Photo by UK Athletics
On the list of frustrating things about losing Kentucky 66-59 to Auburn, Dontaie Allen’s lack of playing time in the second half must be in the lead. Allen played 15 minutes in the first half, scoring eight points on 3-5 shots, but played only eight minutes in the second, missing two threes and a free throw. After the game, John Calipari said that the reason Allen did not play more in the second half was that he did not take advantage of the open aspects he had.
“At the end of the day, we were running things for Dontaie and he didn’t shoot the ball. That’s why I took it out once. I ran two things for him and he had shots and he didn’t take them. I say to myself, “Look. You’re there to take pictures. This is one thing. But look, Dontaie wasn’t the problem. ”
Allen and Jacob Toppin were essentially the only offense in Kentucky in the first half, combining for 16 of the cats’ 25 points, but neither started the second half and only saw the word in five minutes, over six in Allen’s case. Why?
“Well, you know one of the things we talked about, no – Lance [Ware] also, how about throwing Lance in 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 don’t try to take anyone’s heart away. So you can remove them in three, four minutes and leave.
“I didn’t start the half so badly, so it wasn’t the case. It’s not like replacing defenders. He played a bad quarter, so I’ll play the other defender. You don’t train like that. What you do is replace them. Going back and forth again, Dontaie looked great in the second half. I look great. I got a foul. But they were heading for him defensively. In other words, they were watching whoever was guarding them. I did the same thing to BJ, which is why I took those boys and went with Jacob and the other boys. ”
A quick check of the score in the second half of the box shows that Allen was the only Wildcat to finish positively in plus / minus efficiency:
At 4-8, isn’t it time to stop worrying about feelings and just play the guys who help you win?