Kentucky's 3 losses this season have included some concerning trends

Some worrisome trends are beginning to form when looking at Kentucky’s losses this season.

For starters, the Wildcats’ offense forgot how to shoot in all three of this season’s losses to Clemson, Ohio State, and now Georgia. Kentucky’s three worst shooting performances of the season have all come in these defeats. That includes field goal and three-point percentage. Kentucky failed to score more than 69 points in any of them. The lowest-scoring output in a win this season? 77 points against Duke.

• @ Clemson: 38.1 FG% | 25.9 3PT% = 66 points
• @ Georgia: 37.5 FG% | 24 3PT% = 69 points
• vs. Ohio State: 29.8 FG% | 18.2 3PT% = 65 points

Missed shots only seem to compound the issue for Kentucky, especially once games get into the second half. When clean looks aren’t falling, the ‘Cats tend to resort to more one-on-one, isolation-type basketball. It keeps them from running up and down the floor and controlling the pace through transition opportunities, which is a staple in Mark Pope‘s offense.

When the game gets slowed down to a crawl, it favors the opposition. Ohio State and Georgia only attempted 55 and 53 field goal attempts, respectively, against UK — two of the three fewest shots allowed by the ‘Cats in a game this season. But those low numbers don’t totally matter when Kentucky is shooting under 40 percent from the floor on the other end.

Another concerning trend in losses has been the lack of ball security and playmaking, which goes back to the offense stalling in the halfcourt once things begin to go south. Kentucky’s assist-to-turnover ratio still ranks third in the country at 1.94, but that number would be much higher if not for the three losses. When shots aren’t falling, the ball stops moving.

Kentucky has only two games this season with negative assist-to-turnover ratios; those came against Georgia and Clemson. The loss to Ohio State wasn’t much better.

• @ Clemson: 11 assists, 12 turnovers
• @ Georgia: 8 assists, 13 turnovers
• vs. Ohio State: 11 assists, 9 turnovers

Some player trends are beginning to form too. Kentucky needs Koby Brea to make more shots. When he scores under 10 points, UK is just 3-3 on the season. Andrew Carr needs to be more involved as well. UK is 2-2 on the season when he fails to score more than six points.

Another interesting note is Otega Oweh‘s foul shooting. Kentucky’s three losses have all seen him attempt more than eight free throws. He doesn’t have more than six free throw attempts in any of the team’s 12 wins. Is that merely a coincidence? Or is Oweh trying to take it upon himself to get Kentucky points at times when the overall offense is struggling?

A lot of Kentucky’s worries could be solved by just taking and making more shots. That’s obviously much easier said than done though. Not every game is going to be a great shooting performance. Kentucky has to find ways to win ugly games — there will be several more of them in the SEC between now and March.