Kentucky Basketball: Wildcats fall to Auburn Tigers, 75-70
By Terry Brown
Even after losing to Auburn 75-70 on Saturday afternoon, all is not lost for the University of Kentucky men’s basketball team. The Wildcats fall to 13-4 (3-2 in the SEC) with the loss. With the win, the Tigers move to 8-8 on the season. As with the Ohio State loss, the Cats have stumbled against a team that doesn’t figure to hear its name called on Selection Sunday. And now, the Big Blue Nation has begun to wonder where this Kentucky team will be seeded come NCAA Tournament time.
Thankfully, there’s still a lot of basketball left to be played. Head coach John Calipari has a proven track record of turning teams around (the 2011 and 2014 Cats) that seem dead in the water during the middle of the conference season. This team is flawed. This team has issues. And even after this loss to Auburn, there’s still time to get things right.
The silver lining to the loss was the play of Derrick Willis. The junior forward was publicly called out by Calipari this week and he delivered his best game of the season. Willis scored 12 points and grabbed 12 rebounds to post his first career double-double. And by shooting 2-5 from three point range, it’s going to be hard for Cal to keep Willis on the bench going forward.
Tyler Ulis was his usual spectacular self. The sophomore point guard finished with 17 points, 10 rebounds and 8 assists. Ulis also makes so many plays that don’t show up in the stat sheet that it’s clear that he is the Wildcat MVP so far this season. As good as he played, however, Ulis shot 5-17 from the field, including going 0-3 from three point range. And he wasn’t alone as the Wildcats collectively shot 25-72 (34.7%) from the field, setting the stage for the Auburn upset.
After going into halftime with a 35-30 and seeing their lead get as big as 12 in the early part of the second half, the Wildcats watched as the Tigers got hot from three point range. Auburn finished 12-26 from three which is exactly how upsets happen. Kentucky won the rebounding battle 48-38 and actually shot better from the free throw line (77-67%).
It’s clear that this Kentucky team is dependent on its backcourt to handle the scoring load. Marcus Lee, Alex Poythress and Skal Labissierre (who only logged 8 minutes) simply cannot be counted on to score in the post. And when the perimeter players shoot that bad: Ulis (5-17), Murray (8-22), Briscoe (3-12) then the Wildcats are going to struggle.
There’s still time to turn this thing around. I believe that John Calipari has earned the benefit of the doubt from the BBN. How will he do it? I don’t know. In 2011, I couldn’t have predicted that team to be the team that ended the Wildcat Final Four drought. In 2014, I thought Cal was crazy when he talked about that “tweak” until the Cats stormed until the Final Four. I’m not sure how a deep NCAA Tournament team is possible, but I do believe that it is possible… even after losing to Auburn.