Kentucky basketball fans: Louisville loss didn’t make the sky fall
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Maybe I’m coping. Maybe my (relative) youth just hasn’t given me the perspective of Big Blue Nation’s elder statesmen. Perhaps it’s a combination of both. Regardless, here’s how I feel about Kentucky’s 96-88 loss to Louisville on Tuesday night: unbothered.
Take the name off the jersey. If I told you the Kentucky Wildcats went on the road to play a top-12 team – one boasting what may be the best offense in college basketball – and lost by 8 points, you wouldn’t be this upset.
Heck, when you think about the Wildcats being down 20 points to said team in the second half, and cutting that deficit to merely 4 points with 3:35 remaining in regulation, you’d be thrilled with the grit and resolve demonstrated. Instead, because it’s Louisville, Big Blue Nation is up in arms.
The fact of the matter is this: it was Louisville’s turn to win this game. Since John Calipari was hired as Kentucky’s head coach, the Cardinals have defeated the Wildcats every fourth regular-season matchup. Louisville’s most recent wins in the series:
- 2012-13 (80-77)
- 2016-17 (73-70)
- 2020-21 (62-59)
- 2025-26* (96-88)
*The Cardinals and Wildcats did not play in 2021-22.
One every 4 years. Kentucky also has 2 NCAA Tournament wins over Louisville – including a Final 4 triumph – in the past 16 years. So, overall, the Wildcats are 14-4 vs. the Cardinals in their last 18 matchups. I simply can’t complain about that record against one of our biggest rivals since I turned 10 years old.
Side note: This year’s matchup was played earlier than any UK-UL battle had ever been played before. It should never have been played this early. College basketball fans across the country know it. Kentucky fans know it. Deep down, Louisville fans know it, too. But I digress.
Part of the reason I feel this way may also be because I know that the Wildcats have, far and away, been the better program, even recently. Think of how much the Wildcats have struggled, for their lofty standard, in the past half-decade. These “dark” years are seasons the Cardinals gladly would have taken. Their Kenny Payne experiment makes Billy Gillespie’s tenure look like a walk in the park.
If there’s something concerning for Kentucky basketball fans to be bothered by, it’s falling off its SEC perch. The Wildcats are no longer actively the big man on campus. They’re the high school jock in his letterman jacket.
Kentucky hasn’t won a regular-season SEC championship post-COVID (2019-20). Its SEC Tournament title drought is even longer: 2017-18 (my freshman year in Lexington). Five SEC schools have appeared in the Elite Eight more recently than the Wildcats. Four have been to the Final 4 since they last reached that hallowed stage.
Watching Tennessee finish with an equal or better SEC record in 4 of the past 5 seasons? Seeing that bright orange advance further in each of the last 4 NCAA Tournaments? That’s more than bothersome. It’s sickening. It’s vomit-inducing, even if it’s just the Vols’ peak surpassing the heights of UK’s valley.
Tuesday night’s result, difficult as it may have been to swallow in the moment, was encouraging. For much of the game, the offense looked clunky. The defense was borderline non-existent. Yet, when crunch time arrived, Kentucky had an opportunity to win on the road against a top-12 foe. One that is, at worst, on par with the best the SEC has to offer in 2025-26.
Would a win over the Cardinals feel better today than a loss? Of course. Do we need to see the Wildcats play better when they face Michigan State in the Champions Classic? And when they tussle with North Carolina, Gonzaga, Indiana and St. John’s to round out nonconference play? And in SEC competition? Undoubtedly.
At the same time, all that matters is what things look like in March. Every game until then is a testing ground. What does the offense look like when Jaland Lowe has his sea legs under him? How does Jayden Quantaince’s return impact the defensive end of the floor? What kind of forces do Malachi Moreno and Kam Williams develop into over the course of the season? Those questions, and so many others, are still unanswered.
We’re roughly 2 weeks into a 5-month journey. Yeah, little brother got one over on the Wildcats. It’s going to happen from time to time. There’s no point in being bothered by it.
