Kentucky has battled injuries all season long, and now it seems that the healthy players Mark Pope still has on his roster have finally worn down. The Wildcats fell to Florida 92-83 on Saturday, then dropped a Tuesday night matchup with Georgia at Rupp Arena 86-78.Â
The mounting losses for the 17-9 (8-5) Cats have Big Blue Nation rightfully wondering if Pope can pull his team out of this recent spiral, or if this season is heading for a complete collapse with a roadtrip to Auburn on deck Saturday and five games remaining in the regular season.Â
All year, Pope has found solutions for nearly every problem that has popped up with the different iterations of his starting lineup and rotation, but this recent losing skid has been defined by a new issue, and it’s one that even the struggling Auburn Tigers in Steven Pearl’s first season look equipped to exploit.Â
Kentucky’s turnover problems could be the only between the Cats and a get-right win
Like any family business, Auburn basketball just isn’t the same since it’s been handed down to the second generation. Steven Pearl has the Tigers at 14-12 (5-8) after Wednesday night’s 91-85 loss to Mississippi State, his team’s fifth straight.
Over that five-game losing streak, Auburn has been utterly abysmal on the defensive end of the floor with a 132.0 defensive rating, which is 1st percentile in college basketball over that stretch (according to CBBanalytics.com). Yet, even through all that dysfunction, the Tigers still have a propensity to take the ball away and turn those turnovers into points, ranking 5th in the SEC in opponent turnover rate at 14.4% and seventh in points off turnovers per game at 14.9.Â
Florida ranks No. 4 in the conference in points off turnovers, and Georgia is No. 1 with a 99th percentile output of 19.5 points per game. Both the Gators and the Dawgs had major success in that area against Kentucky, scoring 25 and 22 points off turnovers, respectively. Only Vanderbilt, its 80-55 blowout of Kentucky, scored more points off turnovers against the Cats this season.Â
Kentucky has yet to face Auburn this season, and the way the Tigers are playing heading into Saturday’s matchup, they could be a salve for Kentucky’s offensive ailments. Or, they could be the latest opponent to take advantage of the outsized playmaking load on Otega Oweh, Denzel Aberdeen, and a front court that was expected to have Jayden Quaintance and Kam Williams, who are both still out with injury.Â
There isn’t one player who’s been responsible for the recent turnover troubles, which could actually make them harder to fix. Oweh had three turnovers against Florida and four against Georgia, but generally, he’s been a low-turnover player this season. Aberdeen gave it away twice against Florida, but didn’t commit a single turnover against Georgia.Â
Maybe Florida and Georgia were two aggressive defensive teams who forced Kentucky into mistakes, and against Auburn, the giveaways will subside. Or maybe the Cats have sprung another leak, and Pope is out of ways to plug it.