Orlando Antigua on Kentucky's passive first half and ability to adjust

Kentucky fell behind for the second game in a row when LSU jumped out on the Wildcats early, powered by Xavier Pinson’s 14 points in the first 10 minutes. It was a similar start to Saturday’s game against Alabama when the Tide’s Keon Ellis had a career half and threatened Kentucky’s Rupp Arena win streak.

At halftime of the Alabama game, Calipari delivered one of his better lines in his locker room speech. He told his players, “They made nine 3s and they’re down one. What are they going to make, 18? That’s fine, they’ll be down two when the game ends.”

We won’t know exactly what Calipari said at halftime of Wednesday’s LSU game unless UK Athletics pulls back the curtain in another episode of “The Journey,” but assistant coach Orlando Antigua revealed some of the halftime message in his postgame radio comments. Asked by Tom Leach what was said to spark a second-half turnaround, Antigua explained, “We just talked about, defensively, some of the things that we had gotten messed up on. There were some switches and defensive schemes that we had to tighten up on, and then just to be patient and look to attack.“

Antigua called Kentucky’s offense passive in the first half, in need of getting downhill to put more points on the board than the 23 scored in the first 20 minutes. The low-scoring effort was in part because Kentucky was again playing without its starting backcourt of TyTy Washington and Sahvir Wheeler, the two point guards on the team. Davion Mintz and Kellan Grady shared their duties for a second straight game with Jacob Toppin playing additional minutes on the wing in Grady’s spot.

Not an ideal situation with only a few games remaining, the short-handed roster in back-to-back games pushed Kentucky to find new ways to win against quality opponents in Alabama and LSU. At a point in the season when teams can lose an edge or peak too early, or weaknesses are exposed, these Wildcats keep showing their versatility and more ways to win as the postseason gets closer.

Bryce Hopkins was the big reveal in this one.

It’s exciting to see Kentucky mix up its personnel and strategy, Antigua said, yet still win games without the full roster available. He told Leach, “We have a group that, one, cares for each other; two, that will battle and compete; and they’re very smart to be able to adjust on the fly.”

As for when Washington and Wheeler will be back to add their playmaking ability to the mix, Antigua said, “I haven’t seen them today.”

No worries. Kentucky didn’t miss them in either of the last two games. Imagine how fun it will be when they get back, hopefully by the weekend.

Until then, celebrate another come-from-behind win with a short roster.