Three takeaways from Kentucky basketball’s pitch-it loss at LSU
Three takeaways from Kentucky basketball’s 65-60 loss to the LSU Tigers in Baton Rouge on Tuesday night
1. Throw this one out
Just pitch it. Toss it. Draw a line through it. Do whatever you have to do basically to ignore the outcome of Kentucky’s first SEC road game of the season.
After all, the Cats were without their point guard for all but the first four minutes of the game. That’s when Sahvir Wheeler slammed into LSU center Efton Reid, who was setting a screen in the backcourt. Blindside block. Down went Wheeler. It took several minutes for the 5-foot-9 guard to get back up, with assistance, but even then he appeared extremely woozy on his way to the locker room. The nation’s No. 3 assist-maker never returned.
After all, the Cats were without center Oscar Tshiebwe for 11 of the first half’s 20 minutes. The rebounding machine picked up his second foul and a lengthy stay on the Kentucky bench. Thanks to Jacob Toppin’s stellar effort, the visitors were able to hang tough for most of the first half but trailed 35-30 at intermission.
After all, the Cats were without starting guard TyTy Washington for a large part of the second half after the freshman started cramping up. We’re talking about the three-time SEC Freshman of the Week who contributed a season-high nine assists last game and has been a consistent scorer all season. “A lottery pick,” LSU coach Will Wade called Washington on Monday.
That’s a lot of missing pieces. Not just missing pieces, but important missing pieces. Yet, Kentucky did fight to the end, only to implode with back-to-back turnovers on the final chaotic possessions, ones in which surely Wheeler’s presence could have made a difference.
So, in the big picture of this Kentucky basketball season, I say throw this result out.
2. There are some issues that need addressing
Actually, it was Kellan Grady, UK’s wise old man, the one the players call “Grandpa” who said it best. “We’ve got to learn to win in an environment like that,” said the grad transfer from Davidson.
In two trips to hostile environments, the Cats are 0-2. They lost 66-62 at Notre Dame on Dec. 11. Now add the five-point loss at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center. And while there were many reasons for the defeat — please refer back to takeaway No. 1 — Grady also said the importance of little things is enhanced on the road, and the Cats did not do the little things well.
For instance, they were 1-for-11 from three-point range in the first half. Add that to the 2-for-19 showing from beyond the arc in South Bend and the Cats were 3-for-30 from three in their first 60 true road minutes. They were much better in the second half, going 7-for-13 from three-point range, that inability to stick the jumper in the first half and a long drought in the second proved costly.
So did free throws. The Cats were 10 of 20 from the foul line for the game. That was UK’s worst performance at the foul line, when taking at least 20 attempts, since going 10 for 20 at Georgia on Jan. 7, 2020. Kentucky survived that night, beating the Bulldogs 78-69. It did not survive Tuesday night against the Tigers.
3. It’s a good time to play Georgia
The Bulldogs are bad. Their 81-79 home loss to Texas A&M on Tuesday dropped Tom Crean’s team to 5-9 overall and 0-1 in the SEC. Among its defeats, Georgia has lost by 13 to George Mason, by two to East Tennessee State and by 17 to Gardner-Webb.
Will Wheeler be able to play against his old team when Georgia hits Rupp Arena on Saturday? We don’t know. After the game, John Calipari said he did not have a medical update on the Georgia transfer. The fact that Wheeler did not return to the bench was not a good sign. Not to speculate, but you wonder if he will be placed in some sort of concussion protocol this week.
“We have to see what happens,” Calipari said, “but we’re a little down in numbers right now.”
Either way, as both Grady and Toppin said after the game, “We have some things to work on.”
The team that has been so good on offense this season — eighth in the nation in points per game; eighth in adjusted offensive efficiency according to kenpom — scored just 60 points without its point guard. It scored just two points from the 13:05 mark to the 2:25 mark. LSU scored 20. That was the difference.
“You don’t throw it out,” said Grady afterward of the result. “There’s a lot of things we can take away from this game, both positive and negative. … We’ve got to clean up some things.”
I will politely disagree. I say throw it out. And get back to work.
This story was originally published January 4, 2022 at 10:35 PM.
