More people thought Kentucky would blow out Ohio State than vice versa, but that’s exactly what happened Saturday at Madison Square Garden. The Buckeyes completely controlled the game, en route to a 20-point victory over the fourth-ranked team in the country.

An optimist might consider this a one-off. Your most recent performance isn’t always indicative of what’s to come. A pessimist might say the Cats were lucky to even be ranked in the top five. If they’re losing to this Ohio State team, what does it mean for SEC play?

Kentucky Struggling from Three

To steal a line from Mark Stoops, “Nobody panic.” One of the highest-scoring teams in college basketball shot 29.8% from the field and 4-22 from three. That’s gotta be an outlier, right?

A worrisome trend is developing from behind the three-point line. Kentucky has now only shot better than 33% from three in one of their last seven games. The Cats averaged 12.6 made threes over their first six games. They haven’t made 12 threes in a game since, averaging 7.4 makes over the last seven. This team was built to win with shot-makers who aren’t making shots.

Mark Pope Annual Blowout Losses

During Saturday night’s edition of the KSR Postgame Show, Matt Jones made the case for the loss to Ohio State as a one-off. He noted that throughout Mark Pope’s coaching tenure, there’s usually a game that just gets away from his team, no matter how good or bad they are. This could be his team’s one big, bad loss.

Last year in Big 12 play, BYU got boat-raced at Oklahoma. Pope recently told a story from that loss. In the middle of the game, Jaxson Robinson vowed to never play point guard again. They needed him to against Gonzaga and it worked to perfection. Nevertheless, there’s no denying Mark Pope’s teams have a tendency to stub their toe at least once a year.

2024: at Oklahoma, 82-66
2023: vs. Utah Valley, 75-60
2022: at Gonzaga, 110-84, 90-57 at home
2021: vs. USC, 79-53, at Gonzaga 86-69
2020: vs. Kansas 71-56, at Gonzaga 92-69

The Verdict

There’s a line coaches often use in the film that feels applicable here. “It’s never as good as it seems, and it’s never as bad as it seems.”

Ahead of the season, few thought this Kentucky team was top-five good. They won some miraculous, memorable games that will certainly help them on Selection Sunday. However, this is a difficult schedule. Losses are gonna pile up. It’s crucial that Kentucky uses this one and the lengthy break to get their heads screwed on right before facing a demanding SEC slate.