Offense shines, defense disappoints in Senior Night win for Kentucky

On Tuesday night, Kentucky wrapped up another undefeated season at Rupp Arena with an 83-72 victory over Ole Miss. The Wildcats maintained total control for all 40 minutes to improve to 24-6 (13-4) on the season.

However, there were some negatives as the Wildcats sent out Kellan Grady and Davion Mintz with a dub in their final game at home. Despite a great offensive effort against a bad defensive team, the Wildcats once again let an opposing guard go off and are having issues getting stops on the defensive end.

Before moving onto the season finale against Florida, KSR is diving into the box score to see how the game was won by the Wildcats against Ole Miss.

Surgical offensive performance

Against Arkansas, the light seemed to come on for the Kentucky offense as the Wildcats got rolling in the second half once TyTy Washington and Sahvir Wheeler settled in during their first game back from injury. The performance against Ole Miss proved that the last 20 minutes in Bud Walton Arena was not a fluke.

Against one of the worst defenses in the SEC, Kentucky was efficient from start to finish in the 11-point victory.

The Wildcats scored 83 points in 61 possessions averaging 1.36 points per possession. Kentucky was 27 of 41 from two (65.9%), 6 of 14 from three (42.9%), and scored on 63.9 percent of their possessions. The Wildcats collected an assist rate of 54.5 percent with 40 points in the paint and 22 points off the bench with a turnover rate of just 13.1 percent.

To put it simply, the offense was outstanding in the win over Ole Miss. Kentucky’s potential on this end of the floor is what makes this team so dangerous because of the scoring balance and the ability to be efficient from multiple levels.

Defense disappoints again

For the fifth SEC game in a row, Kentucky’s opponent averaged over a point per possession. That is very disappointing because the Wildcats did not face one top-five team in adjusted offensive efficiency — in SEC play per KenPom — during that stretch.

Ole Miss is outside of the top-100 nationally on offense, but the Rebels produced 1.18 points per possession. Kermit Davis’ team scored 16 second-chance points on just eight offensive rebounds and recorded a 54.1 percent scoring rate. The Rebels were 55 percent from two and got enough three-point makes to make the game a little too close for comfort down the stretch due to this lack of efficiency on defense.

Once again, an opposing guard had a big day as Matthew Murrell scored 25 points on 16 field goal attempts with four assists in 36 minutes. Kentucky is having issues stopping the best players they face on defense and that continued in a lackluster performance against Ole Miss.

Kentucky’s pace is slowing down

For the sixth game in a row, Kentucky completed a game that featured less than 70 possessions. After being committed to pushing tempo early in the year, that has all but gone away in recent weeks.

That is not in Kentucky’s favor.

With Sahvir Wheeler running the show, Kentucky needs to play on the break as much as possible and force the tempo. More times than not, Kentucky will have the better team on the court with more talent. Therefore, the more possessions created will help the Wildcats in the long haul.

The slow pace can be attributed to the lack of defensive success. Kentucky is simply not getting enough stops and that is allowing opposing teams to dictate the terms of the game. The Wildcats must get some defensive issues figured out quickly.

Stats that stood out

• Oscar Tshiebwe finished the game with a stat line of 18-15-2. The junior big hit of 9 of his 12 shots from the floor and was once again a force in the paint. He’s the best player in college basketball.
• Quietly, TyTy Washington might have just had his best game since going for 28 points against Tennessee on Jan. 15. The freshman combo guard had 14 points on 10 shots with four assists, three steals, and just one turnover. Washington made plays on both ends, took the right shots, and protected the basketball. That is the kind of play Kentucky will need in March.
• Sahvir Wheeler is now shooting 32.6 percent from three (14 of 43) this season with a 9 of 20 (45%) mark in SEC play. When the three-point shots are open, the point guard needs to take them. Maybe just lay off the pull-up jumpers in the mid-range.