UK Athletics photo
On the list of frustrating things about Kentucky’s 66-59 loss to Auburn, Dontaie Allen’s lack of playing time in the second half should be at the top. Allen played 15 minutes in the first half, scoring eight points in 3-5 shots, but played just eight minutes in the second half, missing two three and a free throw. After the game, John Calipari said that the reason Allen didn’t play more in the second half was because he didn’t take advantage of the open eyes he had.
“At the end of the day, we were taking care of Dontaie and he didn’t want to kick the ball. That’s why I took it off once. We did two things for him and he had vaccinations and he didn’t want to. I’m like, ‘Look. You are there to shoot. This is one thing. But look, Dontaie was not the problem. “
Allen and Jacob Toppin were essentially Kentucky’s only attack in the first half, scoring 16 of Cats’ 25 points, but none of them started the second half and didn’t see the ground until five minutes, more than six in Allen’s case. Because?
“Well, you know one of the things we talked about, we – Lance [Ware] also, how about playing Lance there? What you’re trying to do is, I’m not trying to – I want to win every game I train, but the other side is that I’m not trying to take anyone’s heart. Then you can subdue them when three, four minutes and you’re done.
“We didn’t start half that badly, so that was not the case. It’s not like you’re replacing quarterbacks. He played a bad quarter, so I’m going to play against that other quarterback. You don’t train that way. What you do is subdue them. You go out on the other side and, again, Dontaie has great looks in the second half. It looks great. It was soiled. But they were going to him defensively. In other words, whoever he was protecting, they were going. I did the same thing with BJ, so I took those guys and went with Jacob and the other guys. “
A quick check of the box score from the second half shows that Allen was the only Wildcat to end up positive on the plus / minus efficiency:
In 4-8, isn’t it time to stop worrying about feelings and just play with the guys who are really helping you win?