On Friday night, the Kentucky Wildcats fell to the Texas A&M Aggies in the quarterfinals of the SEC tournament, marking the second straight year the Cats were hacked down in their first SEC Tournament game.
Kentucky was motivated to beat the Aggies in what was a heavily weighted rematch as it failed to do so back on Jan. 13 in the two’s first tilt in the regular season.
In that game, the Wildcats allowed Texas A&M to puncture them with 90+ points while allowing junior guard Wade Taylor IV to put up 31 points, ultimately spiraling into a 97-92 defeat.
On Friday night the result was nearly a clone of what happened in the first go around as the Aggies put up 97 points — the same amount as the first time — while Taylor IV nearly copied his point total from the first time with 32.
The season-long theme for Kentucky basketball has been score or get outscored — literally.
All season fans have witnessed the Wildcats shred opponents with their lethal offense, which averages 89.4 points per game, but in games they’ve lost they’ve been shredded courtesy of their not-so lethal defense, which gives up 79.7 points per game. On Friday night fans witnessed a paramount example of that.
Critics have knocked Kentucky for having what is considered a “Final Four offense and a Round of 32 defense,” meaning it’s offense can lead them to do be a Final Four team in the big tournament, however its defense will punch it a one way ticket back to Lexington after the second round of the big dance.
The Cats finished the regular season on a five-game win streak and, even in that span, their defense was not stellar as they gave up at least 89 points in three of those five matchups. Once again, they heavily relied on their offense to get the job done.
The team is young and the experience is lacking, however, if Kentucky guarantees a change to it’s all around defense, this team can do wonders in the chase for the programs’ ninth national title.
Now, Kentucky looks on to the NCAA tournament where it will serve as one of the No. 3 seeds.
The Cats will go head-to-head with No. 14 Oakland in the Round of 64 on Thursday, March 21, at 7:10 p.m. in Pittsburgh in hopes of advancing to the Round of 32 for the second year in a row. That matchup can be viewed on CBS.
