Kentucky vs. Tennessee: Takeaways

Kentucky’s season has cratered with another home loss.  This time 103-92 to hated rival Tennessee.  The vibes are all bad around the Kentucky program and someone has to come up with some answers quick or what was once a promising season is going to derail into a catastrophe.

The Defensive Issues are Fundamental

The defense regressed again this week after a decent showing last Saturday in Arkansas.  Part of it is Kentucky can’t ever have a reliable rotation of guys healthy, but most of it is just lack of fundamentals.  Reed Sheppard continues to make the same mistakes every game but he is not alone.  Tre Mitchell has fallen off a cliff.  I don’t know if he was run into the ground early in the season having to play 40 minutes a game or maybe he’s dealing with an injury, but he’s been a shell of himself.  The shot isn’t falling, and he’s been punked in back-to-back games on both ends of the floor.

The issues are easily fixable but somebody has to actually want to fix them.  Rob Dillingham spoke post-game about watching film and “digging in”.  He also said it’s on the players to do it or they can keep playing like it’s “a joke”.  He’s right, but words are easy.  Being tough enough to fix the problem is another story.

Rob and Adou Kept The Cats Alive

It’s a shame because Rob deserved his moment. 35 points on 20 shots in just 27 minutes (he also added 4 assists) is high level stuff.  I shudder to think where Kentucky would have been without Rob’s scoring, he kept Kentucky in the game through-out.  His defense is still not great as he often tries to overcompensate for his lack of size by gambling on his positioning but offensively he was the best player on the floor.

I’ll also give a shout-out to Adou.  Thiero only scored 9 points on 1-3 shooting but he provided a physicality that Kentucky needed badly and took his match-up with Knecht personally on both ends of the floor.  He also did it while noticeably grimacing in pain most of the night and needing heat wraps every time he came off the floor.  Hopefully that can be managed and Kentucky can keep him on the floor going forward.

Kentucky Still Can’t Be Healthy

I know fans don’t want to hear it but this team’s ceiling was likely lowered as soon as Bradshaw broke his foot in April and Ugo tore ligaments in his ankle in July.  Add in Z being jerked around by the NCAA, Adou’s back, and DJ’s ankle injury and this team just can’t seem to find any stability.  In sports we always want someone to blame and I know a popular media outlet has labeled this kind of stuff “drama” but really it’s just bad luck.  Fans don’t like that answer but there is no science to avoiding contact injuries that Kentucky has had to deal with this season.  It doesn’t excuse the lack of fundamentals on defense but every CBB team has flaws.  The good ones even deal with some injuries, but rarely do they have to deal with this many revolving injury issues.

This is why dropping that game to UNCW and throwing away the Florida game were so important.  Kentucky should be 17-4 with all the same issues.  There would still be panic in BBN (it is what we specialize in) but nowhere near the angst and toxicity.  At this point Kentucky just has to fight through it.  Hopefully there can be a stretch of availability for the final 2 months of the season.

What Does It Mean

Kentucky’s season is in danger of a complete collapse.  The SEC Title charge is now over, and a top 4 spot for the SEC Tournament is in danger.  The NCAA tournament resume is also looking more mediocre by the day.  A bad loss to Vandy on Tuesday and we could be looking at a bubble team.  The season is also salvageable but as I said earlier it takes someone to shoulder the responsibility of fixing it.  Whether that is Cal making the unpopular decision to bench fan favorites or the players themselves deciding that they they’re tired of being a laughing stock, it has to happen.

We’ll have a preview of Vandy coming out sometime tomorrow but for now we wallow in our self-pity.

Go Cats.