Kentucky basketball’s loss at Clemson was a needed early-season reality check
You thought Kentucky basketball was going to go undefeated?
Is that what you thought? That the Cats would run the table? That first-year coach Mark Pope’s experienced roster would handle every challenge against every team in every environment? The coming-out party would last forever?
It doesn’t work that way, of course. Clemson handed visiting Kentucky its first loss of the season and Pope his first loss as its head coach with a 70-66 win Tuesday night at a rocking Littlejohn Coliseum as part of the SEC/ACC Challenge.
To be honest, that’s not an awful thing. Not for the Cats. Everything had gone so swimmingly to this point in the Pope Experience, perhaps the nation’s No. 4 team needed a reality check on the road to get a better picture of where it actually stands.
“Continue to grow,” was an oft-repeated phrase in the Pope press conference after his team dropped to 7-1.
Start with 3-point shooting. This is a 3-point shooting team. It’s the focal point of what Pope wants to do on offense. You know his goal — 30 to 35 attempts from 3 a game. And the Cats had been effective from beyond the arc through their first five games. That hasn’t been the case the last three, however.
Kentucky was just 8-of-29 shooting for 27.6 percent from downtown in last Tuesday’s win over Western Kentucky. It was 7-of-26 shooting for 26.9 percent from 3 in the romp over visiting Georgia State on Friday. The Cats again failed to find the strike zone at Littlejohn. They ended up 7-of-27 shooting from 3-point land for 25.9 percent.
Otega Oweh missed four of his five 3-point attempts. Jaxson Robinson missed five of his seven. Kerr Kriisa missed all four of this 3-point tries. Three-point specialist Koby Brea was held to two 3-point attempts in 17 minutes. He made one.
Credit Clemson. The Tigers reached the Elite Eight last season. Brad Brownell’s team plays a gritty, physical style personified by Ian Schieffelin, the scrappy 6-foot-8 senior from Atlanta, who missed 16 of his 20 shots from the floor — Schieffelin was 1-of-8 from 3-point range — but grabbed a career-high 20 rebounds, including eight at the offensive end.
Outrebounded by 10 in the first half, Kentucky did battle better on the glass in the second half. (Rebounds were a 44-44 draw.) Still, it seemed like UK was playing from behind most of the night. And when the Cats took the lead 52-51 with 10:58 to go on a Lamont Butler 3-pointer, they suddenly went cold again. Nearly five minutes passed without a made UK field goal. Clemson reclaimed the lead and expanded the margin to seven at 61-54. That was pretty much of it.
The Tigers also succeeded in slowing down UK’s fast-paced offense. The analytics say Kentucky had averaged about 77 possessions per game. Clemson held the Cats to 69. Kentucky was limited to eight fast-break points. As a result, Clemson held the Cats 30 points under UK’s nation-leading average of 96.7 per game.
The schedule doesn’t get any easier, of course. Not this week. Next up is a trip to the great Northwest for a 10 p.m. tipoff Saturday in Seattle against No. 7-ranked Gonzaga. Mark Few’s 7-1 Zags have done some extra homework of their own after losing 86-78 in overtime to West Virginia last week in the Battle 4 Atlantis.
The Cats can expect another hostile crowd at Climate Pledge Arena. They can also expect another physical game. Gonzaga has never shied away from contact. After Tuesday, Pope’s club should be better prepared for the bumps.
Preparation is what it’s all about, after all. Lose and learn. Kentucky’s fast start — especially the win over Duke in the Champions Classic — overshadowed the fact that this is a new team playing a new style for a new coach. There will be growing pains. The Cats still had a chance Tuesday for a true road win against a good team, but couldn’t quite pull it off. They get another chance Saturday.
Said Pope, “We’re excited to keep growing and getting better.”
