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Poor shooting night sends Kentucky Wildcats to second straight loss

Shirt un-tucked, shots not falling and his team on the brink of Kentucky’s worst loss of the season, John Calipari was sent to the showers.
James Young - photo by Walter Cornett | WildcatWorld.com

James Young – photo by Walter Cornett | WildcatWorld.com

Shirt un-tucked, shots not falling and his team on the brink of its worst loss of the season, perhaps John Calipari was thinking a cold shower in the locker room would wake him from Saturday’s nightmare.

With one too many words and an entire game’s worth of jumping and screaming –at both his team and the officials – Coach Cal finally got the directive he had coming since picking up his first technical midway through the first half: He was headed to the showers with his second technical foul.

Calipari’s second-half ejection was just par for the course in Kentucky’s 71-67 loss at South Carolina on Saturday at Colonial Life Arena. Kentucky shot a rotten 26.9 percent from the field and trailed by as many as 16 points to a South Carolina team that entered the day tied for last in the Southeastern Conference with just three league wins.

“We weren’t ready,” Coach Cal said on his postgame radio show. “The game was too physical, bottom line.”

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Walter Cornett, of Glendale, Kentucky, is the owner and operator of Walter’s Wildcat World. He founded WildcatWorld.com in 1998 making it one of the oldest Kentucky basketball fan sites in operation today.

On This Day in UK Basketball History

On March 1, 1912, Kentucky defeats Georgetown College, 19-18, to complete the season with a perfect 9-0 record and earn its first title as Southern Champions.

 

On March 1, 1921, Kentucky upsets Tulane, Mercer, Mississippi A&M and Georgia to win the first Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association basketball championship. Bill King's free throw with no time left on the clock lifted the Wildcats to the SIAA Championship over Georgia.  Hundreds of Wildcats fans await “play-by-play” via telegraph, and greet the team’s train with a celebration and parade in downtown Lexington. It is believed to be the first college basketball tournament ever played.

 

On March 1, 1952, Cliff Hagan scored 42 points against Tennessee.

 

On March 1, 1969, Dan Issel scored 31 points at Vanderbilt.

 

On March 1, 1969, Mike Casey joined the 1,000-point club.  He did it in 51 games.

 

On March 1, 1979, the 1979 SEC Tournament quarterfinals featured Kentucky and Alabama.  In a scintillating display of fast-paced basketball, Kentucky hit 68.3 percent of its shots (43-of-63) and outlasted Coach C.M. Newton’s Crimson Tide and star Reggie King (38 points) behind stellar guard play from Truman Claytor (25 points, 11-of-14 field goals), Kyle Macy (22, 9-of-16) and Dwight Anderson (19, 7-of-11) before 16,300 in the Birmingham-Jefferson Civic Center.

 

On March 1, 1981, on Senior Day, No. 9 Kentucky defeated No. 2 LSU 73-71.  Kentucky denied LSU’s bid for an unbeaten SEC season when Sam Bowie blocked Howard Carter’s potential game-tying jumper just ahead of the final buzzer before 24,011 in Rupp Arena.

 

On March 1, 1987, Richard Madison's basket with eight seconds left enabled the Wildcats to upset the No. 12 Sooners.

 

Wildcats Born on This Date

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