Kentucky men’s basketball has exceeded expectations early on in the Mark Pope Era, winning 12 of its first 15 games.
There have been unexpected positives that have surfaced with this new-look Kentucky team, but, similar to that, there have been negative flare ups as well.
In neutral site contests, Kentucky is 2-1, earning massive wins over No. 6 Duke in Atlanta and No. 7 Gonzaga in Seattle before falling to Ohio State in New York City.
When not playing at Rupp Arena in true road games, however, Kentucky has struggled to mask a flawed new identity that may submerge its hopes of getting grade-A seeding come tournament time if it doesn’t dig a way around its lethargic starts.
The Cats are 0-2 on the road this season and have sculpted performances unfamiliar to their name away from Rupp Arena, consisting of lazy gameplay with visually obvious faults in shooting and rebounding.
The two road losses came at Clemson on Dec. 3 and at Georgia on Tuesday night.
Both games started and finished with UK unable to play its style of quick, dangerous basketball and seemed over before the first half even concluded.
When Kentucky lost to Clemson 70-66, there was no panic. It was ruled that it was the team’s first true road game together and it would figure it out.
But, even in the two neutral site games following the loss, the Cats started slowly against Gonzaga and were somehow able to dig their way out of a 16-point halftime deficit. They made it way more difficult than it had to be all because of an unhurried beginning.
Against Ohio State, Kentucky welcomed another bad beginning, one in which it was unable to recover from, suffering an embarrassing 20-point loss to the unranked Buckeyes.
On Tuesday night in Athens, UK engineered the same start which transpired into an 82-69 defeat. See the pattern?
With SEC play officially underway and no weak teams being prevalent, Kentucky has to figure out a way to start games better or every road game could end in a blowout.
The Cats have a mighty task on the horizon when they head south to Starkville, Mississippi, to take on No. 14 Mississippi State.
Should UK engine a stronger start from the get-go, it will have more time and opportunities to earn its thirteenth win of the season, but, again, if it fails to do so, it will quickly fall below .500 in SEC play.
Kentucky and Mississippi State will tip-off at 8:30 p.m. ET from Humphrey Coliseum with the contest airing live on the SEC Network.
