Kentucky Sports Report - Kentucky-Grand Canyon game column

His team won by 40 points, but it was hard to tell that listening to Kentucky coach John Calipari Friday night.

“First half was good; second half was not good. We never got in rhythm. We never made extra passes. We kind of reverted a little bit,” said Calipari after the 85-45 win over Grand Canyon.

“The other thing that happened is they beat us on drives. In the second half, they just said, Drive the ball. The other thing that happened is it got physical and it became a little bit of a fight. We had guys not be able to make plays. They walked; missed one-footers when things got physical. That's going to be an issue for us.”

Calipari said he was not surprised by UK’s lack of physicality even against a team playing Division I basketball for just the second year.

“It's good that it happened because we were able to talk about it and we'll show it on tape tomorrow,” he said.

Kentucky still limited Grand Canyon to 16 first-half point, outrebounded the visitors 51-21 and had 58 points in the paint. Point guard Andrew Harrison had the game’s first seven points and finished with 16 points, three assists and one steal in 23 minutes. Freshman Trey Lyles had 14 points in 17 minutes and was 6-for-10 from the field. Willie Cauley-Stein — who could turn out to be the nation’s best defensive player this season — had 12 points, five rebounds, four blocks, two steals and one assist in 23 minutes. Dakari Johnson had a double-double with 10 points and 13 rebounds, including eight on the offensive end.

Yet Calipari found more not to like than like from the play of his top-ranked Wildcats.

“The biggest thing is the fist fight, the battle. I'm not giving you an inch. If you want it, you're going to have to take it,” said Calipari. “That's what this team needs. We need it from every team that we play so that we understand that's how those games are going to be.

“I thought Grand Canyon came out in the second half with that like, ‘Look, we can play with these guys. Drive 'em. Get to the rim. Play hard. Be physical. They don't want to bang.’ All of a sudden they came out and they drove the ball and they were more physical than us. We started fouling because they were getting by us. So this is going to be a process just like last year was a process. It's not any different. We got a long way to go, you know, but we will see.”

Was he happy the got pushed around?

“But I want this to be us focusing on what we need to do and coming out with high energy every time with play in what we're doing,” Calipari said.

He tried a variety of things to re-energize his team in the second half. He took Karl-Anthony Towns out early and put Johnson in with the first platoon. He went with Tyler Ulis and both Harrison twins late in the game on the same unit.

“I'll do whatever I have to do. Again, I told them when we're playing this way you really have to do your and remember job. You can't break it off and do what you're choosing to do. If we're having a scheme on defense, you got to do the scheme,” the UK coach said. “If you're supposed to do something offensively, then you have to do it.

“We never posted up close to the basket. We were posting up seven feet because it got physical. So we ran from the physicality. That's why we missed the shots we did. If you catch it tight and they try to trap, you're getting and-ones or wide open shots. We were catching it; they fought us, battled us, and pushed us out.

“We just were never ... we never got in rhythm and never made an extra pass offensively. First half defensively we were pretty good. That's why we had the gap we had. Second half we didn't guard.”

Cauley-Stein admitted UK “kind of let go of the rope a little bit” in the second half when Grand Canyon scored points.

“We didn’t play as physical and as determined. I think that’s what it was, for real. But, I mean, it comes. It’s the first game. Once it gets harder, then dudes are going to find out that it’s real, it’s the whole game,” Cauley-Stein said. “Especially if you come out flat and you get hit in the mouth first, it’s rough. It’s going to be a rough game after that. So you’ve got to come out and throw the first couple of blows and let them know you’re here and you’re going to find the rest of the game.”

He said it is hard to keep intensity going with a 27-point halftime lead like UK had — but that could be a familiar scenario in games if the Cats play the way Calipari wants.

“I mean, that’s part of it. It’s tough. And if you’re young it makes it worse because you’re not used to that,” Cauley-Stein, a junior, said. “You’re not used to playing at a level that Coach wants you to play at all the time. It just comes with the experience of playing the college-level game. As you get older, you realize what Coach is saying. It will just come.”

Cauley-Stein said a game like the one coming up Tuesday in Indianapolis against No. 5 Kansas could turn out to be the real eye-opener for UK’s freshmen like last year’s game in Chicago against Michigan State was for that freshman class.

“I think they’re really going to figure out — like us last year when we played the Michigan State game and we were down 12-0 and you’re like, ‘What just happened?’ That’s what’s got to happen for them dudes to really think about (what they need to do). The games we’ve played so far, we’re up by too much in the beginning,” Cauley-Stein said.

“When the second half takes over, we’re up by 20 already and you don’t realize that you’re getting beat the second half or you’re only up five the second half. But when you play a really good team that’s equivalent to you and you’re only up by two at half or you’re down by two at half, then it’s like playing a whole ‘nother game right at the get-go and there’s no room for error.”