Three takeaways from Kentucky basketball’s poor effort at Ole Miss
Three takeaways from Kentucky’s 70-62 loss at Ole Miss on Tuesday night:
1. Ole Miss just wanted it more
Proof: The Rebels bashed the Cats on the glass, winning the battle of the boards 42-28. “You lose by 16 rebounds and you’re not winning,” said Kentucky head coach John Calipari, missing the actual spread by two, but to be fair it seemed like the Rebels rebounding margin was far more than 14.
There’s an old coach’s adage about rebounding that it is as much want-to as technique and the Rebels proved they wanted to win. After losing Saturday 75-70 at cellar-dwelling Vanderbilt, Kermit Davis’ club came out ready to make amends and snap an 11-game losing streak to the Cats.
Ole Miss guard Devontae Shuler led the way with 17 points, but teammate KJ Buffen scored 16 points and grabbed 10 rebounds before fouling out with 4:12 remaining. Romello White scored 10 points and grabbed 11 boards. Luis Rodriguez collected eight more rebounds.
“They were more physical at the point of attack,” said UK’s Keion Brooks, who led the Cats with eight rebounds. “It came down to us against you and they got the majority of them, if not all of them.”
2. After a brief hot streak, UK’s shooting has cooled off
After making 40 of 90 three-point shots in a four-game stretch — three of them wins — Kentucky has returned to the poor shooting team it has been the vast majority of the season. The Cats were 4-for-20 from beyond the arc in last Saturday’s 71-67 loss to Florida. They were 3-for-13 from three on Tuesday night and shot just 37.5 percent overall.
Brandon Boston missed five of his six three-point attempts. Davion Mintz was 3-for-8 from 3. Jacob Toppin, Dontaie Allen and Brooks all missed a three-point attempt. Olivier Sarr was 1-for-2 and missed a three with about 40 seconds left and Kentucky trailing 65-60.
Ironically, UK was credited with 15 assists, compared to just seven turnovers. Normally, that’s a winning formula. It is not when you can’t grab a rebound or make a free throw. Kentucky entered the game shooting 74 percent from the foul line. They exited having made just 15 of 25 for 60 percent. Meanwhile, Ole Miss was 16-for-19 at the line for 84.2 percent.
“Missed free throws,” Calipari said. “Normally I don’t get mad at that stuff, but I had enough.”
3. John Calipari: ‘I don’t have a magic wand.’
“If I did, I’d used It,” was the rest of the quote from the Kentucky coach, whose team dropped to 8-15 overall and 7-9 in the SEC. Any chance at securing a top four seed in next week’s SEC Tournament is out the window. The Cats will now have to win four straight games in Nashville to pull off the miracle that would be an NCAA Tournament bid. And this Kentucky team hasn’t won four straight games all season.
ESPN’s Jimmy Dykes spent much of the first half on a long monologue breaking down Kentucky’s problems, but what it comes down to is pretty simple. You are what your record says you are. And despite a couple of flashes that gave the mistaken impression that perhaps the boat was being turned in the right direction, this is just not a very good basketball team.
Blame it on inexperience. Blame it on the restrictions brought about by COVID-19. But the truth is the Kentucky right now is not much different from the Kentucky in December or January. The biggest question now is what happens in the offseason.
“It’s not over until it’s over,” said Calipari in his postgame Zoom. “We’ve got a game Saturday and a league tournament next week.”
True, but the Kentucky team in Oxford on Tuesday night sure played like it’s over.
This story was originally published March 3, 2021 at 12:15 AM.
