What happened during John Calipari's non-ejection after his second technical foul?

With 12:36 to go in Kentucky’s road matchup at Florida, UK head coach John Calipari found himself in a bit of a conundrum.

After picking up a bench technical foul just two minutes earlier, Calipari was given another tech by referee Doug Shows, leading the Kentucky head coach to believe he had just been tossed from the game.

“For what?” Calipari asked repeatedly before ultimately making his way back to the tunnel en route to the Kentucky locker room.

From there, confusion commenced, as the officials came together and talked for several minutes before calling on the Kentucky bench to go back and get Calipari from the locker room. Per the officials (and the NCAA rulebook), because the first tech was a bench technical (Class B) and not a personal technical (Class A), it doesn’t immediately count toward the two tech count for an ejection.

“When I walked out, I was going to get changed and they said, ‘You’re not out.’ I said, ‘What?'” Calipari said following the victory. “They said the first one was a bench (technical). I said, ‘Oh, OK, great.’ Then I went back in.”

With UK’s deficit growing to as many as 18 points, some fans and members of the media speculated that Calipari was looking to get thrown out the game in an effort to flip momentum back Kentucky’s direction, similar to what occurred when he was ejected at Arkansas earlier in the year.

When asked about whether or not the non-ejection was intentional, Calipari said not only was he not trying to get thrown out, he was frustrated when he originally believed he had been tossed.

“No, I don’t ever want to get (ejected),” Calipari said. “You’re not just – you’re making a statement about … but anyway. But I thought I was gone. Wasn’t happy about it either with that much time.”

Still, though, Calipari could see the benefit in being tossed, just like the momentum shift that occurred down in Fayetteville.

“It would’ve helped if I didn’t come back. We might’ve won by more,” Calipari said. “Me coming back made it a close game.”

Despite the confusion and the brief moment it appeared UK associate head coach Kenny Payne would close out the game, Calipari’s players were happy to see their head coach return to the sideline.

“We were just happy to get him back,” junior center Nick Richards said. “We don’t really know what happened before that.”

“Looking back, it was kind of funny, walking all the way to the locker room thinking he got thrown out and him coming back,” freshman wing Keion Brooks Jr. added. “When he came back, he told us he couldn’t really do much or he would get thrown out, so he was still on us but letting us know we got time to win this game, and he kept believing in us.”

At the 11:49 mark in the second half when Kentucky’s deficit extended to its largest at 18 points, Calipari said he went back to his team’s locker room conversation at halftime in hopes of mounting a comeback. After an abysmal first half out of Richards, he relied on the junior big man to shoulder the load after the break. Combine that with impressive play out of Brooks, Johnny Juzang, and Nate Sestina, and the Wildcats were able to capitalize on the comeback effort.

“This was a tough environment. The way they played, you have to give them credit,” he said. “I know at halftime, I said, ‘Nick, you are so bad right now, if you play they’re only going to remember the second half – and I’m coming at you. We’re not going away from you. So you can either be the player you’ve been all year or look like this.’ Said the same thing to EJ.

“Our defense, Keion and Johnny in the first half, I said, ‘You two gave up 25 points. I cannot play you unless you’re guarding,'” Calipari continued. “Second half, they guarded and rebounded and did a good job, and played a big part in us winning. Both of those two. Nate, huge today, making shots, second shots. He defended. We need those three for us to do something.”