Kentucky suffers their second straight loss.
The Kentucky Wildcats were absolutely dismantled in Oxford Tuesday night, falling 98-84 to the Ole Miss Rebels.
The Cats showed zero signs of fight, zero sense of urgency, and zero emotion in the first half for what is their second straight loss and fourth loss in the last five games. After playing a much better second half, Kentucky couldn’t overcome impressive shot-making from the Rebels. But also, don’t go down 27 points, and this won’t be an issue.
Without Lamont Butler, the team looks lost on how to run an offense, or even simply just trying to bring the ball up the floor, clearly rattled by Ole Miss’s pressure on the defensive end.
There is an extreme lack of confidence in the program right now as Kentucky falls to below .500 In conference play.
It’s hard to remain confident in this team with Butler sideline for an undisclosed period of time.
Box Score
MVP
Jaxson Robinson played an impressive game, primarily in the second half, trying his best to will the Wildcats back from down 27. He finished with 18 points on five made threes, but 27 points is simply too much to overcome if you can’t get defensive stops.
We are officially at DEFCON 1 for Kentucky’s defense.
Kentucky vs. Ole Miss Twitter reactions
The honeymoon period is over for Mark Pope and this team
The level of basketball we have seen as of late is flat out unacceptable, regardless of injuries
Losing is one thing, Kentucky being uncompetitive this frequently just cannot happen
Just embarrassing
— Matt Sak BBN (@MattSakR2NG) February 5, 2025
Kentucky looks broken.
— HS Top Recruits (@HSTopRecruiting) February 5, 2025
Embarrassing Half by Kentucky in every facet
— Matt Jones (@KySportsRadio) February 5, 2025
Mark Pope needs to channel his inner Rick Pitino over the next three days of film and practice.
— Tristan Pharis (@TristanUda) February 5, 2025
This is not a Lamont Butler problem. This is not a Kerr Kriisa problem. Kentucky is playing uninspired basketball on both ends and has earned this deficit. Zero heart, zero fight.
Really disappointing.
— Jack Pilgrim (@JackPilgrimKSR) February 5, 2025
Unacceptable effort and performance. Do anything that resembles *that* in the 2nd half and the team and coach will get rightfully crushed until Saturday. That was pathetic.
— T.J. Walker (@TJWalkerRadio) February 5, 2025
Ole Miss scored 54 points in 34 possessions (1.59 points per possession).
23 of those points came in the paint + free throw line. Splashed nine threes and two other long jumpers.
Rebels were sub-100 in effective FG% entering tonight. An atrocious defensive stretch from UK.
— Adam Luckett (@AdamLuckettKSR) February 5, 2025
Mark Pope needs to yell at some guys
— WT – Lamont Enthusiast (@WildcatsTongue) February 5, 2025
Kentucky has an individual talent issue.
…an athleticism issue.
…a strength/physicality issue.
…a toughness issue.
The roster was built from scratch in two months. Coaching/elite execution allowed the ‘Cats to overachieve greatly…but it is crashing down right now.
— Brandon Ramsey (@BRamseyKSR) February 5, 2025
Spreadsheets don’t win basketball games any more than AI can write poetry. At some point you need five guys with something numbers don’t measure.
— Blake Spires (@RealFakeBlake) February 5, 2025
It’s not his style but Pope needs to spend halftime and the rest of the week berating every single player for this
— Bobby Reagan (@BarstoolReags) February 5, 2025
I know it goes against everything he stands for, but this team needs a Mark Pope tirade
He talks about “our staff is working hard to figure out defense.” Maybe it’s not on the staff.
These players are simply not putting in effort.
— WT – Lamont Enthusiast (@WildcatsTongue) February 5, 2025
(Getting Lamont Butler back does not fix all of Kentucky’s defensive problems) https://t.co/JNQj67pfcv
— Jack Grossman (@JackGrossman97) February 5, 2025
Kentucky has been outshot from 3 in 8 of its 9 SEC games and by an average of 7 attempts per game. Mark Pope saying he wanted to see his team get up 30 per game seems like a long time ago. Have only accomplished that once in league play.
— Chris Fisher (@ChrisFisher247) February 5, 2025
Don’t know if I’ve ever seen an assist-to-turnover ratio this high in a game: Ole Miss had 24 assists and just one turnover tonight.
— Ryan Black (@RyanABlack) February 5, 2025
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