The Big Blue Lowdown

Kentucky's road nightmare continues.

Despite another good all around offensive performance where five players in the six-man rotation scored in double figures, and despite the fact that Arkansas did just about everything it could to give the Cats a chance to win, UK's youth and inexperience showed once again in a gut-wrenching 77-76 overtime loss Wednesday night.

The head coach didn't look much better. John Calipari failed to set up an effective play both at the end of regulation and again at the end of OT. In fact, with about 20 seconds to play in the game, UK had the ball with the score knotted at 70, and Coach Cal didn't even use a timeout. Kentucky simply dribbled around the perimeter until Brandon Knight found enough daylight to jack up a deep three.

Knight, who had a sensational all-around game, was short on the shot, and then short again after Kentucky managed an offensive rebound. Later in OT, Knight threw the ball away in a critical situation, leading to a fast break bucket that sealed UK's fate. All in all, it was a sign of something most Kentucky fans have been fearfully expecting but blindly hoping wouldn't come to pass--fatigue.

Many of the same problems plagued the Cats against Arkansas. Beyond tired legs, UK also committed dumb fouls, including a stretch where silly fouls turned a six-point second half lead into a one-point deficit, courtesy of seven consecutive made free throws by Rotnei Clarke.

Late in the game, as has become custom with this team, no one stepped up. Brandon Knight seems most willing at this point, but he is still raw. His legs are fading, and he's simply not strong enough to offer the same bounce at the end of games as he does early on. Terrence Jones also tends to disappear at times in critical situations, and last night was no exception. Jones made two late buckets that helped give UK a chance. But like the rest of the team, he didn't demand the ball when Kentucky most needed a score.

While it's easy to get down on this team for repeatedly exhibiting the same shortcomings, the reality is that they play like a team with only one player (Darius Miller) who has anything close to significant starting experience. Liggins and Harrellson are the "seasoned vets" but neither has been anything more than a role player before this season. And Kentucky's triumvirate of sensational freshmen are teenagers when it's all said and done. In spite of their scholastic fanfare, it isn't fair to expect them to take over games and win them in crunch time. Especially not on the road in hostile gyms.

So where does UK go from here?

The good news is that the Cats get back to back home games. The bad news is they'll be meeting the two best teams in the East--Florida and Vandy--both of whom have already beaten Kentucky this season. They'll finish off the SEC regular season with a treacherous voyage to Knox-vegas to face Tennessee.

The BBL sees UK holding serve at home and falling on the road. Why not? It would be a fitting end to the season. If that happens, UK will be 21-9 (9-7) going into the SEC Tourney. While they have plenty of RPI juice to be solidly in the dance at this point, Kentucky will need an impressive showing in Atlanta to earn anything better than a 6 or 7 seed.

But Wildcat fans should take heart. UK has some good numbers in its favor. Discounting the UConn debacle, Kentucky has lost 7 games by a grand total of 20 points. Essentially, their average loss is a one-possession game. On the other hand, in its 19 wins, Kentucky has outscored its opponents by 395 points, or nearly 21 per game. Yet another way of looking at it is this: the Cats have lost every close game they've played, and dominated every other game.

We definitely don't make excuses around here, but we do believe in the law of averages. And the funky stat above means the Cats are due for some good close-game karma.