Time is running out for this Kentucky basketball team to get it figured out
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Game day: LSU 75, No. 17 Kentucky 74
Click below for more of the Herald-Leader’s and Kentucky.com’s coverage of Wednesday night’s men’s basketball game between Kentucky and LSU at Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
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Just when you think the Kentucky men’s basketball team has figured things out, you realize you don’t have the Cats figured out.
Kentucky should have won Wednesday night at LSU. Kentucky had it won, up 15 points early in the second half on the host Tigers, ranked 88th in the NCAA NET rankings, 77th in Ken Pomeroy’s efficiency analytics, who were all of 5-7 in the SEC.
Instead, Kentucky lost 75-74. The Cats lost the way they’ve lost so many close games over the past month or so. Playing poorly on defense. Inconsistent on offense. Not grabbing loose balls. Not focusing when they absolutely needed to focus.
“We reverted a little bit today,” said UK coach John Calipari afterward.
It’s a bad time to revert. Alabama visits Rupp Arena on Saturday for a 4 p.m. SEC contest. The Tide not only lead the conference with an 11-2 mark, they also lead the nation in scoring. Kentucky is now 8-5 in the league. And the Cats gave up 48 points over the final 18 minutes Wednesday night. That’s not the stat you want with Nate Oats coming to town.
“We wanted it more than they did, simple as that,” said LSU’s Tyrell Ward, who made the winning shot a tick before the final buzzer.
You can say Kentucky experienced bad luck at the end. Coming out of a timeout with 20.8 seconds left, UK put the ball where it needed to go, in the hands of the red-hot Rob Dillingham, who nailed the jumper from the baseline for a 74-73 lead with 12.9 seconds left. Then UK executed on defense as Adou Thiero blocked Jordan Wright’s shot. But Wright caught the ricochet and threw the ball to the rim where Ward was there to catch it and score.
But Kentucky should have never been in that spot in the first place. After taking that 42-27 lead, the Wildcats watched the comeback Tigers go on a 15-2 run to chop the lead to 44-42 with 16:12 left. Later, LSU went on a 12-3 run for a 54-49 lead with 10:21 remaining.
“I’m proud of the way the kids fought,” Calipari said.
Fight? Yes. Focus? No. When Antonio Reeves went to the bench in the second half with his third foul, Kentucky struggled to score until Dillingham caught fire. And after being lauded for its defense in that 70-59 win at No. 13 Auburn last Saturday, Calipari’s club gave up too many easy baskets and committed too many fouls over the final 20 minutes.
Saturday, Auburn missed open shots. Wednesday, LSU made open shots. Auburn was 4-of-22 shooting from three-point land. LSU was 9-of-20, including 5-of-9 in the second half. Auburn shot 30.9 percent overall. LSU shot 44.6 percent.
Give former Murray State coach Matt McMahon and his team credit. The Tigers don’t quit. They were down 20 points at Florida before losing 82-80. They were down 16 points at South Carolina before winning 64-63. They were down 15 on Wednesday and won again.
But what does that mean for Kentucky? Eager to bask in the glow after his team’s win at Auburn, Calipari couldn’t wait to get on the plane Wednesday. He sort of summed things up by saying, “We’re the youngest team in the country.”
True, but at this point in the season your freshmen should be playing like sophomores. And the thing with Kentucky basketball under Calipari is so many of those freshmen are gone by the time their sophomore seasons arrive. Rinse and repeat.
Yes, UK didn’t have Tre Mitchell on Wednesday, but it didn’t have Mitchell at Auburn, either. LSU was missing one of its best players, too, in Jalen Cook, the Tigers’ leading scorer who sat the bench with a hamstring injury.
What Kentucky is missing is a sense of urgency. The Cats had it last Saturday. They let it slide Wednesday. That can’t happen. Not now. Not with March approaching and so much at stake.
“We just have to go back to the drawing board,” Reeves said.
How many more times can this talented team do that until it figures it out?
This story was originally published February 22, 2024 at 12:01 PM.
