Andrew Carr on Kentucky's struggles: "Nobody's going to feel sorry for us, and we can't either"

Kentucky’s 98-84 loss to No. 25 Ole Miss was its fourth in the last five games. The first half felt like salt in the wound after Saturday night’s loss to Arkansas, with Ole Miss scoring 54 points on 60% shooting, including nine threes. While Kentucky showed some fight in the second half, it was too little, too late. It’s hard to dig yourself out of a 23-point halftime deficit, even for a team that’s pulled off some miraculous comebacks.

The number one culprit in tonight’s loss? Defense. In the first half, Ole Miss scored at will from inside out. Even when Kentucky’s effort improved on defense in the second half, the Rebels kept finding ways to score, making tough shot after tough shot down the stretch to keep the Cats at arm’s distance.

“Credit to their bigs, they certainly came out on fire and made some shots,” Andrew Carr said during his postgame conversation with Goose Givens. “We’re faced with a lot of things right now as a team. We’ve got to learn how to grow, and we know where it is, we know what it is, and we’ve got to get a lot better on that defensive end.”

The biggest of those things: the injury to Lamont Butler. Butler missed his third straight game due to a shoulder injury. The jury is still out on when Butler will return, but it’s becoming increasingly clear how much Kentucky misses him. That doesn’t excuse the Cats’ effort on the defensive end, especially in the first half, for which Carr said there are no excuses.

“I think it definitely hurts to want those guys back as soon as possible,” Carr said of Butler and Kerr Kriisa. “They bring a lot to this team. But, like you kind of said, nobody’s going to feel sorry for us, and we can’t either. And that’s just kind of how it is. We’ve got to be able to step up, and, at this point, it really is a personal challenge for everybody to figure out a way to do it. We’ve got to do it together, but figure out a way to really be more aggressive defensively.”

Ole Miss came into the game as one of the best teams in the country at protecting the basketball. Tonight, they lived up to that billing, committing just one turnover to Kentucky’s eight. Clearly, the Cats miss Butler’s aggression on defense, but Carr said everyone else needs to step up to fill the void.

“I feel like they were super comfortable all night,” Carr said of Ole Miss. “I think you were just talking about it before I got on. But having one turnover in the game is, it’s really tough to win when you’re when you’re playing like that. It kind of shows a lack of aggressiveness and trying to make them feel a little bit more uncomfortable in the game.”

Carr played 23 minutes tonight, his most since Kentucky’s win over Texas A&M on January 14. He finished with 10 points (3-3 FG, 4-6 FT), four rebounds, and three assists. Loss aside, it was good to see Carr continue to knock off the rust as he works his way back from the back spasms that have plagued him since New Year’s. He opened up about his back pain with reporters yesterday and again tonight with Givens.

“It’s been a long month and a half for me, and so been battling back, and definitely been feeling a lot better. Hopefully, I’ll be able to stack some more days and practice, get back to the drawing board, and figure out a way to get better, and we really need to do that on the defensive end.”

Kentucky desperately needs a win. The best opportunity of the season awaits on Saturday, a noon tip vs. South Carolina at Rupp Arena. After back-to-back brutal losses, BBN needs this team to come out on fire — on both ends of the court.