Five things you need to know from Kentucky’s 62-59 loss to Louisville
Five things you need to know from Kentucky’s 62-59 loss to the Louisville Cardinals on Saturday at the KFC Yum Center:
1. Kentucky’s offensive ineptitude cost it again. Down 56-49 with 4:49 left in the game, UK fought its way back into contention. Down 59-58 after a pair of Brandon Boston free throws, UK proceeded to:
See Isaiah Jackson miss an open 15-footer at 1:42
See Boston miss a jumper at 1:07, but Jackson claim the offensive rebound.
Jackson make one of two free throws at 1:05 to tie the game at 59.
With the game still tied, Kentucky called timeout with 48 seconds left to set strategy. That possession ended with Devin Askew shooting a long three-pointer as the shot-clock was dwindling.
Down 60-59, UK’s Olivier Sarr had roughly the same jumper he missed at the end of Kentucky’s one-point loss to Notre Dame.
This time, Sarr’s jumper dipped inside the rim, spun — and came out.
Down three with 5.1 seconds left, Kentucky got an open 25-foot three-pointer from the right wing from Boston.
It missed.
Overall, Kentucky missed seven of its final eight field-goal tries.
Leading scorer Davion Mintz (19 points, 4-of-6 three-pointers) did not get another shot after making a three-pointer with 4:40 left in the game.
2. Louisville’s guards won the game. Graduate transfer Carlik Jones had 20 points and five assists and scored seven points down the stretch for the Cardinals.
Ex-Trinity High School star David Johnson went for 17 points, seven rebounds and four assists.
3. UK’s dubious rivalry distinction. This year is only the third time in Kentucky basketball history that the Wildcats have lost to rivals Louisville, Kansas and North Carolina in the same season.
The other two times it happened were in 1989-90, Rick Pitino’s first season on the UK bench; and in 2016-17 under Calipari.
4. Cats make more negative history. Kentucky has now lost six games in a row for the first time since 1988-89.
In February of what turned out to be Eddie Sutton’s final season as Kentucky coach, UK lost at Georgia (84-72), at Vanderbilt (81-51), to Florida (59-53), at LSU (99-80), to Alabama (71-67) and at Auburn (77-75).
UK’s 1-6 start to the season is the worst for a Kentucky team since Coach Basil Hayden’s 1926-27 Wildcats started 1-8 en route to a 3-13 record.
Looking forward, no Kentucky team has lost seven games in a row since Coach George C. Buchheit’s 1922-23 Cats lost nine straight en route to a 3-10 record.
5. Modern-era Cats-Cards rivalry coaching records. Kentucky: Joe B. Hall 2-2, Eddie Sutton 3-1, Rick Pitino 6-2, Tubby Smith 6-4, Billy Gillispie 0-2, John Calipari 11-3.
Louisville: Denny Crum 7-13, Rick Pitino 6-12, David Padgett 0-1, Chris Mack 1-2.
This story was originally published December 26, 2020 at 3:28 PM.
