There is a time and place for context. Kentucky is playing without their starting and backup point guards. Players who began the season as the ninth through 12th men combined to play over 35 minutes on Tuesday night in Oxford. Those aren’t excuses, they are truths. However, none of that can rationalize what Big Blue Nation watched in the first 20 minutes of this contest. The Ole Miss Rebels absolutely imposed their will on the Wildcats taking a 54-31 lead into the halftime locker room. Per Corey Price, the 23-point halftime deficit was the third largest against a Southeastern Conference opponent in program history. That is not the type of history you want to make. Whether you blame the preparedness, the effort, the toughness, or some combination of all of the above, the first 20 minutes in Oxford were unacceptable for any iteration of Kentucky Basketball.

As Coach Pope said in the postgame press conference, there are no moral victories at Kentucky. Coming back, scoring 53 points, and winning the second half by nine points doesn’t really make anyone feel better when the scoreboard still read 98-84. However, it was good to see a much higher level of offensive execution in the second half. Operating against a borderline Top 10 defense on the road isn’t an easy task for any team. When you remove a team’s two primary ball handlers it would seem like a nearly impossible task. The Wildcats were able to not just function, but excel offensively in the second half. They will need more of that on Saturday, and going forward, if they want to win any games during Lamont Butler’s and Kerr Kriisa’s absence.

After 22 games it is hard to know what to make of the Wildcats’ defensive struggles. They likely aren’t getting better. There is no scheme, preparation, or adjustment that will turn a bad defense into a good one. The current plan isn’t working, but that also doesn’t mean it isn’t the best option. Sometimes your weakness is your weakness and that is starting to look like the reality for Kentucky. However, they continue to be pretty darn special offensively. The ‘Cats sit second in KenPom’s adjusted offensive efficiency and 112th defensively. For whatever it is worth, Alabama’s Final Four team last season finished second and 111th respectively. Without Butler and Kriisa though any sort of expectations have been put on hold. All that matters right now is bouncing back on Saturday.

As always, we’ve been hard at work inside the KSR Film Room breaking down Kentucky’s latest contest. We obviously have to address the defensive breakdowns that led to the Ole Miss Rebels scoring 54 points in the first half and 98 points in the game. Concentration and urgency remain as glaring issues, but there are certainly some schematic breakdowns as well. Then, offensively, the Wildcats left far too many points on the board in the first half. It is hard to critique the offense when the defense gives up 98 points, but the truth is more is expected of Coach Pope’s offense. Scoring 31 in the first half is just as bad as allowing 54. We will address some of those issues as well. Let’s dive on in and take a closer look at Kentucky’s ugly 98-84 loss in Oxford to the Ole Miss Rebels.

Defensive Breakdowns Doom the Wildcats

When you give up 54 points in a half there isn’t much your offense can do. Kentucky struggled offensively in the first half, but they would have been behind the eight ball no matter what due to the essentially non-existent defensive performance. The Ole Miss Rebels posted an incredible 24 assists compared to just one turnover which is an indication of zero defensive resistance. Whether it was giving up three-point shots, getting back cut to the rim, or anything in between the Wildcats simply had no answer for the Rebels on Tuesday night. It isn’t fun to point all of this out in the film room, but that is what we have to do after a performance like that. To the extent that there is room for improvement defensively, these are the breakdowns that the ‘Cats can clean up.

To Coach Pope’s credit, he did try to play some zone against the Ole Miss Rebels on Tuesday night. However, it didn’t work much better than the man-to-man. This is where you can see that the Wildcats simply aren’t that comfortable playing zone. Ole Miss overloads the left side as the ball gets passed between #3 Pedulla and #7 Barnes from slot to slot. Kentucky ends up with both Jaxson Robinson and Koby Brea guarding the ball while Otega Oweh and Andrew Carr have to split between three players on the near side. Brea bumps, but is guarding nobody. Robinson or Brea needed to stay with #14 Davis in the high post so that the ‘Cats could man up on the near side. The rotations just happen too quickly for a team not accustomed to playing zone.

This is a total breakdown of concentration and urgency. Otega Oweh gets caught watching the ball as his man, #4 Brakefield, cuts to the baseline, and then to the basket, for an And-1 dunk. Oweh was completely out to lunch on this possession. That cannot happen.

Communication breakdowns will happen from time to time. However, they are extremely frustrating when they happen between two fifth year seniors. Jaxson Robinson finds himself involved in a lot of communication breakdowns. These two have played over 250 college basketball games combined. Therefore, when they closeout together to a high-level shooter like #5 Murray you would think they would be smart enough to not both leave the ball. That is what happens here though as a 40%+ three-point shooter gets handed a wide open look.

Koby Brea has played in 135 college basketball games. He isn’t going to get better defensively as he enters the final stretch of his career. However, these mistakes are still incredibly frustrating. #11 Murrell hasn’t had a great season, but he has been a start the past three seasons for the Ole Miss Rebels. There was never a scenario in which Brea should have been going under the handoffs when guarding Murrell. Get tight, chase, and take him away from 3. This is how Murrell was able to make six of them on Tuesday night.

We’ve talked about it all season, but Koby Brea is just one of those guys who gets scored on relentlessly. The previous clip showed him going under a handoff as #11 Murrell buried a three-point shot. This time around he is hugged up a little bit tighter to the shooter, but gets caught staring at the ball and gives up the backdoor. Brea is simply not a good defender.

Missed Opportunities Offensively

It feels unfair to even talk about the offense when the defense gave up 98 points to the Ole Miss Rebels. However, the truth is that performances get graded on a curve. A one-point win against Colgate feels a lot different than a one point win against Auburn. The same is true when comparing Kentucky’s offense and defense. It is no secret that the Wildcats’ defense isn’t very good. The offense on the other hand is one of the best in the country. Allowing 54 points in the first half is bad, but managing to only score 31 points is equally disappointing. If Kentucky had put up 41 instead of 51 they might hav had a real chance to win in the second half. Some of these clips feature missed opportunities while others simply showcase how difficult life is without a point guard or true playmaker.

The Ole Miss Rebels are one of the best defensive teams in college basketball. Like we’ve seen in recent games in the absence of Lamont Butler, Kentucky was forced to run a lot of offense outside of the scoring area. Ball pressure really bothers these guys who aren’t super comfortable handling the basketball. Watch this possession where Kentucky didn’t get any meaningful penetration inside of the arc until the final seconds of the shot clock. Even then Otega Oweh never beat his defender and was forced to take an out-of-control shot at the rim. This is essentially a wasted offensive possession.

Ole Miss really put Kentucky on their heels from the opening tip. Again, look at where the ball is being handled for the majority of this possession. The Wildcats are closer to the half court line than the three-point line. That is where either someone needs to put their head down and beat their man, or someone needs to come ballscreen. There has to be some form of pressure release in order to loosen the defense. Even when opportunities presented themselves it looked like the ‘Cats were hesitant to try to make a play. Both Jaxson Robinson and Otega Oweh had opportunities to drive and chose against it. Then, the possession ends with Koby Brea having to go one-on-one and getting blocked. Another largely wasted offensive possession.

The Ole Miss Rebels switch almost all screening action 1-5. There is nothing wrong with trying to exploit some mismatches when they present themselves. However, you have to be able to come up with a better shot than this or else it isn’t really a mismatch. Koby Brea can’t get any separation against the Rebels’ five-man so he enters the ball to Brandon Garrison who is being guarded by #11 Murrell. Despite a massive size difference, Garrison takes just one dribble and shoots a hook shot from eight feet away. It is like he didn’t now where he was on the floor. You completely bail the defense out of a mismatch situation by taking this shot with 12 seconds still on the shot clock.

As things started to slip away from Kentucky late in the first half they just had too many wasted possessions. This is not a real shot. Otega Oweh fumbled the entry pass, still had 18 seconds on the shot clock, but rushed a little turnaround push shot with a bigger defender between him and the basket. This possession was far too important for that to be the shot Kentucky got.

This is an example of carelessness with the basketball. You cannot value the basketball to the extent that you should and make this pass. This is a high school pass from Travis Perry. Weak bounce passes aren’t going to work very often in college basketball. That is certainly true when playing the Ole Miss Rebels. Turnovers like this certainly don’t help the cause for Kentucky’s struggling defense.

What Does All of This Mean?

Until Kentucky gets Lamont Butler back there isn’t a whole lot that is really worth discussing. Butler was recently named to the Naismith Defensive Player of the Year Watch List. His impact has been quantified in Kentucky’s back-to-back losses as the ‘Cats have fallen from 70th to 111th in adjusted defensive efficiency. Some of the early season success and continued big wins helped to hide some of this team’s limitations. However, just because they are being brought to the forefront now, doesn’t mean we should feel differently about this team. If the Wildcats can get one or both point guards healthy they have a resume that proves they can compete with anyone in college basketball and that is all the matters once March rolls around.