After dropping to 1-6, Kentucky’s John Calipari says ‘This was the craziest record I’ve ever put together’

Olivier Sarr took a good look at a potential baseline jump scene, but moved around the edge and then out, followed by a streak that Kentucky missed.

The jersey that Sarr missed with 6 seconds left helped a 62-59 loss at rival Louisville and the Wildcats lost their sixth straight game in brutal fashion.

Kentucky (1-6) enters 2021 with just one win of the season. That’s how big DePaul is, and the Blue Demons started the season a month late and played their first game Wednesday.

“It was the craziest record I’ve ever put together and I’d like to smoke myself in my mouth,” Kentucky coach John Calipari said on a Zoom call after the loss.

Kentucky are playing 10 new players this season and now have losses to Richmond, Kansas, Georgia Tech, Notre Dame, North Carolina and Louisville.

“Listen, we should have played games beforehand that we had a chance to win, four or five of them and then play four or five of the others,” Calipari said. “It’s not eight tough games and we still have Texas left that looks like the 10th in the country. ”

He described the album as “just dumb.”

“We’re good enough to beat all those teams, we haven’t figured out how to finish a game yet, that’s me, I’ll keep working with them,” said Calipari.

Jacob Toppin, the move from Rhode Island that ended with 10 points and six rebounds, said his coach does not deserve the blame for the record.

“I don’t think we’ve lost any confidence, my coach’s back is going,” said Toppin, Knicks rookie younger brother Obi Toppin.

“We could win a lot of those games we played. “It simply came to our notice then. We need to play better and we start to play better so that we don’t blame ourselves for making a tight record on what we lost because we could be on the games we played to win. ”

While Toppin and his teammate Davion Mintz (19 points, seven rebounds, two assists) played well, Calipari suggested that the players who were expected to star in the team are not keeping up the end. BJ Boston (11 points, seven rebounds), Sarr (one point, one rebound) and Terrence Clarke (no score) were not factors in the game. Boston and Clarke are expected to pick up an NBA lottery.

Calipari said he planned to get on the bus and told Sarr he “loved it” and should not worry about the lost jumper.

“There are no moral virtues, we lost,” Calipari said, “And hats to Louisville, they played well. But we have to look okay, our margin is not high. We’re going to be in a bunch of close games, we don’t beat people before 30. So now it’s how we play to help us win as a team? Not you, not you. How is this team playing to help us win? ”

Asked about the stars the team deserved, Calipari said, “Now all of a sudden you get punched in your mouth and start tasting blood, how do you react? It’s a fight or a flight. ”

Toppin, meanwhile, was defending Clarke, who came off the bench at point guard despite an ankle injury.

“He’s fighting, he’s injured right now,” he said. “His body is in pain and he’s still going in there and trying so hard.”

Calipari also said the team of newcomers missed an opportunity in team building due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We need more time for all the team building materials we do here all the time because everyone is saying how do you get teams that are completely new to come together? ”He said. “We build teams in the summer, we build teams in the autumn, so we’re trying to spend some time right now and I think so. We are not where we need to be but we are making up time. ”