In a matter of minutes a great win over Alabama went to pure horror as DeAndre Liggins and Doron Lamb both went down with injuries at the end of the SEC Semi-Final win today.
Everyone knows what Kentucky weakness is…depth.
So, when does John Calipari realize he needs to get players out of the game?
I would think if you are up 20 with 2 minutes to go the lead should be safe. Right?
Coach Cal doesn’t seem to think so.
[QUOTE]
[B][I]They didn’t stop pressing. You don’t know my bench. I play six guys. If they had stopped pressing, I would have subbed with three minutes to go. But they didn’t stop pressing and they kept grabbing and scrapping. And the minute he backed up, I would have substituted. But if you don’t stop -[/I][/B]
[B][I]All right, so I sub, and they make a couple threes, we miss it, my bench is saying we’re fine. It goes to 11. I sub my guys back in now, we miss foul shots, and it’s three, and you (media) say, ‘You never played those guys all year. Why would you do that? Why wouldn’t you finish the game off?’[/I][/B]
[B][I]You don’t win. Obviously, I would rather have had them all out. We play tomorrow. But I’m trying to win that (Alabama) game. So, good question, though.[/I][/B]
It wasn’t the last time the subject came up, however. As sometimes happens, TV or print guys wander in who weren’t there when the thing began will ask some questions that already have been asked.
The next question came from a different angle: “John back to the end of the game for a second. You’ve had games where you were up 14, 16. Next thing you know, it’s down to four or six toward the end. How much does that play in your mind at the end of the game?”
Calipari’s response:
[B][/B]
[B][I]Yeah, I even had an assistant say, ‘Do you want to get these guys out?’[/I][/B]
[B][I]I said, ‘They’re still pressing. Who do you want me to put in?’[/I][/B]
[B][I]And so believe me, we talked about it. It wasn’t that it didn’t enter my mind. But I coached — what was it, 18? It got down to 4? We’ve had about three of those. Wait a minute. That was with my starters. Not my backups, my starters.[/I][/B]
[B][I]And so it’s no disrespect for the backups, but why would I want to put those kids in that position? Haven’t done it all year.[/I][/B]
[B][I]But again, maybe I should have and we would have won by four, and we would have been fine, you know, we’ll see tomorrow. I mean, it’s just – doesn’t matter. Whatever we do, if I win, I was right. If we don’t win, I was wrong. I’ve lived with that — how many years have I coached? 20? I’ve had that for 20 years.[/I][/B]
Question: But when you see a guy go down at the end, do you get a twist in your stomach a little bit?
[B][/B]
[B][I]No, I walked over and said, ‘Get up, you’re fine.’ But, we got Brandon out. You know, wanted to make sure he was out. But there’s still two minutes and they’re pressing. So it went from 23 to 17 real fast. And they were trapping, but -[/I][/B]
[B][I](After later question) Well, I wish they would have backed off and weren’t pressing us and trapping us, then I would have felt more comfortable with probably about three minutes to go. But it’s like the kid at Duke (Irving). Mike, wish he didn’t have him in the game? You know. I just went over and said, ‘You’re fine, let’s go, get up, come on.’ So we’ll see.[/I][/B]
[/QUOTE]
[URL=”http://blogs.courier-journal.com/ericcrawford/2011/03/12/cal-on-liggins-lamb-and-the-late-game-question/”]Source[/URL]
I personally understand why Coach doesn’t put in the subs…he doesn’t trust them.
But here is the thing with me, he recruited them!!!! You have to have more than 6 players to win a SEC Championship, let alone a NCAA Championship.
If you have 5 guys sitting on a Kentucky bench that can’t hold a 20 point lead with 2 minutes to go then who is to blame?
I would take my chances with Poole, Polson, Hood, Vargas, and Harrellson before I would take a chance on getting Lamb, Jones, Knight, etc hurt.
Am I wrong in thinking this is Cal’s fault? Not from the coaching standpoint, but from the recruiting stance.
Play them coach, you recruited them.
