Kentucky is losing a rock fight vs. St. John's (and potentially lost Jaland Lowe)

You want the bad news or the really bad news? We’ll start with the bad: Kentucky is trailing at halftime against another name-brand opponent. That should not shock you at this point — it’s what Mark Pope does.

The issue with that is the Wildcats are shooting an abysmal 35.7 percent from the field and 16.7 percent from three with an absolutely broken offense. That’s where the really bad news comes in, Jaland Lowe playing a total of seven seconds before reinjuring his right shoulder for a third time. TBD on his status the rest of the way.

Until then, UK has to figure out how to run an offense without a point guard, and it’s not going well for now. This group has turned it over 11 times leading to 16 points the other way compared to just four and four in those categories for St. John’s.

The Johnnies are not playing particularly well and the defense is actually pretty solid for the Wildcats, holding them to 32.1 percent overall, but they’ve hit a trio of 3-pointers and are 11-15 at the line to put them up seven at the half.

Otega Oweh has nine points, followed by Mo Dioubate and Brandon Garrison with four apiece, then Denzel Aberdeen, Malachi Moreno, Jasper Johnson and Jayden Quaintance all with two points.

For St. John’s, Ian Jackson has seven points, followed by Zuby Ejiofor and Oziyah Sellers with five and Dillon Mitchell with four.

Ugly, ugly, ugly first 20 minutes for the Cats, but hey, that’s why we play 40. Figure it out and win the game.