Three takeaways from Kentucky basketball’s 82-78 loss to Texas on Saturday at the Moody Center.
1. Kentucky gave way to reality
UK coach Mark Pope went to great pains in his postgame press conference Saturday to claim the absence of starting guards Lamont Butler and Jaxson Robinson was not the reason the Cats collapsed down the stretch and fell to 6-6 in league play.
Let’s be real, however. Butler is an experienced point guard. Robinson is an experienced shooting guard who can fill in at the point. And surely the presence of those two could have helped the Cats avoid the pitfalls that turned a game in which UK overcame being shorthanded for 37 minutes, but then couldn’t over the final three.
The Cats led 70-67 with 2:49 to go when the ground gave way. Tramon Mark stepped up big for the Longhorns down the stretch, starting the Texas comeback with four straight points on the way to his 26 for the night. Then Tre Johnson, the SEC’s leading scorer, got involved, scoring five points late on the way to his game-high 32. And Texas’ Kadin Shedrick threw down a key slam after the Longhorns had rebounded their own missed free throw.
Meanwhile, the Kentucky offense down the stretch was a mess. The Cats did not score a field goal from the the 3:56 mark until Otega Oweh hit a 3-pointer at the buzzer to make the final margin four points. There were turnovers. And missed shots. And an embarrassing backcourt error in which Oweh inbounded the ball to no one after the Cats had called timeout with 45.4 seconds left. Texas came up with the ball and two free throws for a 78-70 lead.
Without Robinson, Kentucky was able to beat Tennessee on Tuesday at Rupp Arena. It had Butler for all but the final 8:40 of that game, however. Saturday, it had neither guard. Down the stretch, that showed.
2. Give Amari Williams his props
If there was a player who kept Kentucky in the game all night, it was Amari Williams, the 7-foot center and Drexel transfer who finished the night with 18 points, 12 rebounds and three assists.
There were some warts to Williams’ game. He committed three turnovers. And on a night when the Cats missed all four of its free throws that would have completed and-ones, Williams was responsible for three of those. He finished 5-for-11 from the line.
Still, on a night when the Cats were limited on the perimeter — after making 12 of 24 from 3-point land against Tennessee, UK was 6-for-24 from beyond the arc against Texas — Williams not only handled much of the ball-handling duties, he gave UK a strong presence in the paint.
Given that the outlook for Butler or Robinson’s immediate return is not terribly optimistic, the Cats will need more production from the players it does have on the floor, especially Williams.
3. The task doesn’t get any easier from here
There is a history of a team rising up after the loss of a key player or players to win a game it was not expected to win. The problem is more often that not, reality soon rears its ugly head. That next-man-up mentality is nice, but is it sustainable?
Travis Perry started at the point for Kentucky on Saturday. He’s a freshman and more of a shooting guard who has been pressed into duty at the point. Kentucky’s all-time leading high school scorer did not play poorly against the Longhorns, but he’s not Lamont Butler.
And with Robinson out, the Cats needed more from Koby Brea, the Dayton transfer who entered Saturday second in the SEC in 3-point shooting percentage behind Missouri’s Caleb Grill. Brea was 3-for-6 from 3-point territory in the win over Tennessee. Saturday, Brea missed all six of his shots, including all four of his 3-point attempts, on the way to four points.
At Rupp Arena, Brea is 16-for-35 from 3-point range in SEC games for 45.7%. Away from home, Brea is now 9-for-31 from long distance in SEC games for 29.0%.
Trent Noah was terrific against Tennessee, scoring 11 points. He followed that up with seven points and six rebounds against Texas. But he and Perry are both learning what it takes to play defense at the college level. Perry played 28 minutes Saturday; Noah played 21.
Texas is a long way from a great team. Longhorns head coach Rodney Terry was booed at home before Texas’ 103-80 loss to Alabama earlier in the week. Texas had lost four of its last five coming into
