Rick Barnes believes Kentucky has only gotten better since the win in Knoxville

Kentucky traveled down to Knoxville without its starting point guard and pulled out a gutsy 78-73 victory in a hostile road environment as a double-digit underdog. No Lamont Butler with Andrew Carr able to play just 89 seconds? Koby Brea and Jaxson Robinson are there to pick up the pieces as the Wildcats shoot 50 percent from three on a dozen makes against the No. 1 3-point defense in college basketball.

This time around, it was Butler and Carr back in with Robinson out, dealing with a right shooting wrist injury. The latter wasn’t able to contribute much as he continues to find his footing returning from lingering back issues, but the former’s presence was felt from the opening tip.

He would finish with six points on 3-6 shooting, four assists, three rebounds, three steals and zero turnovers in 22 minutes — a pest defensively and a change-of-pace threat offensively. Then came the critical setback the program desperately fought to avoid, going down with 8:40 left on the clock, immediately grabbing his injured shoulder in obvious pain. Butler would head to the locker room and return in street clothes, ruled out with a re-aggravation.

Mark Pope said his performance was ‘brilliant’ before the injury and was ‘hopeful that you can get that healthy as soon as possible.’ Rick Barnes shared similar hope simply as a fan of the veteran point guard’s game.

“Well, he’s really good defensively, but also he gives them their best downhill driver, and a guy that (is) experienced, been around. I love the way he plays, I really do,” he said after the game. “And I hate that he got hurt again, because those shoulders, they’re hard to deal with this time of year, especially when you’re at the point where you’re getting hit a lot. I just hate that for him and for them.

“But he’s a difference maker because, one, he’s tough, hard-nosed, can affect the game on both ends.”

That’s part of what made the final stretch so difficult for Barnes to watch. Kentucky lost its heart and soul defensively and still managed to win the last two segments of the game 21-10 to cruise to the double-digit victory. Severely shorthanded as an underdog, just as the Cats were in Knoxville? No problem.

“You know what? Way, way, way too many defensive breakdowns on our part. Give Kentucky credit, they did it, but we had way too many defensive breakdowns on things that you can’t do there at the end of the game,” Barnes said. “And then I thought offensively we had a few guys that got too emotional, didn’t make really good decisions on the offensive end. But I don’t want to say anything to take away from Kentucky.

“Mark’s done a great job with this group. We were right where we needed to be and didn’t make enough winning plays on either end of the court.”

At times, Kentucky has been one of the worst high-major defensive teams in the country — certainly in the SEC. The team’s stretch in losses vs. Arkansas and at Ole Miss was abysmal, stressing the importance of Butler on the floor. Since then, though, the Wildcats have put together some impressive tape on that end, even with PG1 out due to rest or injury.

Part of it is effort, Barnes seeing clear fight from Pope’s group that had been missing on occasion.

“Yeah, I thought they played hard tonight. I really did. You know, I think that there are a lot of different ways to play defense,” Barnes said. “Some people like to really sag back in there and encourage you to shoot it quickly and say, ‘Hey, you know, you’re gonna have to shoot a jump shot, whatever.’ Some people play high-level personnel where they’re just going to stay with certain guys. So there’s a lot of different ways to play and our style is we’re gonna try to be more dictative where we can do what we think we can do. And for the most part, it’s worked for us. Not all the time — obviously it didn’t for 40 minutes tonight.”

Have there been schematic changes he’s noticed or improved individual play to help lead to that growth on the defensive end? Barnes believes so.

The Wildcats have a long way to go before they’re considered elite or even pretty good in that area, but progress is progress. They’ve made strides in several areas, adapting to injury issues and clear weaknesses to respond from that stretch of losing four of five.

“I think what you’re asking me, if I think Kentucky’s gotten better, I do,” Barnes said. “I think they’ve gotten better all around with everything which you would expect from a coach that knows what he’s doing and a staff that knows what he’s doing. I think we’re better. I think we’re better than we were three weeks ago, and I think we can get better if we’re willing to learn from our mistakes and learn to control some emotion at the right time.

“But again, it’s consistency. I’ve seen some teams play harder certain times and then they let down. One thing I’ve learned in this business is you can’t coach the other teams. You can’t. Because you’re not with ’em every day. You don’t know about injuries. You don’t know what they had to do to get prepared for the game. But I’m impressed with what Mark’s done since the two times that we’ve played against him.”

We’re impressed too, Rick.