FINAL: An abysmal Kentucky performance leads to 94-59 blowout loss vs. Gonzaga

It only took four minutes before everyone in the building knew how this one was going to end.

On Friday night in Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena, the No. 18 Kentucky Wildcats (5-4) looked like a team completely outmatched in an embarrassing 94-59 blowout loss to the No. 11 Gonzaga Bulldogs (8-1). I’ve typed some form of that sentence way too many times already this season. UK is now 0-4 against ranked opponents in 2025-26, losing those games by a combined 63 points.

It’s not hyperbole to say nothing went right for Mark Pope‘s crew against the Zags. Otega Oweh led the Wildcats in scoring with 16 points, along with five rebounds and five assists. Collin Chandler also reached double-figures with 11 points. Jaland Lowe even returned from injury for the first time since Nov. 11, but he managed just one point (0-5 FG) in 14 minutes. As a team, Kentucky shot just 26.7 percent from the field and 7-34 from deep. Gonzaga outrebounded the ‘Cats by 12 and scored 28 more points in the paint. It was a 23-point halftime deficit for UK.

Gonzaga was paced by 28 points and 10 rebounds from Graham Ike. His frontcourt teammate, Braden Huff, chipped in 20 points of his own on 9-11 shooting. The Bulldogs finished the night with shooting splits of 57.1/50/81.3. This was, without a doubt, the ugliest loss of the Pope era thus far. Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like things will turn around anytime soon.

Regardless of how old you are, the first half of this game was some of the worst Kentucky basketball you’ve ever seen. Gonzaga jumped out to a quick 7-0 while UK missed its first five shots from the field. A 10-0 kill shot from the Zags made it a 19-2 advantage by the second media timeout. Kentucky would end up missing its first 10 field goal attempts of the contest — the most to start a game by the ‘Cats in the last eight seasons, per ESPN — before Denzel Aberdeen finally knocked down a three to end the drought.

This game was already over by that point, though. Even with Kentucky responding by rattling off a 9-4 run, including a triple from Brandon Garrison, it didn’t seem to matter. It’s easy to question a team’s effort from the comfort of our couches, but it was obvious that UK did not have much (or any, to be frank) of it. Ike was up to 17 points and seven rebounds by halftime as Gonzaga led 43-20. Meanwhile, Kentucky was 5-31 from the field through 20 minutes and had eight turnovers to just three assists.

I wish I could tell you it got better after the break. Kentucky did hit more shots and was more efficient moving the ball in the second half, but it was far too late at that point. Gonzaga continued to rack up points, even making eight straight field goals late in the game just to pile it on. The Bulldogs shot over 65 percent from the floor in the second half. It was an all-systems failure by the ‘Cats from the opening tip to the final buzzer.

Right now, it feels impossible to find even the tiniest bit of positivity with this Kentucky group.

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