The most common refrain Kentucky fans could hear from other Kentucky fans after and even during the loss to Ohio State last night was an annoying fact that Auburn beat the Buckeyes by almost 40. This woe-is-me nonsense from Kentucky fans needs to be checked for a second because the transitive property doesn’t work in any sport, especially not basketball. March Madness is called that for a reason: chaos can be created in any given basketball game. Matchups are king, and exploiting them is how you win.

Two Truths about Basketball and Ohio State

1. The Ohio State Buckeyes have a ton of talented players, but they’ve mostly played like crap against good opponents.

2. It’s easier to put a game plan together against a good team than a team that has yet to play good basketball. This is the most common reason chaos happens. Good teams fall into very predictable patterns, and an opposing coach who can get their team members to execute a plan can often scare or knock off a more talented team.

These are important things to note before we get into how the transitive property no longer works in this early season, thanks to Kentucky basketball. Let’s start with the game Kentucky fans kept pointing to:

Auburn beat Ohio State 91-53.
Duke beat Auburn 84-78.
Kentucky beat Duke 77-72.

For anyone that is caught up on Auburn beating Ohio State and Ohio State beating Kentucky as some sort of “SEE?!” moment, then it’s really easy to say, “Duke beat Auburn, and Kentucky beat Duke; that nonsense doesn’t work, college basketball is chaos, and we saw it clearly last night.”

Ohio State was the better team last night. Does that mean they couldn’t play differently if Kentucky played Ohio State again later this season? Of course, the game would be different. That’s silly. Ohio State would play Auburn differently after the confidence they gained last night. They have the talent. The same is true for all the matchups above. Duke would play a different game against Kentucky. Auburn would play a different game against Duke. The reality is the transitive property doesn’t work in sports, especially in college basketball, and Kentucky helped prove it last night. The loss still stings, but it’s not going to damn the entire SEC schedule for Kentucky simply because Auburn beat Ohio State.