Five things you need to know from Kentucky’s 75-70 loss at Missouri
Five things you need to know from the Kentucky Wildcats’ 75-70 loss to the No. 18 Missouri Tigers in an SEC college basketball game at Mizzou Arena in Columbia, Mo.:
1. Kentucky can’t close — again. After trailing by 13, 40-27, at halftime, UK put itself in contention to at least dream of an upset by opening the second half with a 10-1 spurt.
Entering the final television timeout of the game with 3:45 left, the Wildcats were within 68-65.
After UK saw a two-point lead at the final media stoppage turn into a 70-59 loss at Alabama last week, John Calipari said he put the Cats through intense work in how to close out games.
Maybe the problem is just unfixable.
Kentucky’s first two possessions after the final TV timeout Wednesday night yielded turnovers, one by Davion Mintz, one by Devin Askew, both on bad passes.
That allowed Missouri to push its lead back out to 74-65, which gave the Tigers enough cushion to withstand an Isaiah Jackson dunk and a Mintz three-pointer in the final two minutes.
2. Turnovers kill the Cats again. The late turnovers were part of a continuing and distressing pattern for UK.
Kentucky gave the ball up 17 times vs. Mizzou. The Wildcats, now the losers of five of their past six contests, have turned the ball over 19, 18, 17, 17 and 17 times in those five losses.
UK was outscored by 12 points, 19-7, by Missouri on points off of turnovers.
“Seventeen turnovers,” UK Coach John Calipari lamented afterward. “You are not going to win a game like this.”
3. Light night for Dontaie Allen. The ex-Pendleton County star went 0-of-2 on three-pointers in seven minutes of play in the first half Wednesday night.
He did not get off the bench in half two, and finished with no points and one rebound.
Calipari said afterward that he felt UK was playing well in half two and he decided to shorten his rotation and ride with the guys playing well in half two.
4. Cuonzo climbing. With Missouri’s victory, Tigers Coach Cuonzo Martin is now 3-7 as a head man against Kentucky.
Martin went 1-4 vs. UK as Tennessee coach (2011-12 through 2013-14) and is now 2-3 against the Cats at Mizzou (since 2017-18).
On the roster of current SEC coaches, Martin is the sixth with at least three victories over Kentucky — Bruce Pearl is 9-15 vs UK; Rick Barnes 8-7; Tom Crean 5-7; Frank Martin 3-7; and Mike White 3-8.
5. Eleven-loss Cal. At 5-11, the 2020-21 Wildcats are now only the 16th team in University of Kentucky men’s basketball history — which begins in 1902-03 — to lose as many as 11 games in a season.
John Calipari is now responsible for four of those years with 11 losses or more — 21-12 in 2012-13, 29-11 in 2013-14, 26-11 in 2017-18 and this year.
Joe B. Hall had three seasons with at least 11 defeats, Eddie Sutton two, Tubby Smith two, Billy Gillispie two and Basil Hayden, Adolph Rupp and Rick Pitino all had one.
All time, Kentucky has had only 21 double-digit-loss seasons. After having only 10 such seasons in the entire 20th century, UK has already had 11 in the 21st century.
That said, too much is made of double-digit defeat teams, by the way. Part of the explanation for that is that teams play more games now than they did for most of the 20th century.
Not all 11-loss seasons are equal, either. UK’s 11-loss campaign in 2013-14 ended with the Wildcats playing in the NCAA Tournament finals.
Alas, this year’s 11-loss (and counting) season does not seem destined for such a crescendo.
This story was originally published February 3, 2021 at 9:29 PM.
