OXFORD, MS – No. 14 Kentucky men’s basketball (15-7, 4-5) suffered another SEC loss on Tuesday night, falling to No. 25 Ole Miss (17-6, 6-4) inside The Sandy and John Black Pavilion.
Heading into a big SEC tilt with the Rebels, Kentucky had dropped three of its last four games, undoubtedly going through its roughest stretch of the season. Granted, starting point guard Lamont Butler had missed three straight games while starting forward Andrew Carr was held out of some contests while getting limited minutes in the ones he did participate in.
But, what the Kentucky team, as a whole, have provided with Butler and Carr injured is nothing more than unacceptable as it steps onto the court and immediately finds itself trying to claw back into every game.
On Tuesday night, it happened once more, this time in even more embarrassing fashion as the Cats allowed 15 points through the first five minutes, failing to make it to the first media break before Head Coach Mark Pope was forced to surrender a timeout.
With the pace that Chris Beard’s Rebels engineered from the start, along with Kentucky’s lack of effort, it brewed a first-half massacre that Pope’s squad fully deserved, giving up 54 first half points, trailing by 23 at the break.
The 23-point deficit that Kentucky faced was the largest since Feb. 16, 2013, when it trailed Tennessee 50-26 in Knoxville.
Offensively, in the first half, UK really didn’t falter that badly, shooting 12-of-31 (38.7%) from the field and 5-of-10 from deep while putting up 31 points.
The root of the problem, like it has been, was the lack of strong defense.
Kentucky failed to close out on 3-pointers, allowing Ole Miss to shoot 17 triples in the first half and 13 in the second half, allowing them to amount 39 points off of threes.
Now, as of Feb. 5, Kentucky gives up 77.5 points per game, tying it with Eastern Michigan at 314th in the nation for points allowed per game. A team that “understands the assignment” sits as one of the worst defensive programs in the nation, floundering at the bottom with mid-majors such as UMBC, Monmouth, Central Arkansas and others.
Kentucky is back on its home turf next, on Saturday, Feb. 8, against the South Carolina Gamecocks, who are yet to win an SEC game thus far.
That game can be viewed on ESPN2 at noon ET.
