Cats Must Disguise Flaws to Have NCAA Tournament Success

Sporting News columnist Mike DeCourcy believes Kentucky needs Justin Edwards to be a consistent scorer to be able to have success in NCAA play. (Vicky Graff Photo)

Was Kentucky’s 97-87 loss to Texas A&M in the Southeastern Conference Tournament no big deal going into NCAA Tournament play or was it a major reason for concern?

Former Kentucky All-American Jack Givens worries it exposed UK’s weaknesses again after the Cats flexed their muscle in a road win at Tennessee to close the regular season.

“It just reminds teams of what could be the best way to beat Kentucky,” Givens said.

Sporting News columnist Mike DeCourcy has a little bit different take on the Texas A&M loss.

“The loss shows that Kentucky remains vulnerable on defense, particularly to guards who can both attack the lane and score from the perimeter,” DeCourcy said. “The Wildcats have won too many significant games, particularly lately, to forget what they’re capable of achieving.

“But they’ll need to continue to disguise their flaws. It’s too late to fix them.”

The biggest flaw for Kentucky has been on defense and that has to be a major concern going into NCAA play. The Cats rank 108th nationally in Ken Pomeroy’s adjusted defensive efficiency. In the last five years, there has not been a team reaching the Final Four with a defensive efficiency mark of 100 or higher.

“I’m excited about going into this tournament. I am. When you can score the ball, you got a chance. Now, c’mon, let’s just guard a little bit. And we did it at Tennessee. Tennessee is one of the best teams in the country. We did it at Auburn. Alabama in the end. So we can do it. It’s are you locked into that more than anything else?” Kentucky coach John Calipari said after the loss to Texas A&M.

One also has to remember that Kentucky was not the only ranked team to lose in conference tournament play. Tennessee, Auburn, South Carolina, and Alabama all went down in the SEC. No. 11 Duke and No. 4 North Carolina lost in the ACC tourney. No. 1 Houston, No. 3 Purdue, No. 6 Arizona, and No. 8 Creighton all lost.

It has been a wacky season as Associated Press-ranked top-25 teams had their worst winning percentage against unranked teams since 1963. One week in February eight of the top-10 teams all lost to unranked opponents.

DeCourcy says not to write off Kentucky’s NCAA Tournament chances just yet.

“They have enough capable scorers that any three or four of them can produce enough to win,” he said.

However, DeCourcy believes one player might be a huge key for the Wildcats.

“I don’t think it was a coincidence that Justin Edwards’ emergence as an offensive threat led to UK’s best basketball of the season,” DeCourcy said. “When he’s able to play because he’s scoring, he makes UK a better defensive team generally.

“But if he’s off like Friday night (against Texas A&M), it’s harder to leave him out there because there are so many others who could fill those minutes as a better offensive threat. UK needs his best.”

Edwards went 1-for-6 from the field against the Aggies and had just two points after scoring in double figures in four of the previous five games.

“As long as we stay together, anything’s possible with this group,” Edwards said after the game.

After losing its first SEC tourney game for the third time in four years, Kentucky has to hope it can regain the form that enabled it to beat North Carolina, Auburn, and Tennessee — and none were home games. That could be the three most impressive wins any team in the country has had. But UK also lost three straight home games and earlier lost at home to UNC-Wilmington.

“Right, but they’ve got NBA talent and the last two times Kentucky had nine future NBA players on their team they won a national championship in 1996 and went 38-1 in 2015. No way a team with this much talent should have nine losses,” former UK guard Jay Shidler, a member of UK’s 1978 national championship team, said.

The current players probably know almost nothing about 1978, 1996 or even 2015. They just know what they hope lies ahead.

“It’s pretty simple. We’re not done yet. It’s that simple,” UK fifth-year senior Tre Mitchell said about his advice to younger teammates after the Texas A&M loss.  “We’ll get back in the gym, get back to work. We’ll look at the tape. Coach will tell us what we did and didn’t do, what worked for us, and what we went away from.

“At the end of the day, we have a team full of hungry dudes that are going to stay in the gym. This minor setback is going to motivate a lot of dudes to play that much harder come the tournament.”

Sounds good and I do remember in 2014 when UK was routed at South Carolina and guard Aaron Harrison said the Cats could “still write a great story” despite a topsy-turvy season. UK got on a roll and reached the title game before losing to UConn.

“It kind of comes back to things we dealt with earlier in the season. We’re a completely different team when we don’t move the basketball. I think this is just kind of emphasizing that for us,” Mitchell said after the SEC tourney loss. “I’m sure that will be something emphasized moving forward.”

Freshman Reed Sheppard said the team will learn from the loss and be ready for NCAA play.

“We’re a fun group. I love all the guys. We got a really good team,” Sheppard said. “We’re all really, really close. We want to win. No one likes losing.”

Now Kentucky is at the point where having a “young team” doesn’t matter. Lose again and the season ends and for a team that Calipari said was “built for March” the Cats still have a lot to prove.

“Every game is gonna be the last game. It’s gonna feel like the last game of our lives, so we gotta figure out how to compete with whatever team we have and try to fight as much as possible,” leading scorer Antonio Reeves said.