KSR's takeaways from Kentucky's second-half crumble vs. Arkansas

Kentucky‘s winning streak in conference play ends at six games, with the seventh effort being a disappointing one — mostly because there wasn’t much of any in the second half. Facing off against an Arkansas team coming in with a four-game SEC winning streak itself, the Wildcats got punked, falling to the Razorbacks by a final score of 84-70 in Lexington.

And it wasn’t about the loss itself or even the deficit to some extent. It was the light bulb burning out at halftime, a bizarre tale of two 20-minute segments that saw the worst of this Kentucky team expose itself when adversity crept in. Despite going into the half down one, the Wildcats still fought to open the game, finding themselves in a back-and-forth battle that saw both teams hit the 40-point mark and shoot above 53% from the floor. Six players scored at least four points for Kentucky while five players scored at least seven points for Arkansas on a combined 31 layups and dunks.

Then came the second half, where the fight the Wildcats showed through 20 minutes simply vanished. The Razorbacks would score six straight to open the half, four coming off lazy turnovers by the home team. A Chris Livingston 3-pointer would be the lone bucket Kentucky would see in the first four-and-a-half minutes while Arkansas would score five times in two fewer minutes, taking a nine-point lead.

The Wildcats would get it down to four with 13:29 to go, but the team failed to string together stops the rest of the way, allowing the Razorbacks to extend the lead back to double digits at the eight-minute mark and push it to as many as 16 with 5:02 remaining. The foul game would ultimately lead to a 15-point home loss that puts Kentucky firmly back on the bubble — a place it fought so hard to distance itself from during the six-game SEC winning streak — with just seven regular season games to go.

KSR has the takeaways from Rupp Arena.

Kentucky’s defense is just not good

Pick-and-roll defense has always been an issue with Kentucky, but the wheels have quickly fallen off in transition and on-ball opportunities, as well. The Wildcats simply can’t stay in front of anybody, giving up straight-line drives to the basket and turning miscommunications into wide-open scores for the opposition.

Arkansas finished the day shooting 62.7% from the field (32-51) and 44.4% from three (4-9) while also hitting 20 of 24 attempts at the free-throw line. In the second half alone, the Razorbacks hit 72.0% of their shots (18-25), simply a ludicrous number to allow to any team. And while some of those makes were prayers with the ball bouncing the right way, the majority of the road team’s success came as a result of zero pushback from the Wildcats. They got punked, plain and simple.

It was also a lack of response to a pretty clear scouting report that stressed going under on ball screens and giving up 3-point looks rather than allowing non-shooters to drive. Arkansas is one of the best teams in college basketball scoring inside the arc (No. 11 overall), yet Kentucky allowed 42 2-point shots on the night, with 28 falling for the Razorbacks (66.7%). Just a horrible execution in that regard.

Looking at the updated numbers, Kentucky’s defensive efficiency is now ranked No. 89 overall by KenPom, along with No. 116 in adjusted defensive efficiency and No. 121 in defense vs. quality opponents by BartTorvik. The Wildcats also rank No. 232 overall in forced defensive turnovers (17.6), yet still managed just 11 against the Razorbacks.

Chris Livingston, Daimion Collins show continued growth

It wasn’t all negative in the loss. In fact, two players who have been making small strides in recent weeks each had mini breakthroughs for the Wildcats in Chris Livingston and Daimion Collins. The former finished second on the team with 13 points on 5-10 shooting and 2-3 from three to go with five rebounds in 33 minutes. The latter added seven points on 3-4 shooting to go with two rebounds in eight minutes.

Livingston did his damage inside to open the game, finishing with seven points in the first half (3-6 FG) before adding an additional six on back-to-back threes in the second. Playing both the three and the four, he impacted the game in a variety of ways in different lineups for the Wildcats.

“He did good. The kid is getting better and better and more confident,” Calipari said of Livingston. “He mixes it up, and that’s all I can ask. He’s got the reason this happened tonight. He was one of the bright spots.”

One of those lineups? Livingston at the four with Collins at the five, an intriguing one alongside Cason Wallace, Antonio Reeves and CJ Fredrick that maximizes scoring, shooting and versatility. It’s a stretch that allowed Collins to play his best game of the season, knocking down a pair of mid-range jumpers — one at the end of the first half to give the Wildcats a spark going into the break — and going for a handful of poster dunks to flip the momentum a bit inside Rupp Arena.

He fought and competed, and it came at a time Oscar Tshiebwe was getting torched defensively while also struggling vs. size and length offensively. Collins simply picked up where the reigning national player of the year left off, and it worked.

Why not ride the hot hand?

And then came the second half, where the sophomore forward was limited to just two minutes and took one single shot. Tshiebwe played 18 to bring his game total to seven points on 3-6 shooting to go with seven rebounds, three steals, two assists and a block in 32 total minutes.

John Calipari’s excuse? He wanted to get the player who helped “get (Kentucky) there” during his fruitful career here in Lexington back rolling, even if it meant taking Collins — a player in desperate need of a confidence boost considering what he’s gone through this year — off the floor during his best outing of the year.

“You know, you as a coach, you go with what got you there, and I wanted to — it was a bigger picture for Oscar than just this game. It was like, let’s get him going just to get him right.”

Just can’t disagree more with that mindset. You know what you have in Tshiebwe, you know what he’s capable of big picture. Collins remains a major question mark, someone who can still take a leap to close out the regular season and change the trajectory of the year. Won’t know what he’s capable of until he plays real minutes and continues to build confidence.

Force-feeding Tshiebwe wasn’t working. Trusting him defensively wasn’t working. You found some real momentum with Collins in the first half, but went away from that to go to the guy who was actively hurting the Wildcats at times during his time on the floor? Losing decision.

Sahvir Wheeler out, Cason Wallace in (again)

Wheeler’s absence in Knoxville helped create a path for Wallace to the starting point guard position, a role he’s taken and found great success in. The freshman guard has emerged as Kentucky’s best player, a dynamic two-way threat capable of taking games over at any given moment.

Wheeler had been a productive spark off the bench, but against Arkansas, he was declared out shortly before tip with an ankle injury. It’s an issue that popped up this week in practice and will force him to undergo treatment to determine a plan of attack moving forward.

In the senior guard’s absence, Wallace finished with a game-high 24 points on 10-17 shooting to go with five assists, three rebounds, three steals, two blocks and five turnovers in a team-high 39 minutes. When he was in attack mode, he was unstoppable, scoring at will around the basket while also knocking down pull-up mid-range jumpers with ease. Pressure got to him at times — credit Arkansas for its high-energy defense — but he still looked the part as Kentucky’s go-to option offensively.

If there’s one gripe about Wallace, it’s that he needs to be more aggressive in looking for his shot and attacking when those windows open up. He’s got elite potential at this level, and he’s quickly moving to reach that status.

CJ Fredrick dealing with a rib issue

The Iowa transfer finally got some shots to fall vs. Florida, scoring 12 points on 4-10 shooting and 3-6 from three in 35 minutes. It was Fredrick’s first game without a splint on his shooting hand — an issue that hampered his production since his return to the floor vs. South Carolina on Jan. 10 — and it showed.

And then, a step back at home vs. Arkansas, with the senior guard scoring zero points on 0-4 shooting to go with one rebound and one assist in the loss. The visible discomfort was back, this time with his ribs, an injury suffered against the Gators on a fall following an and-one finish at the basket. Calipari said the ailment was enough to keep him out of the game, but Fredrick opted to fight through the pain and play.

“He had rib problems today. His ribs were bothering him,” He said. “His ribs were — he’s another one that probably should not have played, and you could see that he was hurting the whole time. But he was giving everything he had.”

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Time to right the ship this weekend in Athens when the Wildcats take on the Georgia Bulldogs on the road.