KSR Today: Kentucky earns an extra few days of rest before NCAA Tournament

What are you up to this weekend? Is anything going on? My schedule is suddenly free after my previous plans fell through. I mean, I’m busy on Sunday evening but up until then, I’ll probably just be staring mindlessly at the blank wall in my house, pausing only for the occasional Joe Lundardi bracketology update. Why? Because the Kentucky Wildcats have earned an extra few days of rest to prepare for the NCAA Tournament.

And, by God, they earned it. Some teams like to play man-to-man defense. Others prefer a zone. This year’s Kentucky squad views defense like my toddler thinks of sharing. He knows he’s supposed to do it, and might commit to the cause on occasion out of pure obligation, but for the most part, considers it a foolish spectacle and would rather get back to doing the fun stuff.

Texas A&M, playing for their NCAA Tournament life, beat the Kentucky Wildcats for the second time this season, 97-87, in a game that reeked of frustration from start to finish. The team that was next-to-last in the entire country in 3-point shooting, suddenly morphed into a slew of Steph Curry clones, draining deep ball after deep ball on the way to the win. It must have helped most of their shots were wide-open.

When the Aggies weren’t drilling it from long range, they were laying the ball up with ease. Sure, Kentucky made some attempts tough, but they made those too. Simply put, it was an atrocious defensive performance by Kentucky, something we have seen before from this group. However, this time, the ‘Cats were unable to overcome their porous D with better offense. It all just fell apart.

We won’t dwell in the misery for too long, but we can at least reflect on it, shake our fists in the game’s general direction, and irrationally justify the heck out of the loss…together.

The KSR Crew Reacts Rapidly

KSR Queen and Nashville local, Tyler Thompson, was on site with the usual KSR Rapid Reaction bunch to soak in all of the disappointment in Bridgestone Arena. She joined Drew Franklin, Jack Pilgrim, and Zack Geoghegan to throw their arms up and provide a collective, “Welp!”

The SEC Tournament ends in disappointment…again

Kentucky basketball is a program rich with tradition. Unfortunately, it is making an early exit in the SEC tournament a new norm that Big Blue Nation could live without.

Kentucky in the SEC Tournament since 2018

• 2024: Lost to Texas A&M in the quarterfinals
• 2023: Lost to Vanderbilt in the quarterfinals
• 2022: Lost to Tennessee in the semifinals
• 2021: Lost to Mississippi State on Thursday
• 2020: No tournament
• 2019: Lost to Tennessee in the semifinals
• 2018: SEC Champion

Of the fourteen teams in the league, the Cats have the thirteenth worst record since that 2018 title. Kentucky has two wins in that span. It’s not great. Not at all.

Lack of defense and passing hurt Kentucky

John Calipari blamed his team’s lack of passing as one of the reasons they lost to Texas A&M. Gone was the Kentucky team that moved the ball fluidly around the court, dashing teams with open looks and burning them in transition. Instead, the Cats were stuck, and the normally explosive offense went stagnant.

“I told ’em after, we didn’t pass the ball to each other like we’ve been doing,” Calipari said. “When the ball stops, we’re not the same team. Go one on five, you can’t make a play that way. We haven’t for weeks. Today we kind of did.”

Calipari believed Kentucky’s poor ball movement even impacted the defense. “When you’re not passing the ball to each other, and everybody’s not touching the ball, it bleeds into your defense, too. 

The Aggies have only scored 90 or more points twice this season — both times against the Cats. In fact, the number of games Texas A&M scored at least 97 points in 186 games against teams not named Kentucky since the start of the 2017-2018 season is just two. They have achieved 97 points against Kentucky two times this year alone.

Calipari hates this loss because of the fans more than anything

Depending on your current headspace, John Calipari’s words after Friday’s loss could either console you or tick you off.

“I felt for the fans,” Calipari said. “You want to win for them. They put everything into being here, all that. You want to win for them…We are playing to win. But we’re playing for a bigger picture, which is that seed.”

On one hand, it feels sincere that Calipari wants to win the SEC Tournament for the fans. But what about every other game? He doesn’t say that after other losses. Do he and the team have different motivations for each matchup? Why are SEC Tourney games different? Did his “seeding is all that really matters” mindset create a self-fulfilling prophecy?

Who knows. Now that Kentucky’s SEC Tourney run is over, it truly does not matter anymore. All that matters, according to Calipari and all who will listen, is the NCAA Tournament. Time to go make a run.

Everything Coach Cal and Kentucky players had to say

Watch Kentucky head coach, John Calipari talk through what happened on Friday night along with Reed Sheppard and Tre Mitchell.

Reason for optimism moving forward

Time to put on our positivity caps. Two out of the last three times the Kentucky Wildcats have won the National Championship, they lost in the SEC Tournament. Perhaps losing this game may help Kentucky zero in on their mistakes and fix them going into the big dance.

This loss certainly feels like more than a minor setback at the moment, but how upset are you about the fact Vanderbilt beat Kentucky in the SEC Tournament in 2012? Is the 1996 loss to Mississippi State keeping you up at night? Kentucky has been playing great basketball as of late and one loss might do the opposite of getting these guys down. It might amp them up.

“We’re excited,” Freshman guard Reed Sheppard said of looking forward to the NCAA Tournament. “We’re a fun group. I love all the guys. We got a really good team. We’re all really, really close. We want to win. No one likes losing. We’re all excited to learn from this and get back home and get working again.”

Kentucky wins! (in baseball…in a regular-season game)

Reading the first two words of that subheading felt good, didn’t it? I thought it might. And it should. The baseball team from your favorite university opened up SEC play with a victory over the Georgia Bulldogs in a high-scoring affair. Behind 14 hits and 16 runs, Kentucky outscored Georgia on Friday, in another game that was void of defense.

The Wildcat offense rolled, as seven different batters finished with a hit and eight batters finished with an RBI. The Cats also hit three home runs (Lopez, Daly, McCarthy), which is tied for their most in a game this season (USC Upstate).

15 of Kentucky’s 16 runs scored came in just three innings, as the Cats put up a five-run inning three times (fourth, sixth, and seventh innings).

Redshirt sophomore right-handed pitcher Travis Smith made his fourth start of the season for Kentucky and continued his early season struggles. He lasted five innings, allowing five hits and five earned runs while walking more batters (four) than strikeouts (three).

The Wildcat bullpen continued its impressive season, however, allowing just two hits and four earned runs in relief.

Keep it up, ‘Cats.