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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 on a 3-5 shot, but only played eight minutes in the second, missing two trios and a free kick. After the game, John Calipari said the reason Allen didn’t play anymore in the second half was that he didn’t take advantage of the open looks he had.
“At the end of the day, we ran things for Dontaie and he didn’t throw the ball. That’s why I took it out once. We ran two things at him and he had shots and didn’t want to catch them. I’m like, ‘Look. You’re in there to shoot. That’s one thing. But look, Dontaie wasn’t the problem. “
Allen and Jacob Toppin were essentially Kentucky’s only offense in the first half, combining for 16 of the Cats’ 25 points, but neither started the second half and didn’t see the word until more than five minutes, more of six in the case of Allen. Because?
“Well, you know one of the things we talked about, right? – Lance [Ware] also, how about throwing Lance? What you’re trying to do is I don’t try … I want to win every game I train, but the other side is that I don’t try to get anyone’s heart out. So you can submit them when three, four minutes have passed.
“We didn’t start half as badly, so it wasn’t like that. It’s not like you’re replacing quarterbacks. He played a bad quarter, so I’m going to play that other quarterback. You don’t train that way. What you do is submit to them. He comes out on the other side and again Dontaie looked great in the second half. He looked fantastic. He received a foul. But they were going towards him defensively. In other words, whoever he was watching was going. I did the same with BJ, so I took those guys and went with Jacob and the other guys. “
A quick review of the score of the second half box shows that Allen was the only wild cat who finished positive in the plus / minus efficiency:
At 4-8, doesn’t it take time to stop worrying about feelings and playing the guys who really help you win?