Kentucky Basketball: Wildcats Suffer Worst Loss of the Season vs Florida Gators

Kentucky basketball may have stopped the bleeding against Georgia, but the Gators reopened some all-too-fresh wounds.

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In a shockingly uninspired effort, the No. 8 Kentucky Wildcats lost for the third time in their last four games Saturday night in Gainesville. The No. 24 Florida Gators thoroughly outplayed the visiting Cats on both ends of the floor and routed the Cats 88-66.

That 22-point margin is by far the worst defeat of the season for Kentucky, and coach John Calipari’s team is just a Malik Monk last second OT-forcing jumper versus Georgia from being on a four-game losing skid.

Here are a few takeaways from a depressing night for the Big Blue

A Debacle on the Boards

Florida out-rebounded Kentucky 54-29.

That is not a typo.

It’s not like the Gators have been doing a Moses Malone impression on the boards this season. Coming in to this contest they were out-rebounding their opponents by 2.4 boards per game. Kentucky, by comparison, had averaged 4.3 more rebounds than the opposition.

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Rebounding is nearly 100 percent effort, and tonight Florida just wanted the missed shots more than the Cats.

The offensive rebounding numbers were particularly disturbing. Kentucky snared the miss on a paltry 6 of their 38 missed field goal attempts. Florida, on the other hand, rebounded 17 of their 32 misses.

The lack of effort extended to transition defense. The Gators had 18 fast break points to eight for Kentucky. It wasn’t that long ago that this Wildcat team looked like the fastest show on hardwood and incapable of losing that particular statistical battle.

Opponents have learned that if they can force Kentucky into a half-court offense, they can not only slow their scoring but force turnovers. And those turnovers lead to easy baskets as the Cats don’t do a good job of getting back on defense. Florida won the turnover battle tonight 13-17. Not a huge disparity but that resulted in a 17-11 advantage in points off turnovers.

(Not so) Happy Birthday

Malik Monk turned 19 years old today. In the first half he got a doughnut instead of a cake, going scoreless on 0-5 shooting from the field. He came back to tally 11 points in the second half, but it was a case of too little, too late.

He also did his part in the non-effort on the glass, failing to snare a single rebound. That is actually not too far off his season average of only 2.4 rebounds per game entering this contest. Those are disappointing numbers for a player with such length and athleticism.

Another freshman with a frustrating performance was Bam Adebayo. He stayed out of foul trouble but only managed 9 points and 7 rebounds in 33 minutes. Bam plays hard, but too often ineffectively. He struggles to finish around the basket when the dunk is not available.

Tonight Adebayo went 4 for10 from the field and 1 of 5 from the free throw line. The Cats have done a better job in recent games of getting the ball inside to the big man, but aren’t getting enough points in return for those possessions.

One Bright Spot

De’Aaron Fox came back after missing the Georgia game due to illness. He didn’t start but was the first man off the bench and played 25 minutes, leading the team in scoring with 19 points. The 0/3 assist/turnover ratio needs improvement, but on a dismal night Fox definitely had the best game of all the Wildcats.

Now What Wildcats?

Kentucky’s loss to Kansas last Saturday night probably knocked them out of consideration for a number one seed in the NCAA tournament. The Wildcats now are in danger of falling off of the number two line in The Big Dance, and the trend is heading in the wrong direction.

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Honestly, there is not a lot of difference between a two and a three seed, but if you fall to a four, then you are probably facing a one seed in the Sweet Sixteen instead of the Elite Eight. Perhaps Coach Cal’s next podcast guest can give him some tips on getting his team to hustle, rebound and play defense.

Next up for the Cats are Johnny “How Does He Still Have a Job?” Jones’ LSU Tigers in Rupp Arena on Tuesday night.