At 18-10 on the season and 9-6 in SEC play, the Kentucky Wildcats should be in good shape to make the NCAA Tournament. While they did drop two spots in the latest Bracketology update, they did hunker down and got a much-needed Quad 2 road victory over South Carolina earlier in the week to stop the bleeding. Prior to that road victory, UK had dropped its three previous games in SEC play.
One area of emphasis coming in for the Wildcats was to be better on the glass. They did take advantage of the Gamecocks around the rim, allowing them to win a sloppy game, in all honesty... However, they are starting to get incredibly reckless with the basketball in their hands. Turnovers have become a massive issue for UK, as they had as many assists as they did turnovers on Tuesday.
Yes, they could also use some buckets off the bench as well, but that issue feels somewhat tertiary to the two co-primaries currently plaguing Kentucky in terms of overall rebounding and ball security. Fortunately for them, those are easy to spot in games. The fact that they only have Quad 1 games the rest of the way in league play makes this even more important. It is all about tournament seeding now.
Let's take a look at what needs to happen for Kentucky moving forward and if the 'Cats can fix this...
Kentucky has a turnover problem that Mark Pope needs to rectify fast
In terms of getting more offensive contributions off the bench, that is about using the rotation effectively to put key role players in situations to get a quick bucket to boost confidence. As far as rebounding is concerned, it is as much of an attitude thing as it is being properly positioned in and around the basketball. And with regards to turnovers, Kentucky does seem to be pressing a bit, too.
In a way, getting and maintaining more possessions off the glass could eliminate some of this margin for error Pope's players could be inherently feeling. It may help the starters feel that they no longer have to do everything. Basketball is a team game. A deep rotation can be your friend at times. However, ball security is job security, yours and mine. This is what will either sink or swim Kentucky.
On average, Kentucky is turning the basketball over 10.6 times a game. While the Wildcats are slightly net positive in that regard with 10.9 takeaways per game on average, this should be an area where Kentucky could have carved out an edge all season long. They have yet to do that... Being even two turnovers better in a game could determine how far Kentucky goes in the NCAA Tournament in a bit.
Right now, time is not on their side to do it, but a crashing sense of urgency could ignite that in them.