Big Blue Nation is riding a roller coaster of emotions to start February. Kentucky has lost three of four. They failed to execute down the stretch in two of those losses, the other was an emotional heartbreaker, and it was all divided by a big rivalry win.

Doesn’t this feel familiar?

Mark Pope’s 2025 Kentucky basketball team is eerily similar to John Calipari’s 2024 Kentucky basketball team. The current iteration of the Cats just does what last year’s team did to more extremes. Let me explain.

Multiple Kentucky Injuries, Including Point Guard

Kentucky’s starting stretch four, Andrew Carr, missed multiple games in January with a nagging back injury. John Calipari’s starting stretch four, Tre Mitchell, missed multiple games in February with a nagging shoulder injury.

DJ Wagner had two different spells on the bench thanks to an ankle injury, one before the New Year and one during the SEC schedule. Lamont Butler missed a game in December and has now missed three in a row in SEC play.

To take things a step further, this year’s Kentucky team is also missing its backup point guard, Kerr Kriisa, who is sidelined indefinitely with a Jones fracture in his foot. It feels similar, but worse for this year’s Kentucky Wildcats.

Great Offense, Bad Defense

If the saying, “Offense wins games, but defense wins championships” is true, I got some bad news for you.

John Calipari’s last Kentucky basketball team ranked No. 7 in offensive efficiency and No. 109 in defensive efficiency. As was the case a year ago, Mark Pope’s Kentucky basketball team is one of the top five scoring teams in the country. The Wildcats rank No. 3 in offensive efficiency and No. 89 in defensive efficiency.

The similarities are once again striking, just more extreme for this iteration of the Wildcats. The one big difference is that Kentucky started guarding during SEC play in 2024. Last year’s Cats ranked in the top half of the league in defensive efficiency against SEC foes. Mark Pope is fielding the worst defense in the SEC during conference play.

Kentucky Wins (and Loses) Big

Over the last two years, Kentucky basketball has not been boring. For each season-defining win, there is a gut-wrenching loss.

John Calipari lost to UNC Wilmington and Gonzaga, and his team let a lead melt away against Kansas in the Champions Classic. Reed Sheppard won a thriller at Mississippi State, they beat Florida on the road, and the Cats dominated at Tennessee. They also lost at the buzzer against LSU.

This Kentucky team beat Gonzaga in Seattle and took down Duke in the Champions Classic, but lost to Clemson and Ohio State in non-conference play. They have impressive wins over Florida, at Mississippi State, and at Tennessee, yet just lost an emotional game to Arkansas. They also have losses to Vandy and Georgia on the resume.

This iteration of the Kentucky basketball team has more great wins and just as many, if not more, bad losses. Mark Pope is 1-5 outright and 0-6 Against the Spread against unranked power conference foes.

The names have changed, but we’re playing out an eerily similar Kentucky basketball season to one that ended with zero postseason wins.

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