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John Calipari on Final Four Loss to Wisconsin: Loyalty to Harrison Twins Kept Them in Game

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John Calipari has spoken openly about his Kentucky basketball team that finished 38-1 last year, often sharing lessons he learned from that experience.

In April, he told The AP he only believed his team was incapable of losing when they reached the Final Four a perfect 38-0. A month later, he penned a blog post on his website in which he stated he "may never platoon again," referring to his substitution method that entailed switching out up to all five players at a time.

He is also trying to take the "one-and-done" blueprint he popularized to the next level, calling his 2016-2017 recruiting class potentially "one of our best ever," ESPN reported in July.

At a clinic for basketball coaches in Los Angeles on Sunday, Calipari went back to last year's Wildcats. According to USA Today, he told reporters during an hour-long address that he mistakenly stuck with Aaron and Andrew Harrison in his backcourt in the team's semifinal loss to Wisconsin.

"Now you may say, 'Why didn't you have Tyler [Ullis] and Devin [Booker] in at the end of the Wisconsin game? You probably would have won,'" Calipari said. "Because I was being loyal to those other two who led us to a championship game a year ago and they deserve to be on that court. That's why I did it. I knew who was playing well and who was struggling. You think I wasn't sitting there watching?

"But I owed it to those two [the Harrison twins] to do it."

The twin guards missed seven of their final eight shots while Wisconsin pulled away en route to a 71-64 win. The loss may still be haunting Calipari, but if it is also fueling his motivation on the recruiting trail, college basketball should look out.

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