What has to happen for a UK run in March Madness? The Cats have varying opinions
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Kentucky must fix slow starts and avoid early deficits to stay competitive.
- Coach Pope demands improved transition and halfcourt defense before tournaments.
- Team leaders call for better ball sharing and fewer multi-minute scoring lapses.
The 50th Senior Day in Kentucky men’s basketball’s Rupp Arena era featured an electric environment created by a crowd of 20,140 and, for the home team, another unsatisfying on-court performance.
Continuing a season-long trend of slow Kentucky starts, Florida began the game on an 11-0 run and later uncorked a 15-1 blitz en route to a 49-32 halftime lead. Though UK clawed within five points in the final minute of the game, the latest plodding start led to an 84-77 loss to the No. 5 Gators.
It was the 11th straight win for peaking Florida (25-6, 16-2 SEC), the regular-season Southeastern Conference champion.
Kentucky (19-12, 10-8 SEC) lost in spite of getting 28 points from senior star Otega Oweh in what was his final home game in a Wildcat uniform.
The Cats will enter tournament play — starting on Wednesday in Nashville in the SEC tourney — having lost two straight games and four of their past six.
Now, it is this simple for Mark Pope’s second Kentucky team:
At the end of a challenging, up-and-down season that has been negatively impacted by injuries that have sidelined three of the team’s projected top six players, the only chance to write a happy ending is to make some noise in March Madness.
I asked everyone UK made available for postgame interviews following the Florida loss what the one thing is that has to get improved to allow Kentucky to make a postseason run.
It probably isn’t the greatest sign that all four identified something different.
Pope singled out defense as the key to tournament success for Kentucky.
“When we guard, we’re actually pretty good,” the UK coach said.
After a game in which Florida outscored Kentucky by a whopping margin of 24-4 on fast break points, Pope said UK’s transition defense will be an area of emphasis in the run-up to tourney play.
“We just had massive first-half breakdowns in transition defense,” Pope said.
Backup center Brandon Garrison said the key to March Madness success for the Cats is a greater willingness to share the basketball.
“I’ll say just playing together more, looking for each other more, not so many selfish plays,” Garrison said. “Because I feel like that hurts us. But then, like, it’s like we play in segments where we play good for four minutes, and then we go back to selfishness. So I feel like we fix that, which I think we can, I think we will be in a good spot.”
After a week when Kentucky allowed Texas A&M to go on a 27-3 blitzkrieg to end the first half, then surrendered those first-half runs of 11-0 and 15-1 vs. Florida, UK power forward Andrija Jelavic said the Cats have to put an end to allowing such negative runs to succeed tournament play.
“These three-, four-minute leaks we have in our game (have to stop),” Jelavic said. “We make three steps ahead, we are playing good for seven minutes, but then we just play two minutes bad. You can’t win games (that way), especially against a team as good as Florida. You need to play every minute of the game well to beat (teams like that).”
Of its 18 SEC regular season contests, Kentucky trailed at halftime in 10 — and trailed by double digits at the intermission in seven.
UK forward Mo Dioubate says the Cats’ hopes for success in the postseason rely on better starts to games.
“We can’t afford to start a game down 11-0 like (against Florida),” Dioubate said. “It just put us behind for the whole game.”
With tournament play on the immediate horizon “there’s no time to play catch up anymore,” Dioubate added. “I feel like, in a lot of games, the urgency hasn’t been there (at the start). But I believe in us. I feel like we still can fix those areas. We gotta be in the game, keep it a close game throughout the whole game. We can’t have any (more) slow starts.”
Starting Wednesday, Kentucky would have to win five games to claim the SEC Tournament crown for the first time since 2018.
Kemba Walker and the 2011 Connecticut Huskies in the Big East Tournament proved that can be done, but it’s not likely.
Still, UK winning multiple games in an SEC tourney for the first time since that 2018 tournament in St. Louis might allow the Wildcats to build some positive momentum for the NCAA tourney.
While it will be a major long shot for Kentucky to end its current 10-year NCAA Tournament Final Four drought in 2026, winning multiple games in the Big Dance for only the second time since 2019 — and for the second season in a row under Pope — would potentially gin up some positive momentum for the UK coaching staff to take into what shapes up as a crucial transfer portal recruiting window.
Alas, as omens go, the fact that four different Kentucky basketball representatives listed four different areas that have to be shored up to allow for UK success in the postseason does not seem especially hopeful.
