KSR's five most frustrating things from Kentucky's loss at Vanderbilt

There were ten minutes to love about Kentucky‘s trip to Nashville and 30 minutes to hate. Or maybe we can split it down the middle a little more — the Cats led 23-21 after 12 minutes in the first half, then 58-51 after 11 minutes in the second half. Those leads resulted in a 14-point deficit at halftime, followed by a five-point loss at the final buzzer. Vanderbilt gets its second court-storming in a week (and the $500K fine that comes with it).

When things went south in those 17 minutes, they went Antarctica south — a minus-24 to wrap up a 74-69 loss and give the Commodores more Memorial Magic. It was a 20-4 run going into the break, then a 6-0 run in the final two minutes after Kentucky held a 69-68 lead before the back-breaking sequence of the game: Otega Oweh rims out a three, Amari Williams is wrestled to the ground on the rebound attempt by Devin McGlockton, AJ Hoggard trips over his feet on a gather down the lane for a potential walk or tie-up opportunity, then kicks it out to Tyler Nickel for the corner three.

A potential four-point lead with two minutes to go becomes a two-point deficit in the blink of an eye. There were a few opportunities to recover, only to turn those into not one, not two, but three turnovers in the final 90 seconds while also allowing a clean putback to McGlockton — one of the best offensive rebounders in the country — to put the Commodores up four with a minute to go. Ballgame.

With plenty of frustration to go around, KSR tried narrowing it down to the five biggest thorns in Kentucky’s side leading to the loss.

Depth is a disaster right now

Andrew Carr was a late scratch after entering the day officially listed as questionable with a back injury, Pope sharing a not-so-great update on his status where he said the fifth-year senior ‘gets beat up so bad, it’s back to square one’ and ‘it’s hard for him to walk essentially’ after games. Factor in Kerr Kriisa’s extended and indefinite absence, plus Lamont Butler battling through all sorts of ailments to play — he took a hard fall and came up holding his back in this one — and depth is a serious issue at this point. It’s why you saw Trent Noah (12), Travis Perry (7) and Collin Chandler (3) combine for 22 minutes with Ansley Almonor also finishing fourth on the team with 24 minutes starting in Carr’s place.

Almonor was sensational, going 4-5 from three en route to 12 points with four rebounds. No complaints there. Noah shined, too, finishing on a tough bucket at the rim with four boards himself, plus a steal.

Butler, though, tied for his worst scoring performance of the year with six points while also turning the ball over six times, the second time he’s hit that mark in the last three games. Carr’s absence was obvious, too, hurting the team by playing against Alabama and then hurting the team by missing against Vanderbilt — a tough predicament for a player who has been brilliant for the Cats this season all things considered. Don’t discount the spark Kriisa could have provided off the bench in this one, either.

Point being, one of Kentucky’s biggest strengths to open the year is now one of its biggest weaknesses. The Cats have a serious depth problem.

17 turnovers after zero in the first seven minutes

The Cats were clean to start the game. Maybe not defensively — both teams were letting the other score at will the first couple of segments — but for a Vanderbilt team entering the game ranked No. 19 nationally forcing 15.8 turnovers per contest, you felt good about Kentucky committing zero through seven minutes.

Then the wheels fell off with the Wildcats racking up 17 on the day with three different players coughing it up at least four times, led by Butler with six. Otega Oweh and Brandon Garrison added four apiece, plus Almonor, Chandler and Amari Williams earning one, too.

The weird part? Vanderbilt, leading the country in points off turnovers entering the day, scored just 14 on those 17. If you were to tell me going in that would be the damage, I’d confidently call it a win. Then you look at the shot numbers and understand how a turnover rate of 26.6 percent on 64 possessions just wasn’t gonna be enough. They seemed to come at the worst time, too, particularly down the stretch with three in the final 1:30.

Failing to hit the 70-point mark in another loss

Kentucky has now lost four games away from Rupp Arena. In all four of those losses, the Wildcats have failed to score 70 points, going for 66 at Clemson, 65 vs. Ohio State, 69 at Georgia and now 69 at Vanderbilt.

Where UK lacks pure talent and athleticism compared to the competition, they’re forced to make up for it with execution and shot creation leading to high-volume makes. That’s the winning recipe with this group, what got the Cats to a 5-0 start against top-15 opponents. When the creation goes away and individual takeover attempts emerge, they lose. This is a team that prides itself on getting the ball past the logo in three seconds and firing away early in the shot clock. This time, the Wildcats actually won the efficiency battle in all three phases with 48/39/62 splits compared to 44/36/36 for the Commodores, but still lost. Why? They were a minus-12 on total field goals and a minus-10 on 3-point attempts.

If Kentucky is going to struggle the way it has defensively, the offense simply cannot afford to hit walls. Just 11 assists on 26 made baskets for UK compared to 21 on 29 for VU paints a solid picture.

Why not complete the comeback?

It’s no secret I hate the fact that Kentucky digs holes for itself, playing fire by taking on double-digit deficits at will game after game. To the Cats’ credit, though, they tend to climb out and toss water on that fire more often than not. Very rarely have they fallen behind and not made it competitive again — Ohio State really the only outlier there. That happened once again in Nashville, UK turning a 14-point halftime deficit into a seven-point lead with 8:39 to go. Momentum had flipped upside down with Go Big Blue chants echoing through Memorial Gymnasium. They had the game in the palms of their hands, ready to celebrate on the bus ride home to Lexington.

Then the want-to went away. Kentucky immediately gave up a three to Jaylen Carey, then another wide-freaking-open one to McGlockton, cutting the lead to just one point. It was a back-and-forth the rest of the way with the game entirely up for grabs, no one — with the exception of Oweh — wanting to go take it. The ball stopped moving, defense let up and turnovers stacked, and before they knew it, the comeback slipped away to allow for a second consecutive loss.

Otega Oweh’s individual effort is overshadowed

At some point, Oweh’s double-figure scoring streak will come to an end, right? It hasn’t 19 games in, and it doesn’t appear it’ll be going away anytime soon, this time going for a game-high 21 points on 8-14 shooting and 5-7 at the line while adding 12 rebounds, three assists and one steal in 33 minutes. You wish he could have hit that game-swinging 3-pointer and limited the turnovers, but when he was forced to save the day with no one else stepping up, it’s hard to blame him for not being perfect.

He gave it his best shot, barreling down the lane for tough, physical, hard-earned buckets — he even got himself another poster — over and over and over in the second half. He put up 17 points and seven rebounds after intermission himself, just dominating with no sign of pushback from the Commodores.

Almonor did his part, too, banging a trio of triples in the second half, but it was just a whole bunch of nothing for the others, especially in those crucial eight minutes and change to close things out. Their efforts are unfortunately overshadowed by a disappointing all-around effort.