Three takeaways from Kentucky basketball’s loss to the Arkansas Razorbacks
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Game day: No. 18 Arkansas 75, No. 6 Kentucky 73
Click below for more of the Herald-Leader’s and Kentucky.com’s coverage of Saturday’s men’s basketball game between Kentucky and Arkansas in Fayetteville, Ark.
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Three takeaways from Kentucky basketball’s 75-73 loss to the Arkansas Razorbacks at Bud Walton Arena in Fayetteville:
1. Kentucky was done in by another slow start
After UK’s Oscar Tshiebwe scored the game’s first basket at the 18:17 mark, the Razorbacks ripped off 15 straight points from the 17:53 mark to 13:07 when Arkansas guard JD Notae, the SEC’s second-leading scorer, buried a three-pointer from somewhere south of Little Rock.
The rest of the afternoon, the Cats were in catch-up mode. It’s a disturbing trend for the team in blue, which has made a bad habit lately of missing the opening bell. Back on Feb. 15 in Knoxville, John Calipari’s club trailed Tennessee 37-22 in the first half on the way to a 76-63 loss. On Feb. 19, Alabama hit the host Cats with a 41-28 blitz in the first half before Kentucky rallied for a 90-81 win. Last Wednesday against LSU at Rupp, the Wildcats were down 27-16 in the first half before pulling out a 71-66 victory.
Calipari said his team started out unaggressive Saturday, adding that his team’s body language “put the sad look on your face.”
Give Kentucky credit for fighting back. By halftime, the visitors had cut the lead to six points at 34-28. This, despite shooting 33.3 percent from the floor, including an empty-for-eight from three-point range. When Keion Brooks scored on a fast-break layup with 14:54 remaining to make it 41-40, the visitors had their first lead since 2-0.
It was a seesaw affair from there, with UK up, then down, then up, then down again. Not until Arkansas’ four straight points snapped a 63-63 tie did a team get some breathing room. Even then, a Kellan Grady three-pointer pushed Kentucky a nose in front at 70-69 with 2:20 left. But the Cats would score just three more points, leaving the visitors to exit the floor before presumed court-rush, wondering what would have happened without that slow start.
“If we had started the game like we finished it (we would have won),” Tshiebwe said. “It was a tough game.”
2. Oscar Tshiebwe can’t go it alone
Kentucky’s machine-like center registered his 23rd double-double of the season, scoring 30 points and collecting 18 rebounds in 39 minutes. If only his teammates could have given him just a little more help.
Keion Brooks did his part, scoring 15 points to go with five rebounds. And back from a two-game absence because of a wrist injury, Sahvir Wheeler shook off some early rust to score 13 points with five assists. He even banked in a three-point shot. “It still counts as three,” he said later.
But TyTy Washington is still not a recognizable TyTy Washington. The freshman guard, who also missed the last two games because of his nagging ankle injury, was just three of 12 from the floor. His only made three-pointer in four attempts was a banked three-ball at the buzzer that had no impact on the game’s result.
And that three-pointer by Grady was his only made shot of the game. The Davidson transfer sat for 10 minutes in the first half after picking up his second foul. He played all 20 in the second, but ended up with just three shot attempts — and the third was a contested three-point heave from the right corner that was partially blocked with less than five seconds remaining.
Arkansas knows how to guard. The Razorbacks entered the game ranked 14th in kenpom’s defensive efficiency metric. Just two teams all season have shot better than 50 percent against the Hogs. But Calipari wasn’t buying that as an excuse, saying Grady did not work hard enough to get the ball.
“You’ve got to work harder than they are working to stop you,” said the UK coach. “He and Davion (Mintz) just stood on the perimeter.”
Also, Jacob Toppin was not a factor, scoring just two points and failing to find a rebound in his 12 minutes on the floor.
“We had some guys who didn’t play well,” Calipari said. “They didn’t.”
3. Regardless of the result, this was high-level basketball
Eric Musselman can coach a little. After an 0-3 start in league play, Arkansas is now tied with Kentucky at 12-4 in the conference standings. The Razorbacks have now won 13 of their last 14 games. They got 30 points from Notae, a scorer in every sense of the word. And when Notae made his final points at the 8:51 mark, Jaylin Williams took over. The Razorbacks’ crafty 6-foot-10 sophomore scored 10 of his team’s final 12 points. He also grabbed 12 rebounds.
Arkansas has now beaten No. 1 Auburn and No. 6 Kentucky, both at Bud Walton Arena. For Kentucky, there’s the rub. Calipari’s team has had to play the top three teams in the league — besides itself — on the road, losing at Auburn, at Tennessee and now at Arkansas. Tennessee was the only one of the trio scheduled to play at Rupp, where the Vols were steamrolled.
“We’re a good team,” Calipari said when asked if he was frustrated by the loss. “We’ve got to have a full roster playing well.”
For what it seems like most of the season, the Cats have had to switch from one mode to another, from one lineup to another because of illness (early) and injuries (late). After playing two tough games without Washington and Wheeler, the Cats returned to that lineup Saturday. That is certainly great news for March matters, but the it was a tricky transition Saturday against a quality team in Arkansas.
It will not surprise me if both these teams make deep NCAA Tournament runs. They have the talent. They have the coaching. And they have knocked heads in what has been an above-average year in the SEC. March will be fun.
This story was originally published February 26, 2022 at 5:51 PM.
