John Calipari Says No. 6 Kentucky 'Got Manhandled' in Loss to Unranked Tennessee

Kentucky head coach John Calipari wasn't happy with the Wildcats' physical play after blowing a 17-point lead in the second half of an 81-73 loss to Tennessee on Tuesday night. 

"We got manhandled. I got manhandled," Calipari told reporters. "This is one that I know I gotta watch the tape."

The unranked Volunteers outscored the No. 6 Wildcats 50-31 in the second half, won the rebounding battle 31-26 and shot 57.1 percent (20 of 35) on shots from inside the arc.

"The game got physical, and we couldn't compete," Calipari said. "It just got physical. We tried different ways to score, and we just had nothing. We couldn't throw it to the post; we tried to open up the court and couldn't get by people. But give credit to Tennessee; they could've gone away down 17, but that's [Volunteers coach] Rick Barnes."

Vols junior forward John Fulkerson led the charge with 27 points on 10-of-15 shooting.

"We just kept fighting," Fulkerson said. "I kept trying to look at the score at the top of the [scoreboard] and couldn't find it, which I guess was a good thing. But it was such a team effort, everybody played well. Guys from the bench came in and contributed. This was no surprise to me. I knew we were capable of this. I knew that if everybody comes to play, we can get the job done."

It was a crucial victory for Tennessee, which is trying to make a last-ditch push into the bubble conversation for the NCAA tournament.

Tuesday's triumph was the team's first win over a ranked opponent since a Nov. 30 victory against VCU, and UT gets another chance Saturday when it closes the regular season by facing No. 17 Auburn.

A victory over the Tigers followed by a deep run in the SEC tournament may be enough for the Volunteers to sneak in as an at-large team, which didn't seem possible before upsetting Kentucky.

UK will look to bounce back with a road win over Florida in its regular-season finale Saturday.