Three takeaways from Kentucky basketball’s 75-70 loss at Missouri
Three takeaways from Kentucky basketball’s 75-70 loss at Missouri on Wednesday night:
1. The post-COVID Cats looked like the pre-COVID Cats
So much for the refresh. The hope was the Cats would turn the negative of last weekend’s 48-hour COVID-19 pause into a positive. Hit the reset button. Start over. Put that 5-10 record in the rearview and pull this disaster of a 2020-21 basketball season out of the ditch.
Instead, the Kentucky in Columbia on Wednesday night looked much like the Kentucky of the previous 15 games. A rough start. Too many turnovers, 17 in all. Points off turnovers: Missouri 19, Kentucky 7. Too many offensive rebounds by the opponent. Second-chance points: Missouri 11, Kentucky 2.
And, of course, there were the repeated failures in the game’s final four minutes. The Cats trailed 68-65 when Davion Mintz finished off a steal-and-score via the dunk with 4:56 left. But the Cats followed that with five straight empty possessions. Mintz was called for a charge. Isaiah Jackson missed the front end of a bonus. Mintz’s lob pass to Jackson came up short. Then Devin Askew threw a bad pass out of bounds with 2:21 left.
By that time, Missouri had scored six straight points to stretch the lead to 74-65. Even then, the Cats had their chances. A Mintz three-pointer at the 1:16 mark carved Mizzou’s lead down to 74-70. And when the Tigers’ Jermiah Tilmon missed two free throws with 1:01 left, Kentucky had the ball and a real chance to pull this thing out.
Didn’t happen. Calipari called a play for a Keion Brooks shot from the top of the key. The same play had worked earlier in the game with Olivier Sarr popping open for a made three-pointer at the 5:50 mark. And, wouldn’t you know it, Brooks popped open, as well. Trouble was the sophomore’s shot came up short, hitting the front of the rim. Missouri rebounded. And that was pretty much the game.
Bottom line: Kentucky is 5-11 overall, 4-5 in the SEC.
2. What worked in the past isn’t working now
That was much of the message from Calipari’s post-game Zoom meeting with the media. Example: The coach said he called a “circle” play that had worked with previous teams — “It’s what I’ve called before” — only this time Kentucky failed to work Brandon Boston free and the play dissolved into yet another empty possession.
“We’re trying everything,” said the coach.
And what he tried in the second half mostly worked. A bad shooting team, Kentucky shot 59.3 percent over the final 20 minutes. It made six of nine three-pointers in the second half, nine of 20 for the game. Fans will no doubt will complain about Dontaie Allen failing to see the floor in the second half, but “we shot 60 percent,” said Calipari. “I rode the guys who were playing well in the second half.”
Kentucky ended up shooting 47.3 percent for the game, compared to Missouri’s 39.3, yet still lost the game. Reason? Turnovers. Second shots. And that frustrating habit of failing to execute at the time of game where you just have to execute.
“We have guys who want to win as bad as anything,” Mintz said afterward.
For whatever reason, however, they have yet to learn how to win.
3. Is March Madness just a mirage now?
Yes, without a miracle. Not without a unexpected run in the SEC Tournament that would somehow lead to winning the trophy in Nashville and the automatic NCAA Tournament bid. That is if there is an SEC Tournament, of course.
Kentucky is 5-11 with just eight games remaining — unless the South Carolina game postponed from earlier in the year is made up at the end of the year. That would make nine. Even if the Cats would happen to win out, their record would be 14-11 heading to Nashville. Considering they entered Wednesday 77th in the NCAA NET rankings and are now 1-6 against Quadrant 1 teams, not sure that 14-11, even in a pandemic year, is good enough.
Calipari said he left assistant coach Joel Justus back in Lexington work with guard Terrence Clarke, who hasn’t played since Dec. 26 because of an ankle injury. Cal said the hope is that if Clarke can practice without limping on Thursday and Friday he could play against Tennessee on Saturday.
Pinning your hopes on a freshman who hasn’t played in six weeks seems a close cousin to grasping at straws, but that’s where this Kentucky basketball team finds itself.
This story was originally published February 3, 2021 at 10:55 PM.
