Mitch Barnhart grateful for high expectations, confident Kentucky has the pieces

Kentucky has underwhelmed to open the college basketball season, failing to rack up quality wins by falling flat on the big stage. First it was vs. Michigan State in the Champions Classic, then on the road at Gonzaga just a few days later. The Wildcats picked up a solid victory in London vs. Michigan, but then crumbled down the stretch vs. UCLA in the CBS Sports Classic.

Now, the opportunity for a strong non-conference resume is out the window and Kentucky has to build things through a difficult SEC schedule. It’s not a comfortable position to be in, especially with the team seemingly regressing by the game, especially on offense.

Fans are expressing that discomfort loud and clear, and UK Athletics Director Mitch Barnhart hears it. He knows the product isn’t pretty right now and he appreciates that Big Blue Nation demands excellence.

He’s confident, though, excellence is on the horizon with this basketball team — no matter how things look right now.

“When you schedule like we’re going to schedule on the men’s (basketball) side, you’re going to have some speed bumps,” Barnhart said in an interview with BBN Radio on Monday. “I am thankful that our fans have high expectations and I’m thankful that our team has high expectations, our department. If we didn’t have that, we wouldn’t be Kentucky.

“We want to be that place that has high expectations for what we want to achieve. There’s no one that wants to win number nine more than our fans, our team, our staff, no one. We all clearly want to make that dream reality come true. We want to make that come true.”

The offensive struggles are clear, with the team just not making shots right now, specifically against quality competition. It’s worrisome, especially for a team with so much talent, depth and veteran leadership.

There’s light at the end of the tunnel, though, says Barnhart.

“There are growing pains and we’re going through that, nights when the ball is not going in the hole,” he said. “The game against Michigan State, stubbed our toe down the stretch, couldn’t finish that one. The Gonzaga game, just didn’t have a very good night that night. And then the UCLA game, obviously we just really struggled to shoot the ball. We had a lot of open looks, a lot of open looks, and just couldn’t get them to go down. That’s a little unusual for this team, they’re pretty good shooters. You’ve got some folks who can do that.

“I do believe that the pieces of the puzzle are in place. I watched Chris Livingston come alive, and I believe we’ll be able to put pieces of the puzzle together as we go through the season. Cal’s teams generally get better as we go and as they begin to develop and spend time together in December, and we get into the heart of it.”

Like all fans are aware, it all comes down to March. The St. Peter’s loss wasn’t acceptable to open the NCAA Tournament last season. Change is necessary.

Fortunately for the Wildcats, there are still three months to go until then to get things figured out.

“It’s all defined by what we do in March, there’s no mystery in that,” Barnhart said. “So we’ve got to build to that and make sure we find ourselves and put ourselves in a position and see what we can accomplish in March.”