John Calipari lavishes praise on USC after upset: ‘They never stopped playing’

In the end, it was all very simple for Kentucky coach John Calipari.

“They deserved to win,” Calipari remarked after Tuesday’s wild South Carolina comeback to top the Wildcats, 76-68. “This wasn’t about us, this was about South Carolina.”

Coach Cal didn’t offer any excuses for his team surrendering a 14-point second half lead, or for committing 32 personal fouls, or for allowing South Carolina star Chris Silva to dominate in the low post.

He just gave the Gamecocks and coach Frank Martin props for out-willing his own team.

“I’m really disappointed but you know what, you gotta give South Carolina credit, they played like Frank coaches,” Calipari said. “They’re down and it looks like they’re going to get smacked, and they never stop playing and then they got the momentum.”

Most of Tuesday’s contest was an ugly affair, with both teams getting whistled for fouls constantly and going through long stretches without any field goals while enduring aggressive, physical defense that riled up the crowd of 16,210 at Colonial Life Arena.

But Calipari had no complaints about the officiating, which gave South Carolina 38 free throw attempts. In fact, he said he waved aside protest from his own players who tried to claim they hadn’t fouled the Gamecocks.

“I’ve never seen so many dumb fouls,” Calipari said, then referencing a pivotal intentional foul called against Hamidou Diallo with 11:29 left in the game. “Like, you grab a guy, pull his shirt out. Excuse me, you think this is lacrosse? ... You pulled the guy’s shirt out of his pants!”

After that intentional foul, South Carolina outscored Kentucky 33-11. A large part of that rally came from Silva, who scored 10 points in the final 10 minutes and on whom Calipari lavished praise.

“Silva, we did a pretty good job in the first half (but) the second half they just said, we’re throwing it to him,” Calipari said.

“He was the difference. He manhandled anyone we put on him. He just moved people. He just bullied them. He dominated them. He manhandled anybody on my team.”

Silva and the rest of South Carolina’s bigs throttled Kentucky in the post. In particular, Calipari said the Gamecocks outplayed the Wildcats on the offensive glass, where Kentucky had its worst performance of the season.

“They got 14 of them and we got six,” Calipari said while critiquing his team for “unwarranted arrogance.”

“That is basically an effort situation and a toughness situation,” he said of USC’s edge in rebounds.

Lastly, Calipari gave credit to South Carolina’s home crowd, the biggest of the season to date.

“Every time we come in here it’s a packed house. It was a great crowd. I imagine they had a good time and they enjoyed themselves,” Calipari said.

Calipari’s star player, forward Kevin Knox, agreed, citing the noise from the fans as a factor in the Wildcats’ 3-of-8 shooting from the free throw line in the game’s final four minutes.

“They get loud. They weren’t loud when we were up 14, but when you change the game with the intentional foul, they start hitting some shots, next thing you know, the crowd got into it,” Knox said. “We missed some big free throws down the stretch. I think the crowd definitely played a big impact, they got up and got loud.”

With the victory, the Gamecocks snapped a four-game losing streak against Kentucky dating back to 2014, but Calipari indicated that he came in expecting a scrappy contest based off years past.

“South Carolina always gives us a good game. They always do,” he said.

This story was originally published January 24, 2018 at 7:35 AM with the headline "John Calipari lavishes praise on USC after upset: ‘They never stopped playing’."