At the end of his team’s 61-59 home loss to Tennessee on Tuesday night, Kentucky coach John Calipari began his news conference with an apology.

He repeatedly blamed himself for squandering a chance at victory by not calling timeout to set up a play with the Wildcats trailing the 15th-ranked Vols by a point and less than 20 seconds remaining.

Calipari usually doesn’t take timeout in that scenario because he prefers to have his team attack a defense that’s not set, but he admitted this year’s freshman-laden roster has not earned such trust.

Freshman point guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander dribbled into heavy traffic, Jordan Bowen poked the ball away and Admiral Schofield all but clinched a Tennessee victory with a breakaway dunk.

The Wildcats have produced some nice stretches against Louisville and West Virginia, but they’re very much the epitome of an above-average power-conference team, one good enough to make the NCAA tournament but unlikely to stick around very long.

Not only do the Wildcats miss too many open jumpers, turn the ball over too often and make the extra pass too infrequently, they also don’t have a star they can trust to score late in close games as neither Hamidou Diallo nor Kevin Knox have proven worthy of such a role.

There’s no shame in a narrow home loss to a Tennessee team now alone in second place in the SEC, but Kentucky may soon rue this missed opportunity.