‘We lost our minds.’ Why did UK basketball melt down against Texas A&M?
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- UK men’s basketball lost 96-85 at Texas A&M on Tuesday night.
- This was Kentucky’s final road game of the 2025-26 season.
- Mark Pope’s team is now 19-11 overall and 10-7 in SEC games.
The bottom fell out for Kentucky basketball during Tuesday night’s 96-85 loss at Texas A&M.
This wasn’t a leak in the boat. Nor was it a subtle onrush of water. It was a capsizing. A total overturn which left the Cats shaken and stirred.
A 12-point first-half Kentucky lead turned into a 12-point halftime deficit. That gap grew to as large as 21 points in favor of A&M with a little more than 10 minutes to play.
An encouraging start in UK’s final road game of an uneven season became the latest example of the inconsistency displayed by Mark Pope’s second Kentucky squad.
Texas A&M unleashed the mother of all scoring runs inside Reed Arena to close the first half Tuesday, outscoring Kentucky 27-3 over the final 7:30 of the opening period to flip the game on its head.
Pope used words like “careless,” “distractible” and “lost” during his postgame press conference when discussing what happened to his team during that stretch.
“We had a great focus and great intensity for the first 14 minutes of the game, 12 minutes of the game. Actually really good,” Pope said. “Then we just lost our focus. We stopped fighting to win catches. We started getting really careless. We got sped up, which is what they do, and we just didn’t respond well. It just spiraled a little bit out of control for us.”
Eary on, the Cats seemed to be sitting pretty. Freshman center Malachi Moreno gave Kentucky a 30-18 advantage when he converted a layup with 8:05 to go in the first half.
UK made eight of its first nine shots from the field. Collin Chandler knocked down his first 3-point try of the game. Otega Oweh was aggressive, drawing fouls and hunting shots near the rim. Brandon Garrison provided big, effective minutes off the bench.
Defensively, UK forced A&M into misses on eight of its first nine attempts from 3-point range. The Cats were also taking care of the ball. They committed just four turnovers in the opening 13 minutes against the Aggies, a group known for their pressing style.
Kentucky kept “BuckyBall” in check at both ends of the floor. That’s the moniker given to the fast-paced, aggressive play that A&M uses under first-year head coach Bucky McMillan.
This proved to be only a temporary seal.
A&M’s 27-3 blitz began with a 3-pointer from sophomore guard Ruben Dominguez. Then came a layup from junior guard Pop Isaacs. Then eight straight points from Dominguez: A jumper followed by two more 3s. The damage was done, with A&M storming back from 12 points down to take a one-point lead.
While UK senior guard Denzel Aberdeen managed a layup to give UK a 32-31 lead with 4:03 to play before half — a score that came following a timeout by Pope — it proved to be UK’s only made field goal in the final eight minutes of the first half. It was also the last time the Cats would lead.
Dominguez gave A&M the lead back for good with another 3-pointer the next time down the floor. His teammates took it from there. Rylan Griffen, Ali Dibba and Rashaun Agee combined for an 11-0 scoring spurt. The Aggies’ lead swelled to 13 points and closed at 45-33 at the break.
Through 20 minutes, A&M led 10-0 in points off turnovers. That margin finished at 18-10 in favor of A&M for the game. UK gave the ball away seven times in the opening half and 13 times for the contest.
“We were really, really decisive and really committed, and had the game in hand,” Pope said about UK’s start. “Then we just got distracted and careless and lost whatever it was... We lost our determination to win a catch and deliver a pass... We were poor defensively the whole night.”
The rest of Tuesday’s game was a foregone conclusion, especially after the Aggies began the second half with a 9-3 scoring run in the first two minutes. Kentucky got within seven points with 70 seconds to play, but no closer.
The end result was the 13th double-digit defeat suffered by the Cats in Pope’s 66 games in charge.
“We went through a stretch where we just, we lost our minds and we lost our intensity with winning and delivering catches,” Pope said. “Not only did that change the score, but it actually let (Texas A&M) start to feel good. And when they feel good, they’re tough to play.”
While it wasn’t efficient, Oweh contributed 24 points for Kentucky, continuing his high-scoring ways in SEC play. Junior forward Mo Dioubate added 19 points for his best scoring performance at UK against a high-major foe.
They were the only two Kentucky players to crack double figues.
“I think we could have just leaned into each other more,” Oweh said when reflecting on the A&M scoring spurt that decided the game. “Obviously, when you’re on the road and they go on a run like that it’s easy to play into the crowd, and I think we just kind of got a little rattled.”
Tuesday’s defeat was a blow to the Cats on a number of fronts. They’re still widely projected as a 6 seed for the NCAA Tournament, but UK let a key opportunity to improve its seed line go begging. Additionally, the loss to the Aggies complicates Kentucky’s pursuit of a double bye in next week’s SEC Tournament.
Pope didn’t have an answer for why these Cats are so inconsistent.
“If I had the exact answer to that, we would probably be able to avoid it,” he said.
But there’s a more alarming issue at hand. It’s early March. Win-or-go home basketball begins in a handful of days. Yet, Pope described his team as still failing to be able to maintain its focus on a possession-to-possession basis.
How does that get fixed with March Madness just around the corner?
“We have great things ahead of us. But it’s got to be every single possession. It has to be right now for us to win. We don’t have a massive margin for error,” Pope said. “It’s got to be every single possession. If we can learn that and grab on to that, then we have a chance to be really special. It’s got to be every single night we lace it up.
“That’s not a challenge unique to us. It’s one of the challenges that sports presents... We got to figure it out. And we can. Like, I have the guys to do it. We can do it. We just didn’t tonight.”
