LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) – Suddenly, jury duty doesn’t sound like such a bad proposition. On Tuesday night, Mark Pope and his No. 9-ranked Kentucky team lost to Louisville. For much of the state, that ranks just barely above tax evasion and just below rooting for Tennessee.
The final was Louisville 96, Kentucky 88.
But Kentucky trailed by as many as 20 and spent more than 15 minutes behind by double-digits. The real loss could be counted in defensive lapses, missed switches or rotations, and every time Mikel Brown Jr. turned a Kentucky defender into an airport security cone.
Afterward, Pope was not his gregarious self. He sounded like a man who just followed his GPS into a cornfield.
“We got punished,” Pope said, “for not playing the game the right way.”
The thing, clearly, is not to panic over a result in the second week of the season, particularly if you’re missing a starting guard and a phenom on the interior you hope to add at some point in the season.
Still, when a coach starts talking about not playing the right way after a loss on a rival’s court, the words tend to hang in the air like the lonely linger of the final buzzer.
This wasn’t about calls. Or cold shooting. Or early-season chemistry.
This was basketball execution. Or lack of it.
Louisville passed better. Cut harder. Guarded with help. Shared the ball like it was a Thanksgiving casserole. Twenty assists, six turnovers, that's more sermon that stat sheet.
Kentucky’s line: Fourteen turnovers, fourteen assists. Which is either perfect balance or perfect futility, depending on your mood.
The Wildcats didn’t force a turnover for the first 17 minutes. Pope’s defense doesn’t chase steals, but turnovers are still a sign of disruption. And this group wasn’t disrupting much of anything.
Mikel Brown Jr. looked like a lottery pick. Ryan Conwell outplayed Otega Oweh, Kentucky’s SEC preseason player of the year, who spent the evening trying to dribble through a forest and came out with five turnovers and five fouls. It was the kind of game where plus-minus totals should’ve come with a content warning.
“We kind of lost the discipline of our of our defensive principles, which was incredibly disappointing for us,” Pope said. “But if you do and you're playing against talented players, that's what you're going to see. So we were late to everything. Credit to them.”
Pope tried things. New lineups. Fresh combinations. The only thing he didn’t try was the fire alarm. By the time Kam Williams entered — a player who wound up a team-best +11 — the kitchen was already ablaze.
Kentucky’s comeback got it to within four points late. As poorly as things went, the game was in the balance at winning time. Then Brown scored five straight and walked off the stage like a magician who just made the rabbit disappear.
“We played extremely poorly. But we do have a competitive group,” Pope said. “And we had some interesting new vibe lineups for us in the second half, trying to respond to some things. I was proud of the guys for competing, but that's not the standard we have at Kentucky.”
Among the red flags: Oweh’s ineffectiveness and Jaland Lowe’s inconsistency. When Lowe was playing well, Kentucky made its runs. When he wasn’t, it was at a significant disadvantage. Lowe averaged 20 in two games against Louisville last season. Tuesday night he had nine.
And for Oweh (minus-16) and Mouhamed Dioubate (minus-15) to be more under water than anyone else on the court is never going to be good for Kentucky.
Denzel Aberdeen was a bright spot, with 26 points. Collin Chandler’s 12 points were important. But they needed more help. Malachi Moreno wasn’t a factor. Jasper Johnson played just 6 ½ minutes. Brandon Garrison, not a major presence.
Louisville looked like the more seasoned team that had a far better grasp of who it is. Maybe that’s to be expected from a more veteran group in the third game of the season playing at home.
“They did everything we didn’t do,” Pope said. “They were really good at bringing a crowd (on defense). And we were really sticky with the ball. It’s a credit to Louisville for playing the game the right way.”
“We’re incredibly disappointed for the product we put on the floor,” Pope said. “And we’re excited to get better.”
What was supposed to be a measuring stick became a warning sign. This Kentucky team was built to guard. To defend. To grind. And Tuesday night, it got taken apart by a team doing all those things better.
You don’t call 911 if it happens in November. But you do check the locks.
Especially when Louisville is the one making off with the hardware.
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