Mandatory Credit: John Reed-USA TODAY Sports
John Calipari caught quite a bit of flak following Kentucky’s overtime loss to Seton Hall. The criticism was compounded when he told his players to pretend they actually won the game.
“I’m looking at it like we won the game,” he said five weeks ago. “We’re not that far off. We got better. That game, we improved. Didn’t shoot the ball particularly well, but we improved.”
The sentiment behind his statement was not clearly consumed. Even though Cal’s young team lost, he liked their progression. They were trusting his process, but it did not immediately produce results.