The Kentucky Wildcats hit the road tonight for a date with the Ole Miss Rebels. It did not go as planned for the Cats as they got drilled by the Rebels, 98-84.

If you had the game on in the first half, then you must really love Kentucky Basketball, as it was the ugliest we have seen a Kentucky team play in quite some time. From sluggish passes to lazy defense, the Cats did not show up in Oxford.

On the flip side, the Rebels played their best half of basketball all season and took a 23-point lead into the half.

For as ugly as the first half was, the second half had likely the best response possible by the UK team. With the offense getting hot, the Cats got to within 11 at one point.

Unfortunately, the first-half deficit was too big to overcome.

Kentucky now turns their attention to a matchup with South Carolina on Saturday in Rupp Arena. In what has now become a must-win game, can this team respond? We all better hope so.

Now let’s take at three things to know from this loss.

Defense remains awful

There are not many other words we could use for this Kentucky team’s defense. It is awful. Especially tonight, despite some improved possessions in the last 20 minutes. Whether the team went man or zone, it seemed that Ole Miss could do whatever they wanted whenever they wanted.

That has to get fixed, and fast.

The conversation over the last few weeks has been surrounded by the overall potential of this team. Can they make a deep run? I think it is fair to say at this point, they better be hoping they get the perfect matchup in the first round if they want a chance to make the second weekend.

Amari Williams triple-double

While this was largely a forgettable night, Amari Williams turned in another great performance.

Needing to run the offense more with Lamont Butler out, Williams managed to record a triple-double with 12 points (5/7 shooting), 12 rebounds, and 10 assists.

Williams’ ascension in recent weeks would be the biggest storyline for this Kentucky team if not for all the injuries and recent poor play. Let’s hope he can keep this up when Butler hopefully returns soon.

The Cats need Lamont Butler

Against Arkansas, the Cats really struggled with the on-ball pressure. That is what made tonight’s game even more of a nightmare.

This Ole Miss team is one of the best defensive pressure teams in the country, and it just further proved a point we all already knew. Kentucky needs Lamont Butler.

The future of this team will likely be determined by if he becomes available for the remainder of the season. If not, this team is likely looking at a first-weekend exit.

If he does, then the tough team we saw in much of the non-conference play could make some noise in March.

Lack of toughness returns (but gets an answer?)

This was a concern a few weeks back, and the team responded rather well. Well, it showed up once again tonight, and if you turned the game off at halftime, you never got to see the response.

This team did respond, and you finally saw the effort and talent this team has played with throughout the season.

Sadly, it was just about 25 minutes too late.

Just not a great look for this team and this coaching staff as the toughness question still lingers. There are some serious questions about this team going forward, none bigger than this one though.

Now, let’s discuss this one.