Kentucky missed half of its free throws at LSU. That'll do it.

There was plenty to blame for Kentucky‘s loss at LSU. One optimistic fan may point to Sahvir Wheeler‘s injury; “the engine,” Calipari called Wheeler in the postgame press conference. Losing the engine four minutes into the game clearly hurt Kentucky, particularly the flow of the offense.

TyTy Washington‘s cramps hurt Kentucky’s prospects too. The team isn’t equipped to run without its two main floor generals and its two leaders in minutes per game. Davion Mintz brought heart and a couple of daggers off the bench, but the offense completely fell apart with both Wheeler and Washington M.I.A. in the second half.

In the first half, Oscar Tshiebwe‘s foul trouble came into play in a major way. You know the Calipari drill, two first-half fouls mean no more first-half minutes, and Kentucky played 11-plus minutes without Tshiebwe before halftime. In fairness, Lance Ware played pretty well when his teammates weren’t feeding him the ball in spots where he doesn’t need the ball. More on Ware in a moment.

Then there’s the popular debate of the timeout, or lack thereof, at the end of the game. The fan base is divided in online conversations about Calipari needing to call a timeout when Kentucky had the ball down three. After the game, Calipari said he was trying to get the referee’s attention to call a timeout, but couldn’t get it in. “Joe must not have heard me. I was right there in his ear screaming it,” Calipari explained after the fact.

Another one, Kellan Grady playing the last 11 minutes without taking a shot is inexcusable. Grady had 12 of Kentucky’s 17 second-half points when he stopped shooting for the day.

All of that being said, it’s the free throws for me. You have to make your free throws if you want to win big games. You certainly can’t miss half of the ones they give you, not in a top-25 road SEC game.

As a team, Kentucky missed 10 of 20 free throw tries in the loss at LSU, a 50 percent clip at the stripe.

“How many did we miss today?” Calipari checked the box score in his postgame press conference. “We missed 10 free throws today. We’re one of the best free throw shooting teams in the country. We missed 10 in a five (point-game).”

Kellan Grady and Davion Mintz each missed one early on, 20 seconds apart in a one-possession game. Oscar Tshiebwe, a 75-percent shooter on the season, missed all three of his attempts. One was the front end of a 1-and-1 and LSU responded with a 3-pointer the other way. The biggest culprit, Lance Ware missed all four of his freebies. Ware last went 5-of-6 at the line in the Mizzou game. While not Travis Ford, he’s much better than O-fer.

“You hit half of those, you win the game,” Calipari said of his team’s misses at the foul line.

Everything else would’ve been obstacles and adversity in a Kentucky win if they had just made the free ones.