John Calipari on loss to UNCW: 'You've got to rebound and defend'

John Calipari discusses Kentucky's defensive issues against UNC Wilmington.

Saturday, December 2nd, was a day full of excitement around the Kentucky basketball program as star seven-footer Aaron Bradshaw was making his debut, as was the new court design at Rupp Arena, but the excitement vanished quickly. 

UNC Wilmington came out and played an incredible basketball game, taking down the #12 Kentucky Wildcats 80-73. 

The Cats played sloppily on both sides of the floor and turned the ball over an uncharacteristic amount of times. 

After the game, Coach Calipari discussed the defensive struggles the Cats had against UNCW. 

This is what Coach Cal had to say, " Well, the first thing is this was Saint Joe's again where we couldn't stay in front of the ball. And you can scheme and do all the stuff and they go and do an and 1 lay-up on a straight-line drive, it's hard. So, we've got time in between games, and we've got to keep working on the importance of staying in front of your man and make him score through your chest. We just keep opening up the hips, and they're shooting lay-ups. The difference between this and Saint Joe's, we made shots. So, we were able to keep the game close and that's what I keep coming back to. There are games you're not going to make shots. You've got to rebound and defend."

Kentucky fans are upset with the loss as it is one that shouldn't happen on your home court, but this Kentucky team will be okay. 

Coach Cal recognizes the issues this team had in the game and will correct them before the Cats face off with Penn. 

Upsets happen; this is part of college basketball. The key is to correct the problems and not let something like this happen in March when there are no more chances to fix issues.

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Takeaways from Kentucky's 80-73 loss to the UNC Wilmington Seahawks

Takeaways: Sloppy play and poor shot selection leads to a Kentucky loss against UNC Wilmington

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