The Ohio State Buckeyes had a plan and an approach that they felt could beat the Kentucky Wildcats in the CBS Sports Classic. They set about that plan, and it worked better than anyone anticipated. Kentucky couldn't shoot and Ohio State couldn't miss. The Buckeyes disrupted the flow of anything the Wildcats tried to do on offense, and it was ugly basketball for Kentucky.
There will be a lot of stats and figures to dig into after this one, but maybe the most startling is that the Wildcats shot 29.8% from the field and 18.2% from three. At the same time, the Buckeyes shot 56.6% from the field and 26.7% from three. It'll be tough to win any games when you throw up that line while your opponent throws up the latter.
Fans took to X and were absolutely frustrated with the Kentucky play and worried about the upcoming SEC schedule.
We’re gonna get crushed when we play teams like Tennessee, Auburn, Florida, and Alabama
— Alex Stevenson (@astevenson_12) December 22, 2024
I'm of the opinion that's a really bad loss. Neutral site, very experienced team, a week off, playing at MSG. Ohio State had wilted against almost every other good team they've faced. Just a worst case night on offense and defense tonight.
— Justin Rowland (@RowlandRIVALS) December 22, 2024
Sickening. Wake up call for SEC play.
— Mitchell Harralson (@mharralson) December 22, 2024
What makes matters worse is that Kentucky now won't play for 10 more days, and Big Blue Nation has to live in the crushing loss for over a week. It'll be brutal. Maybe enjoy Christmas and forget this game ever happened?
and we get to suck on this one for 10 days
— T.J. Walker (@TJWalkerRadio) December 22, 2024
Absolutely embarrassing
— Lori Mills (@lori_mills) December 22, 2024
There were a few fans who found the silver lining in this one, which is hard to do, but God bless those who find optimism in such an embarrassing loss.
Wins over Duke and Gonzaga
— Lee K. Howard ☀️ (@HowardWKYT) December 22, 2024
Losses to Clemson and Ohio State
Not the way I would have predicted it, but still only two non conference losses with SEC play about to begin.
Currently this will be a quad 1 loss for Kentucky. If Ohio State falls out of the top 50 in NET that will change. This loss definitely hurts, especially how they played but being a quad 1 loss will help it not kill the Cats in the metrics.
— Big Blue Express (@bigbluexpress) December 22, 2024
The latter post does bring up a good point. Ohio State is full of talented players but has yet to play strong when facing off against quality opponents. There's a chance they had to use Kentucky to turn a corner, which is brutal for the Wildcats, but if Ohio State stays as a top 50 NET team, it will go in the same category as the Clemson loss, a quad-1 loss.
We can sugar coat it all we want but it's a brutal loss.