Kentucky could have huge offensive night against porous Ole Miss defense

Kentucky is fresh off a 75-73 road loss at Arkansas, and the Wildcats have dropped to No. 7 in the AP Top 25. The Wildcats are still in position for a No. 2 seed for the NCAA Tournament, but a No. 3 seed at the SEC Tournament feels most likely.

However, the close loss to Arkansas wasn’t all bad. Oscar Tshiebwe had another masterful performance to increase his Player of the Year campaign plus Kentucky got TyTy Washington and Sahvir Wheeler back into the lineup. After settling into the game against the best defense in the SEC, we saw in the second half why this Kentucky team can be special thanks to the firepower on offense.

After halftime, the Wildcats scored 45 points out of the locker room and averaged a robust 1.32 points per possession. With Tshiebwe owning the paint, Kentucky guards attacked downhill, and the Wildcats had a very effective day against a stingy defense at Bud Walton Arena.

That should continue on Senior Day against Ole Miss.

Kermit Davis is in his fourth season leading the Rebels and the program has seen the bottom fall out on defense this year. After engineering a top-25 adjusted efficiency finish last year, Ole Miss is all the way down to No. 103 in KenPom’s adjusted defensive efficiency rankings and is 13th in SEC games ahead of only Georgia. The Rebels have been getting torched on the defensive end.

In the last outing, Texas A&M and its 81st offense put up 76 points and averaged 1.21 points per possession. Meanwhile, the defense has allowed over a point per possession in six consecutive games. Ole Miss is laboring on that end, and the inability to get stops is a big reason why the Rebels are 1-6 in their last seven games with a No. 13 overall finish in SEC play expected.

When Kentucky is at their best, the Wildcats are pushing the tempo with Wheeler and scoring points in bunches. Without their guards in the lineup, that went away, and we saw multiple scoring droughts occur. On Senior Night, Kentucky should be able to get back on track against a bad defense as the efficiency and explosiveness starts to return just in time for a postseason run.