LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) – Kentucky faced a tall task in its first-ever SEC game at Texas. It was trying to beat a good Longhorns team without point guard Lamont Butler or guard Jaxson Robinson (or, for that matter, backup point guard Kerr Kriisa).
But the Wildcats had the game in hand. With just over 3 ½ minutes to play, they led by five. Then the wheels came off. A Texas-sized meltdown snatched a Quad 1 road win out of Kentucky’s grasp, and the Longhorns used a late 11-0 run to beat Kentucky 82-78.
The loss continues a confusing run for first-year Mark Pope and his Kentucky team. On the one hand, the injury excuse is a valid one. Few teams without both its point guards would hold up well in the SEC. Yet Kentucky has managed to do that. It has put itself in position to win games – and it has beaten some of the best teams in the country at less than 100 percent.
Yet against the more comparable conference rosters on its schedule, Kentucky has come up short. It lost a winnable game at home to Arkansas. It lost a winnable game at Vanderbilt. And it lost Saturday night at Texas in a game that it led or was tied for nearly 27 minutes.
“The season puts baggage on you and the game puts baggage on you, and we didn’t deal with all of that baggage well enough in the last 3 ½ minutes. We didn’t do it well enough to give ourselves the chance that we deserved to win this game,” Kentucky coach Mark Pope said in his postgame radio interview with Tom Leach. “We earned a chance to win the game, we just weren’t present enough to give ourselves that chance. . . . Our toughness was lacking down the stretch in the sense of being able to get on to the next play. And that’s on me, actually, as the head coach. I’ve got to find a way to help us in that stretch to stay centered. We’ve been great at that all season. We’ve been insanely good at that all season. We just weren’t good at it tonight. It’s not a trend for us, it was just a really tough 3 ½ minutes for us.”
Here was the anatomy of a meltdown.
Up 70-67 with three minutes to play, Kentucky couldn’t get a stop. Tramon Mark went over Trent Noah for an elbow jumper over that pulled Texas within 70-69. Then Travis Perry, filling in at point, threw the ball to no one and Texas got the steal and made both free throws to go up 71-70. On Kentucky’s next possession, Otega Oweh had his shot blocked down low and the ball went out of bounds off Kentucky.
On the other end, Tre Johnson of Texas got Noah reaching and ripped a shot through his arms to draw a foul. He made the first free throw but missed the second. Kentucky, though, gave up the offensive rebound, and Johnson missed a layup before Kentucky was caught watching as Kadin Shedrick slammed home the follow to put Texas up 74-70.
There was still 1:35 left. Still plenty of time to win the game. But out of a timeout, Koby Brea fired an airball on an above-the-break three. Johnson went around Perry for a shot in the lane to put Texas up six with 45.4 seconds, and Pope called another timeout.
He set his offense. Texas wasn’t pressing hard. Just a token presence. But Otega Oweh inbounded the ball right between Travis Perry and Koby Brea, and it wound up in the hands of Johnson, who was fouled and made two.
And that was pretty much it. Kentucky nearly turned it over on its next inbounds pass, but Oweh was fortunate to get fouled.
It was not, in short, a vintage stretch of Kentucky basketball.
The obvious question is why? Fatigue? Pressure impacting some freshmen being asked to fill roles they otherwise would not be asked to fill? Perry drew the start at point guard in the absence of Butler, and played well most of the way, but struggled at the end.
“I’m incredibly proud of Travis,” Pope told Leach. “To be starting this game, on the road in this environment, with all the things going into that. I thought he was courageous and played well and gave us a solid defensive effort. I thought he was really good and will continue to get better situationally. He’ll continue to get better and better and better.”
Kentucky also had some costly turnovers and mistakes from experienced players. Koby Brea played 35 minutes without making a shot, going 0-for-6, and 0-4 from three-point range.
Amari Williams had 18 points and 12 rebounds. Oweh finished with 20, including a three at the buzzer. And Ansley Almonore added 11.
“Amari, come on, we’re asking him to do everything right now, and he’s doing amazing work,” Pope told Leach. “I’m really proud of him. And we still can get better.”
Kentucky scored 1.147 points per possession. It scored on 53 percent of its possessions. It was right there in the closing minutes despite all its injuries and a bad shooting night by Brea. But it could not land the plane, and 10 second-half turnovers loom large.
It wasn’t so much losing the game, as the manner in which UK lost that was perhaps the most frustrating thing. On a day Kentucky was ranked No. 10 in the NCAA's first seed reveal, it was perhaps as much a testament to what the Wildcats stand to lose as what is possible, depending on the team's health situation moving forward. The Wildcats have weathered a lot, they've also left some games on the table.
And then there's this. In Johnson, who finished with a career-high 32, and Mark, who had 26, Texas had the best two players on the court. And that, at the finish, was the difference. And it has not often been the case for Kentucky in the past 15 seasons or so -- or for much of its history, to be honest.
As a result, Kentucky falls to 17-8 overall, 6-6 in the SEC. It’ll face Vanderbilt in Rupp Arena on Wednesday at 7 p.m.
“This is what the end of the season is, these scenarios,” Pope said. “We just need to recognize that was a little bit of an anomaly for the way we are. We’re normally so good in these moments. So that’s important for us to recognize. And we’re trying to do it with a bit of a new group and trying to bring this group along. We know we can get really good at this with the bodies we have on the court. And we’re also learning our guys to know what we can do late with that group, relative to the group we had most of the season. A season is made up of successes and disappointments, and if you learn lessons from all of them, you’ll continue to get better.”
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