Kentucky's John Calipari Explains Benching Jacob Toppin, Dontaie Allen vs. Auburn

Kentucky basketball's woes continue to grow this year, and it's getting harder for head coach John Calipari to defend some of the decisions he's made in an attempt to correct course. 

After Saturday's 66-59 road loss at Auburn, the coach tried to explain why Jacob Toppin and Dontaie Allen were conspicuously absent late in the game as the Tigers took control. 

Toppin finished with 10 points and six rebounds in 31 minutes, while Allen scored just eight points in 35 minutes. 

The loss dropped Kentucky to 4-8 (3-2 SEC) and gave it the most losses for a Wildcats team since 2017-18, when they went 26-11. 

After a three-game winning streak saw Kentucky knock off Mississippi State, Vanderbilt and Florida, the Wildcats lost two in a row to Alabama and Auburn—both unranked schools. 

In Allen's case, regaining Calipari's trust may be harder after a lackluster showing Saturday. 

“At the end of the day, we were running stuff for Dontaie, and he wouldn’t shoot the ball," Calipari said. "So I took him out."

The freshman guard was 3-of-7 from the field and made two of six three-pointers, but his passiveness was apparent as he only got to the line once. Toppin, meanwhile, was 3-of-4 from the floor but still began the second half on the bench as top recruits Brandon Boston Jr. (five points, five rebounds) and Devin Askew (five points, three rebounds) received prolonged opportunities to find their games.

Whatever has made Calipari's formula work in recent years will need to be retooled if the program is going to have any chance at salvaging its season. 

If not, the Wildcats will miss the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2012-13, when Robert Morris knocked out a team that featured Nerlens Noel and Willie Cauley-Stein from the NIT.