The scoreboard inside Rupp Arena showed a comfortable 14-point Kentucky win. The postgame mood reflected that. But a deeper look at the box score reveals a glaring issue Mark Pope must address before the Wildcats head to Tuscaloosa.
Kentucky surrendered 85 points to a Bellarmine team that entered the game with a losing record.
That number alone is concerning. The way it happened is even more alarming.
This wasn’t Bellarmine getting lucky or living off impossible shot-making. It was a steady, repeatable breakdown of Kentucky’s interior defense. The Knights shot 52% from the field and consistently found success attacking the rim.
Bellarmine scored 38 points in the paint. Kentucky managed just 34.
When an undersized mid-major team wins the paint battle against Kentucky’s length and athleticism, it points to problems with positioning, rotations, and on-ball containment. Bellarmine repeatedly cut backdoor, drove downhill, and finished through contact with minimal resistance.
Bellarmine head coach Doug Davenport emphasized a stat after the game that should frustrate the Kentucky staff.
“One of our big numbers that we live by is points in the paint plus free throws,” Davenport said. “That was 68-51 in our favor.”
Read that again. Bellarmine won the paint-plus-free-throw battle by 17.
Those numbers reflect a defense that was late on help, slow on rotations, and unable to consistently protect the rim. Kentucky’s interior presence simply didn’t impose itself the way it should have.
The issues were most noticeable early. Every time Kentucky pushed the lead to around eight points in the first half, Bellarmine responded quickly — often sparked by penetration that collapsed the defense and led to easy looks.
Ironically, Davenport wasn’t pleased with his own team’s defense either.
“We didn’t get a lot of stops,” he said.
That says everything. Kentucky’s offense was legitimately impressive. Scoring 99 points with 24 assists is the kind of execution that can win big games. The ball movement was sharp, the spacing was clean, and the Wildcats looked confident on that end of the floor.
But the defense lagged behind.
The SEC is a different level of competition, and Alabama punishes defensive mistakes relentlessly. Trading baskets with Bellarmine worked because Kentucky could outscore them. Attempting that same approach against Alabama will not. The Tide will turn those breakdowns into extended runs and force the game out of reach quickly.
Mark Pope has about 10 days before that trip to Tuscaloosa.
If Kentucky wants to be more than just dangerous offensively, most of that time needs to be spent fixing defensive slides, tightening interior coverage, and demanding consistent stops.
Because the weakness Bellarmine exposed is exactly the kind Alabama will exploit.
