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Kentucky coach Mark Pope said his Wildcats weren’t their “normal selves” over the final 3:45 of Saturday’s loss to Texas.
The 15th-ranked Wildcats (17-8, 6-6 SEC) held a 5-point lead with 3:51 to play in the game before giving up a 14-1. Otega Oweh and Travis Perry hit triples in the final 20 seconds but they ultimately proved fruitless in an 82-78 loss. On the road, going without a made shot from the field for over 3 minutes down the stretch was a death knell for Kentucky.
“One of the things that’s been really special about our team is we’ve done a great job of kind of being in the moment, being onto the next play. It’s been a really good characteristic of our team,” Pope told reporters after the game. “We just weren’t our normal selves in that aspect of the game in the last three minutes and 45 seconds. For me, I’ve got to find a way to help our guys be the way that we’ve been, which has been pretty good being really, really present in those moments.
“I didn’t help our guys do that well enough tonight. Sometimes things don’t go your way, certainly late in games, especially on the road. But, we didn’t give ourselves a chance that we deserved to give ourselves with the effort that the guys put into the game.”
Kentucky was down 2 starters for the game with Lamont Butler and Jaxson Robinson sidelined, but the defeat continued a weird trend for Kentucky all season.
Against ranked opponents, Kentucky is 7-2 on the year. The Wildcats have 5 wins over AP top 10 teams, including wins over 2 of the teams that are currently viewed as No. 1 seeds by the NCAA Tournament selection committee.
Kentucky is also 2-6 against unranked power conference teams this season. The Wildcats have lost to 4 of the 7 SEC teams that currently have a losing record in conference play.
Pope’s squad has shown a tendency to play to the competition. The Wildcats obviously have several gears they can access. They swept the season series over Tennessee and they lost by double-digits to Georgia. Against Texas on Saturday — a team that had lost 3 straight by 8 points or more — Kentucky 41.9% from the field and 25% from 3. It had more turnovers (15) than assists (10). And its defense was undone by 2 players. Tre Johnson and Tramon Mark scored 58 of the Longhorns’ 82 points.
Pope’s fluctuating lineup hasn’t helped. The Wildcats have been without Kerr Kriisa for much of the season. Andrew Carr was a regular on the injury report for several games. Butler has missed 6 games throughout the year. Robinson has missed the last 2 games.
Pope said the injuries aren’t being used as an excuse.
“I have a good team. Like the guys on the court are good players. And we’re good enough to win,” he said. “These guys have proven that. We just didn’t do it in the last three minutes and 45 seconds tonight. That’s just it. It was tonight, and it’s super painful, it’s not acceptable, all those things are true. But we have the guys we need to win and we’re going to figure out a way to do it.
“… Listen, if we do this right, these moments are the moments that we’re going to get to replay again, and we’re going to do them right.”
Kentucky is a 3-seed or a 4-seed in almost every major bracket projection, per Bracket Matrix. Select bracketologists have the Wildcats as a 5-seed. The résumé has its strengths — 8 Quad 1 wins, 9-1 in all other games — but Kentucky’s variance from game to game might make them a tough placement for the committee on Selection Sunday.
Pope will be looking to get Kentucky to the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2018-19. Bart Torvik gives the Wildcats a 45.7% chance to make the Sweet 16.
The model also gives Kentucky a 7.8% chance to make the Final Four. The Wildcats are +900 to make the Final Four at DraftKings, and UK fans can use our DraftKings Kentucky bonus to bet on the Wildcats.
Kentucky hasn’t been to a Final Four since 2014-15, but this squad has shown it can beat anyone on any given night. But the Texas loss proved once again it can get beat by anyone.
Derek Peterson does a bit of everything, not unlike Taysom Hill. He has covered Oklahoma, Nebraska, the Pac-12, and now delivers CFB-wide content.
