LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — Kentucky didn't lose a basketball game Tuesday night.
Kentucky misplaced it.
For 12 minutes, the Wildcats looked like a team with a purpose. They had the ball moving, the crowd quiet, and Texas A&M looking for answers.
They were up 30–18 and in complete command. Then someone jingled a set of keys.
Mark Pope had the word for it afterward. "Distractible," he said.
Louisville | Kentucky | Indiana | Eric Crawford
Distractible, as in what happens when you leave a puppy in a room full of tennis balls.
Kentucky suddenly forgot some basics of basketball: catch the pass, protect the ball, stop the other team from shooting uncontested three-pointers. The Wildcats treated those concepts the way tourists treat museum signs: interesting suggestions, but not binding.
Texas A&M took advantage, and walked away with a 96-85 victory.
The Aggies didn't just come back. They stampeded. They finished the half on a 27–3 run while Kentucky stood at a window watching the weather change.
Pope didn't blame strategy. He blamed attention.
"We stopped fighting to win catches," he said. "We got careless. We got sped up."
In other words, Kentucky walked into a gymnasium, built a comfortable lead, and then wandered off to see what that noise in the hallway was.
The Wildcats have the kind of talent that can clearly be competitive in these games — Otega Oweh proved that with 24 points, Mouhamed Dioubate with 19 — but sometimes they play like a team that's more interested in whatever loud thing is happening on the concourse.
Kentucky came into this game off one of its most complete efforts of the season, a demolition of Vanderbilt. But with a chance at momentum, it returned to inconsistency.
"We've actually been good at getting over losses," Pope said. "We haven't been great at getting over wins. We've got to get over a win and get back to work. And now we get to do it. You know, pretty soon here, we get to do it in 24 hours. We have a massive game Saturday, and then from then on, it's 24- and 48-hour turnarounds. And we can do it. We just didn't do it today."
The troubling thing for Kentucky isn't that Texas A&M shot the lights out. Good teams do that at home.
The troubling thing is that the Wildcats played the first 12 minutes like contenders and the next eight like a group that had collectively decided the lead would take care of itself.
Basketball games are funny that way. You don't have to lose your talent to lose a game.
Sometimes all you have to lose is your place.
The Wildcats have one regular-season game remaining, on Saturday afternoon against a Florida team that is playing like a Final Four contender.
Lapses are not advisable.
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