in Kentucky's second-round exit from the NCAA Tournament

For a second consecutive season, Kentucky Basketball was shown the exit during the NCAA Tournament’s first weekend, following the year the Wildcats weren’t invited to participate at all. Another year with First Team All-American Oscar Tshiebwe and the complementary pieces to be a Final Four contender, another abrupt ending to Kentucky’s March Madness hopes and dreams before the Round of 32 played its last game.

On the postgame stage in Greensboro, John Calipari tried to explain what went wrong for his Wildcats in the 75-69 defeat. Unfortunately, the conversation was too familiar to the one a year ago when he was looking for some of the same answers in Indianapolis.

In his final press conference in 2022-23, Calipari pointed to many of the ongoing struggles that hindered Kentucky in the regular season and the SEC Tournament, when the preseason No. 4 team lost a total of ten games, many as the projected winner.

Against Kansas State, three-point shooting was the worst of the team’s problems, similar to other losses in the past.

“This is what happened in certain games,” Calipari explained afterward. “You know, you turn around, and you are like, guys, you can’t — you don’t have to make them all. You just can’t miss them all.”

Disappointed by Kentucky’s shooting woes (20 percent from outside), he repeated that exact phrase in his postgame radio interview: “You don’t have to make them all. You just can’t miss them all.”

Antonio Reeves and Jacob Toppin missed them all (until Reeves’ tenth attempt found its mark once it was too late). Together, they went 1-of-12 from outside and 2-for-22 from the field.

“We’ve had games like that,” Calipari added. “It’s, you know — you just hope in the NCAA Tournament, you can go on a run. And I thought after the first game where we fought and we didn’t shoot it great, but I thought that was a good sign.”

Calipari’s inner circle believed Kentucky was “due” for a big shooting night, and he spent the last two days building Reeves’ confidence, Calipari admitted.

“Then throughout the game, we just kept telling him, what? ‘Keep shooting. Shoot it.’ Just wasn’t that day for him, and it wasn’t his fault. We had other guys not make any shots either.”

He made it clear the loss wasn’t all on Reeves’ shoulders.

“So, you know, that happens in this sport, but, yes–again, you out-rebound them, you have five turns in the second half. These two play the way they do. Oscar plays the way he does. You needed one more guy to play and go get baskets and play with that swagger that you have to play with in this tournament.”

Regrets at the end of the first half

Not just a player issue, Calipari believes he could’ve done a better job, too. For instance, late in the first half, he sat Oscar Tshiebwe with a one-point lead, only for Kansas State to immediately go on a 4-0 run in 55 seconds to end the half up three.

Does Calipari regret his handling of the situation? Did he consider a timeout there instead?

“Yes, I did, and I should have, and I told them at halftime I should have,” he replied. “But we came out the second half and got up, so it didn’t hurt us. But, yes, that — to get them back in. I didn’t want Oscar to get a second foul. That’s why I took him out. Then they were shooting. Yeah, I told them I should have called a timeout right then. They come down. We throw it away, and they make that shot. But, again, we got up. We had our chances.”

“Tough way to end”

Calipari opened his postgame remarks with a brief summary of the loss before he turned toward the room for questions.

“Tough way to end. We had some guys really fight like crazy and then had a couple of guys offensively not play their game the way they played all year, but that stuff happens in this tournament. We did a pretty good job on Johnson, and he makes that three. The little kid makes a three. He made a deep three. We miss a couple, and all of a sudden, it gets out of hand.

“These kids fought,” he said of Cason Wallace and Chris Livingston, who sat beside him on the press conference stage. “They never stopped. Oscar was — again, did some special stuff.”

Wallace and Livingston played two of their better games as Wildcats. Tshiebwe had 25 and 18.

Still, Kentucky is going home.