Ups and downs of Cats’ loss to Louisville
Kentucky head coach John Calipari expresses his frustration from the sidelines during the game against the Louisville Cardinals on Wednesday, December 21, 2016 in Louisville, Ky. Louisville won the game 73-70.
December 22, 2016
This year’s Battle of the Bluegrass game didn’t play out exactly the way Kentucky fans had hoped it would.
The freshman stars didn’t rise to the occasion of the annual rivalry game. The players lacked discipline overall in the first true road game of the season, dropping head coach John Calipari to 2-6 in his teams’ first true road games since being at Kentucky.
But it’s not all bad, says Herald Leader’s Mark Story.
In his day-after article, Story analyzes how it was a good day for the state of Kentucky itself, considering how well Louisville junior point guard Quentin Snider played. Snider shot 10 for 19 from the floor for 22 points, giving the Cats fits all night and winning MVP Award of the game. Before Wednesday’s tilt, the 2014 Mr. Basketball of Kentucky was 0-for-6 in two previous Battle of the Bluegrass games.
Story also highlighted how well Calipari handled the loss during his postgame press conference, while throwing some not-so-subtle shade at Louisville head coach Rick Pitino.
First, as far as we know, Cal did not direct any derogatory hand gestures at heckling fans on the way off the court.
Second, after a game in which our state commands a national media platform, the UK coach held a postgame news conference even though his team lost.
You can watch Calipari’s full press conference here.
