COLUMN: Calipari's "Refuse to Lose" Mantra Becoming Kentucky's Golden Gimmick
LEXINGTON, Ky. — After Kentucky's disheartening loss to Georgia last weekend, Hall of Fame coach John Calipari reached deep into his old bag of epigrams and pulled out a gem from his UMass days.
"Refuse to lose."
Funnily enough, it may not have taken long to find the phrase, because there wasn't much left for Calipari to say to try and motivate his Jekyll-and-Hyde crew of Cats that were teetering on a humiliating season.
The clock was ticking with just three weeks left in the regular season. The Wildcats were on the outside looking in at the NCAA Tournament. The defeat to the Bulldogs sucked out any momentum that was still left in the tank, once again presenting a shell of the team that entered the 2022-23 campaign as the No. 4 team in the nation.
Luckily for Calipari, his team hadn't given up just yet. They tossed in their final ante and smacked down one last bet of faith and confidence that things could be turned around — for good.
The reward on Wednesday night was a tense 71-68 road win over Mississippi State. It served as the second Quadrant 1 victory of the season for the Wildcats, returning the wager it made, and then some. It was after that game that Calipari disclosed to reporters that he dusted off the aforementioned one-liner and presented it to his team.
"You may run out of time. But refuse to lose. You just keep fighting,” he said. Who’s ready to play? Who’s ready to fight? Refuse to lose. Do what you got to do for the team.”
It rubbed off, as both forwards Jacob Toppin and Chris Livingston echoed the sentiment after the fact.
“We just refused to lose today,” Toppin said.
“The second half, down the stretch, like seven minutes left that’s all we were talking about, saying that to each other. Refusing to lose,” Livingston added.
While it felt as though that could be the moniker that the team uses for the rest of the season, it also felt just as much like a gimmicky attempt at Calipari trying to squeeze whatever "fight" was left in the battered batch of Wildcats.
Sure, it's a great motto to live by, but was anyone supposed to truly believe that at this point in the season, that's all it took to finally yank UK into the next gear needed to get out of its eternal funk?
The pessimist in me leaned no. Well, more of an emphatic stance under a cartoon-sized lit-up sign saying "NO." I'm talking something only Wile E. Coyote is capable of building.
Kentucky has looked dead in the water on multiple occasions. One can only ramble on about the South Carolina loss so much, but a similar dark cloud appeared after losing in Athens last Saturday. The Cats have also played the part of a group of players finding their stride, strutting toward that ghastly "turning the corner phrase."
When studying and analyzing this team, the whole gamut of thoughts have come along for the ride. Often times UK hasn't had the look of a team good enough to crack the 68-team field. Other times, it looks like a capable machine with a will to win, though I refuse to call it well-oiled.
With so much riding on the final five games of the regular season, can Calipari's last-ditch call to the bullpen to pull the ole' "refuse to lose" out of retirement really do the trick?
Saturday's 63-56 win over No. 10 Tennessee says yes.
UK ditched the patented slow start and grabbed a lead. That lead grew as big as 20 at halftime, though everyone knew better than to presume that things were going to be a walk in the park for the Cats down the stretch.
Just like that, In the snap of a finger, Kentucky opened the half with a turnover and allowed a pair of buckets. Santiago Vescovi led the charge for the Volunteers, as the savvy Uruguayan guard flushed a few 3-pointers and scored all 17 of his points in the final 20 minutes.
Sophomore Jahmai Mashack — who added 16 points — knocked down a trey of his own to cut UK's lead to single digits for the first time in the second half at the 8:39 mark.
This usually leads to the part where the Cats suffer the major blunder. Well, that didn't happen this time.
For every miscue on defense in the second half, there was a tough basket for Kentucky on the other end. Livingston — someone who's always good for a strong finish at the rim — earned a couple grown-man buckets en route to his first career double-double.
Toppin contributed seven of his 11 points in the second half and also snatched five rebounds. UK only scored 27 points in the final period, but that's all it needed. The defense avoided a full-blown meltdown and held stout when it had to, something that hasn't been the case when the going has previously gotten tough this year.
Do you happen to have a guess as to what phrase Calipari attributed Kentucky's fight toward after the win? Of course you do.
"You only think about winning. You refuse to lose. And that's all we're riding right now."
Consider the happy-go-lucky Oscar Tshiebwe — who totaled 16 points and seven rebounds in the win — fully on-board:
“You just need to refuse to lose. I like to listen to Michael Jordan, I never lose any game in my life I only run out of time, if we have more time I could have won that game. So, the same way we’ve just got to keep fighting.”
Maybe i'm a stick in the mud for pushing back against a phrase so simple. Having something to cling on together as a team can go a long way, even if it's as unembellished as an expression that boils down to "hey guys, do what you can to win, so you don't lose."
Genius, right?
Obviously the positive mindset has carried over to the court for the Wildcats. Refusing to lose has tripled their Quad 1 wins in the span of four days and swung them way onto the right side of the NCAA Tourney bubble.
Refusing to lose has pulled a new level out of Livingston's game, presenting the talented freshman as one of the most consistent players on the floor. Refusing to lose kept Cason Wallace's head up in Starkville on Wednesday when he was shooting 1-13, leading to his 16-point outing against the Volunteers on Saturday.
Winning cures all ailments, so if "refusing to lose" is what gets the Cats riding the wave Calipari wants for the rest of the year, then maybe it's more than an 11th-hour gimmick after all.
More on Kentucky's win over Tennessee HERE.
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