Kentucky "super excited about the gauntlet" that lies ahead in SEC play

Kentucky closed out non-conference play yesterday with an 88-54 win over Brown. The feel-good victory brought the Cats’ record to 11-2 and served as the final tune-up for SEC play, which begins Saturday vs. No. 6 Florida.

It’s hard to take much from a 34-point win against an outmatched opponent, but there were signs of progress, especially on defense. Kentucky allowed only 54 points, a season-low, and won the turnover battle 23-5. Brown’s 23 turnovers were the most by a Kentucky opponent since Texas A&M’s 25 in January 2017 and Kentucky’s five turnovers were the fewest for the Cats this season. Kentucky also had a season-high 14 steals.

Yet, there were still some areas of concern, even against Brown. The Bears outrebounded the Cats 35-29 and Kentucky got off to yet another slow start, making only six of its first 16 shots. The Cats were much better in the second half, outrebounding Brown and shooting 56%, but as we look ahead to conference play, it feels inevitable that those lingering bad habits will come back to bite them at some point.

Going by this morning’s NET Rankings, 14 of Kentucky’s remaining 18 games are in Quad 1, meaning the toughest of the tough. Six of those are against opponents ranked in the top ten of the NET, including undefeated Florida (NET No. 4). Kentucky’s remaining schedule is the sixth hardest in the country, per ESPN’s Basketball Power Index. The five teams ahead of them? All in the SEC (South Carolina, Ole Miss, Vanderbilt, LSU, and Texas).

For what it’s worth, the Cats ain’t scared, even though only two of them have played in an SEC game (Jaxson Robinson and Otega Oweh); in fact, the ones who spoke to the media after the win over Brown said they were very much looking forward to the difficult road ahead.

“Just super excited about the gauntlet that we have in front of us,” Andrew Carr said. “The league is super talented. For us to be as prepared as we possibly can to go out there and win a National Championship, which is what this league will prepare us to do, I think. Being able to bring crazy intensity each and every game and you’re going to get looks from top to bottom of the league. Not everyone plays the same, so it’ll be super fun to see our team grow throughout that.”

Mark Pope said how his team fares in SEC play will come down to two factors: execution and durability.

“Every game, you’re going to walk in and it’s going to feel like a toss-up. And I think when you have that, it’s going to so much end up with, what does your team’s execution look like? How capable are you of communicating on the floor, executing on the floor? I think it’s going to come a lot down to resolve. Like, how much frustration are you capable of enduring? Where is your emotional reservoir at?  

“I know that sounds like soft skills but that’s actually a defining feature of great games. It’s going to have a little bit of an NBA feel where you can’t get too high or too low because you don’t have time to emotionally rehab from letting yourself be devastated or elated. You play the No. 3 team in the country and two days later you go on the road to play the No. 1 team in the country and then you are playing the No. 10 team in the country.”

Travis Perry played a season-high 13 minutes vs. Brown. As the road gets tougher, he knows his playing time will decrease, which makes it that much more important to maximize the minutes he does get.

“I’ve watched SEC basketball for forever, so to be able to be a part of it is something that I’m excited for, and I’m excited for our team to get to go face that challenge,” the freshman from Eddyville, Ky. said.

“What is different about SEC play this year, especially just the competition every night, like you might have a night during non-conference when some more guys get some more minutes, but every single play matters in SEC play, and just kind of the competitiveness of it. The slogan is, it just means more, and it really does. Every game is somebody that you really don’t like so you want to go out there and take advantage of all the opportunities and win every game possible.”

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Learning from the loss to Ohio State

Kentucky got a crash course in resiliency in the days following the loss to Ohio State. After the Cats got bullied by the Buckeyes, Pope and staff amped up the intensity in practice, putting an emphasis on defense. Pope being Pope, he embraced the opportunity to reflect and improve.

“This game we played before Christmas was so, just so brutal, so terrible,” Pope said during his postgame conversation with Tom Leach. “But you know what? It made us better. Like, we got better over the last week, and it gave us a new focus and kind of exposed us to some things, which gave us a place to get better. And I’m proud of our guys for doing that.”

Amari Williams had one of his better defensive outings as a Wildcat vs. Brown, totaling three blocks and a steal along with 13 points.

“It makes everything easy in the long run, especially when it comes to us playing the tougher SEC games ahead,” Williams said of Kentucky’s practices during the break. “It is going to help us a lot. Going into those games with confidence, knowing that we will have more practice when it comes to defense will be nice. Everything is going to work out.”

Carr said the break between games and the work Kentucky put in once returning to campus was “super important” for their mindset heading into the meat of the schedule.

“We wanted to recover a lot, take a couple of days to digest what [the] Ohio State [loss] was, and be able to move on from that, put that into perspective. We had some good, intense practices and looked better. So, I think for us in a couple of our games we came out a little slower in the first half, and responded in the second half, so thinking about better ways to be on top of it. Really looking forward to doing that in SEC play and seeing what this team has.”

As fans, it’s natural to be worried about how many losses Kentucky will take. Pope acknowledged his team might take some lumps, but they’ll continue to learn from them.

“Are you guys scared of hard?” Pope asked fans in the stands at his postgame radio show. “Nah, the BBN isn’t scared of hard. Listen, there’s gonna be ups and downs. There’s gonna be moments where we feel like this is not gonna work but we have a team with a ton of resolve and a ton of resilience, so we’re going to work through the beautiful times and the tough times and see if we can keep getting better every single day.”

Kentucky’s Remaining Schedule on the Team Sheet

With SEC play upon us, it’s time to start thinking about the schedule in terms of Kentucky’s NCAA Tournament resume. Here’s where all 18 games lie on Kentucky’s team sheet as of January 1. The Cats are up to No. 19 in the NET Rankings after last night’s win.

Kentucky (11-2)

• NET: No. 19
• Quad 1: 2-2
• Quad 2: 1-0
• Quad 3: 2-0
• Quad 4: 6-0

Date	Opponent	NET Ranking	Quad
01/04/2025	Florida	4	Quad 1
01/07/2025	at Georgia	27	Quad 1
01/11/2025	at Mississippi St.	18	Quad 1
01/14/2025	Texas A&M	21	Quad 1
01/18/2025	Alabama	9	Quad 1
01/25/2025	at Vanderbilt	31	Quad 1
01/28/2025	at Tennessee	2	Quad 1
02/01/2025	Arkansas	40	Quad 2
02/04/2025	at Ole Miss	39	Quad 1
02/08/2025	South Carolina	86	Quad 3
02/11/2025	Tennessee	2	Quad 1
02/15/2025	at Texas	34	Quad 1
02/19/2025	Vanderbilt	31	Quad 2
02/22/2025	at Alabama	9	Quad 1
02/26/2025	at Oklahoma	44	Quad 1
03/01/2025	Auburn	1	Quad 1
03/04/2025	LSU	51	Quad 2
03/08/2025	at Missouri	50	Quad 1