The Cats drop their second in a row.
The Kentucky Wildcats fell to the Vanderbilt Commodores in Nashville on Saturday afternoon by a final score of 74-69.
The Cats hadn’t played in a week, so naturally, they were well-rested and ready to go. Well, except they weren’t. Kentucky looked rusty and lackadaisical from the opening tip as Vandy coasted to a 41-27 lead following a 20-4 run to end the half.
After the break, Kentucky looked like a completely different team. They locked down defensively. You could see the effort all over the court. They went on a 31-10 run before the Commodores answered right back.
In the end, Kentucky couldn’t get the job done as they lost their second straight game. Some real questions are emerging as this season progresses.
Next up, the Cats will travel to Knoxville to take on the Tennessee Volunteers on Tuesday night for a huge matchup.
Carr out, Almonor in
Andrew Carr has been dealing with a back injury for a few weeks, and it obviously isn’t getting much better.
The Wake Forest transfer was borderline unplayable against the Alabama Crimson Tide last time out, and it appears Mark Pope took notice. While he may be able to play, he’s been a detriment to the team, especially last weekend when he got cooked on defense and provided no offense, either.
On the other hand, even though he’s not a world-beating talent, Ansley Almonor has given Kentucky some big minutes over the last few weeks. He’s mainly a spot-up shooter, but he does hustle and always seems to hit a timely three-pointer. He played well again in this one.
Unfortunately, while he’s a solid role player, he isn’t close to an adequate replacement for Carr. He may be a better option in the short term since Carr clearly isn’t 100%, but in the long term, Kentucky needs Carr back fully healthy.
Significant PT for the freshmen
Carr isn’t the only injured Wildcats, as Lamont Butler, while able to play, is hurt and not 100%, either. I don’t know if it’s his shoulder or ankle, or what, but despite continuing to give max effort, he hasn’t been his normal self.
So, where does that leave Kentucky? It left them passing around significant playing time between Travis Perry, Collin Chandler, and Trent Noah. We’ve become accustomed to Perry getting legitimate PT in recent weeks, but Noah and Chandler have mainly been relegated to mop-up duty.
Perry usually gives Kentucky solid minutes. He’s not great quite yet, but he does his job. I was pretty impressed by Noah’s effort, as he clearly isn’t ready to assume a big role, but you can just tell it means more for him. Chandler, on the other hand, has a long way to go.
Chandler has a lot of potential, but you can tell there’s a lot of rust to shake off after a two-year layoff while he did a mission trip for BYU. That’s okay. It’s fine for freshmen to take time to develop. BBN has just gotten used to the one-and-done style, but I have confidence he’ll be a big player for Pope if he’s just given some time.
Otega leads the Oweh
Otega Oweh stepped up big time and led the way in this game. As has been the case for the majority of this season, he was Kentucky’s best player, and today, it was by a wide margin.
Oweh wasn’t just the Cats’ leading scorer. He was also the leading rebounder. He passed the ball well and defended at a high level. The Oklahoma transfer has been a staple of consistency all season long on both ends of the court. Oweh is a really solid defender and has scored in double figures in every single game this season. He ended with 21 Saturday to go with a team-high 11 rebounds.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough and didn’t matter in the end.
Now, let’s discuss the loss.