John Calipari is never worried about losing.
Didn’t know that? Ask Karl-Anthony Towns.
“Are you out of your mind?” Calipari yelled at the beleaguered 6-foot-11 freshman as he sulked on the bench Tuesday night with 9:18 left. “What did we just do?”
“I hope we lose.”
The fiery tirade came moments after Towns did a chin-up and hung on the rim after a contested dunk attempt — good for a technical foul with 10:49 to go and the Wildcats holding an eight-point lead on a tired, undermanned LSU team.
Sure enough, Calipari’s hopes began to materialize. LSU junior guard Keith Hornsby sunk one of the two technical free throws then buried a 3-pointer — only LSU’s third of the night — on the ensuing possession resulting from Towns’ technical.
Calipari turned to Towns.
“I hope we lose,” he repeated. “Y’all watch this.”
Off a missed Aaron Harrison 3-pointer, Tiger sophomore forward Jarell Martin bullied through contact from Kentucky junior forward Willie Cauley-Stein for a layup and foul, missing the free throw.
Classmate Jordan Mickey followed with two free throws, sparking a 14-0 LSU run following the technical that gave the Tigers a six-point lead —their largest of the second half.
How did Towns respond to the flurry?
“[He] sunk in his chair,” Calipari said after the game. “You’ll learn you don’t do stuff like that in a ten-point game. You finish people off. It was a lesson. I’m not mad at him, I love him. He’s like a son. But he’s done too much of that.”
It was all a lesson, according to Calipari. Every part of Kentucky’s 71-69 victory against LSU, where it saw a 13-point lead disappear in the second half thanks largely in part to Towns’ technical.
Take Andrew Harrison for instance. The sophomore guard drew Calipari’s ire when he walked the ball up the floor following a few possessions.
Calipari threatened, loudly, to remove him from the game. Harrison, in turn, became an attacking force, teaming with freshman Devin Booker to control the perimeter with 27 points between the duo.
Calipari eventually stopped the chiding and Towns returned to the game with 8:44 left, where he promptly short-armed a hook shot and had Martin wrestle away the rebound.
Towns responded, though, forcing a Mickey turnover with 2:47 left, scoring the go-ahead bucket with 1:30 left and grabbing a huge offensive rebound off Andrew Harrison’s miss with 21 seconds left.
It forced the Tigers to foul Booker, who sank one of two free throws and left LSU with only 15 seconds to call timeout and set a final shot.
“[Calipari] expects a lot out of me, and I didn’t give it to him that play,” Towns said. “That’s a big time play I need to make, and I wasn’t able to.”
Calipari, who got the win on his 56th birthday, strayed away from the norm and didn’t call a timeout in the moments after the technical or to stop the 14-0 run that ensued.
He finally relented when Hornsby poked the ball away from Cauley-Stein and drove for a layup to extend the lead to 66-60.
“They’re going to learn their lesson on this,” Calipari said. “We’re not losing in March because of a play like that. For no reason? You’re out of your mind. Figure it out.”
With a smile, Towns, who finished with 12 points and 13 rebounds, said the thought of a loss being square on his shoulders permeated in his mind in the moments after his mistake.
“During moments like that, you have to think about your brothers and how much they’ve given you,” Towns said. “You have to give everything back.”
He did that, and got a valuable lesson, according to Calipari.
“He came back and he grew up,” Calipari said. “Big rebound, big steal, big basket. Won the game. I doubt ever in his life will he chin-up on a basket. Ever again.”
You can reach Chandler Rome on Twitter @Chandler_Rome.