Kentucky loses back-to-back home games and everything sucks | Rapid Reaction

On Saturday night in Rupp Arena, No. 5 Tennessee (16-5; 6-2 SEC) never trailed against the No. 10 Kentucky Wildcats (15-6; 5-4 SEC), cruising to a 103-92 victory in front of a packed home crowd. Even without starting point guard DJ Wagner, who sat out his second straight game due to injury, UK played well enough on offense to pull out the win. But another poor defensive showing from the ‘Cats doomed them from start to finish.

Tennessee shot 48.6 percent from the floor, going 12-30 from beyond the arc against Kentucky. Despite connecting on 49.3 percent of its own looks, including a 12-27 mark from deep, UK was outrebounded 44-38 and was outscored in the paint 42-30. The ‘Cats also went 12-19 from the free-throw line.

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Good evening from rup Arina the saddest place in sports where Kentucky just lost to the Tennessee Vs 103 103 to 92 Drew Franklin Jack Pilgrim Zack gagan and I’ll be honest we’ve been a lot better than we are right now but we’re here because we got to talk about

What just happened not everyone did that tonight more on that in a moment but for right now we’re going to break down the game that Tennessee LED from the very beginning uh they LED 39 minutes and 48 seconds it was clear right out of the gate that they were the team that wanted

It more jumped out big but throughout the game Kentucky kept Crawling Back getting in the mix but just couldn’t tie it up or take the lead cut it to four cut it to two ten would take Tennessee would take right back over it was all

Vols all night and it sucks a whole lot for Kentucky fans ruper was rocking tonight and by 2 minutes left in the game they’re heading for the exits uh Jack I’ll start with you it did not go well at all nothing went well literally nothing nothing they

Would get a stop and 5 fo8 Ziggler would tip it in to beat the shot clock anything that seemed would go well for Kentucky didn’t yeah I I I’m I try to be the levelheaded voice of reason I I got nothing like this was this was really really really deflating because there’s

Nothing tangible you can hang on to about the defensive effort and any sign of improvement or growth or like ah an aha moment because it was one mist AK after another after another and it just you didn’t see the engagement you didn’t see the focus you didn’t see the

Discipline I mean the Baseline out of bounds play I mean how many wide open threes did we see how how many layups did we see at The Rim where you had two wild cats looking at each other like wait I thought that like it was so unbelievably disappointing to see the

Defensive effort just crumble the way that it has obviously the last several games but it kind of feels like we’re trending in the wrong Direction I didn’t know we could Trend farther away from as bad as things have been like we’re 105 now in the kenpom defensive like this is

A legitimately bad defensive team with a historically good offensive team that we’re completely wasting just completely we had an alltime Rob Dillingham performance 35 points on an an efficient 35 points and it meant nothing like 14 of 20 I mean it it meant nothing that that will go on a an overtime highlight

That’ll go on a slam Highlight ball as life highlight and we’ll forget about it because it will result in a 10392 loss the NBA draft lottery though he’ll be there he will if you uh Zach had told me connect would go five of 14 one from five for three I

Would think Big Blue Nation is celebrating in the streets right now but Tennessee scored 103 points with the guy they call Kevin Durant scoring 16 points how did Tennessee clear a 100 without him really getting involved with what he’s been doing so much lately um because can I hold this yeah please I

Don’t want can can I hold this because Kentucky is the worst defensive team probably in power five basketball Power Six basketball and I don’t think it’s close at this point dton connect came in averaging 30 however many points over his last five games Kentucky actually played him decently well with Justin in

AO but it doesn’t matter because everyone else on the floor does not know what they’re doing you want should we do some fun with numbers real quick I’m excited let’s do it so Kai Zigler has played 85 games in his college career can you guess what his career high was coming into

Tonight 18 points in points and assists what is it 26 points 11 assists tonight he had 26 points and 13 assists Josiah Jordan James has played 125 college basketball games what is his career career high coming into this game it’s just late on 23 Guess how many he had tonight

26 as chin Coleman likes to say You’re supposed to keep the irrelevant players irrelevant the irrelevant players were very very relevant tonight my guys and it was one of the worst defensive performances I think I’ve ever seen from a Kentucky basketball team the out of bounds plays as Jack

Said just there was instances where guys just weren’t watching the ball they they Ball Hawk pretty much the entire possession they’re chasing around screens they don’t know how to fight through screens Trey Mitchell poor Tre Mitchell I don’t know if he’s hurt or something but that was the worst that

Was probably the least amount of effort I’ve seen a player give all year Trey Mitchell just was not into this game again I don’t know if he’s hurt or what not but there was very little that he did tonight that helped Kentucky on either side of the floor you’re the the

Two SF Footers out there had what a combined Four Points point the two seven Footers cannot do anything either on defense um that includes rebounding that includes boxing out specifically boxing out is how zakay zler is able to get himself tipin with 4 seconds left on the

Clock or how guys are just crashing the boards Kentucky actually had more Second Chance points in Tennessee but it didn’t feel like that because every time Tennessee missed they were there they had more offensive rebounds they were they just tried harder than Kentucky and I don’t want to say I don’t think

Kentucky quit by any means but they were like just whenever they needed a big shot to go they just couldn’t get those big shots to fall and they scored 92 92 points tonight and it was almost an embarrassment honestly of a performance and what happens if Rob Dillingham

Doesn’t go rob dingham doesn’t hit six of8 threes Kentucky probably loses this game by 20 points it we it was on the cusp of of turning into even uglier like it it it took a a historic alltime effort individually from Rob Dillingham to even make an 11-point

Loss how are you asking me that no just it’s rhetoric roral I know it’s hard to find some fun let’s find maybe a little Justin Justin gave me some he gave me a something I’m proud of him I don’t even know he had a three he he early in the

Game he was really getting up in connect it wasn’t the best defense but my man was in the fight I know what did he you know the box score it doesn’t shine but for what he’s been in a game of this magnitude I do think Edwards took a tiny

Step forward which is some silver lining in this yeah we’ll take it I mean seven points and four rebounds is currently his season average but it felt like we actually saw more product productivity from him on both ends of the floor he was more aggressive he took more shots

Just was more willing to be involved in the offense which again it’s a step in the right direction but it just feels almost pointless to talk about it because nothing else went right Antonio Rees even had 21 points I think maybe five or six of those kind of came in

Garbage time at the end there only one three yeah only one three he just really didn’t have it tonight Kentucky missed I think they missed 12 layups and dunks tonight like I can’t how many transition layups is Kentucky going to miss before they just stop attempting them just

Start pulling the ball out and shooting threes because they still shot 44% on 27 attempts from three just keep shooting the ball and I don’t to go on another tangent the seven Footers like just play small ball at this point like what’s what’s the difference you’re going to

Give up 103 points anyways maximize the offense as much as you want I hate playing Zone in college why not play zone for three possessions at this point like I just genuinely don’t understand Steven over here even looked at me when I said that because probably in his

Brain he’s thinking the exact same thing cuz it’s just getting ridiculous at this point there’s just no resistance try something different try something else the guards do not know how to stay in front of their man they can’t stop line drives they can’t fight around screens

They can’t do anything when it comes to ball screen coverage it’s it’s just terrible that was pretty well put lots of terrible uh Jack I did not go to the postgame press conference always stay out here for radio more on that in a minute uh can you I generally don’t know

What was said can you give me a run down uh I assume we got a DJ update anything else that came out of Cal I’ve heard none of it at this point uh yeah Cal said that we don’t win without DJ Wagner um said that said that we Kentucky goes

0 and three now without DJ Wagner in the lineup his ankle uh continuing to linger Cal did say that he thought that it was going to be coming sooner rather than later his return um I know there’s a lot of speculation um you know tough tough 24 hours but Bud

But uh they did miss him tonight but I don’t know that when you trailed 39 minutes into 40 seconds maybe he would have helped but it’s just three possessions that ended the game just three I think this was an ass kicking is what I think this was unfortunately I

Hate saying that cuz it’s the Tennessee BS but they showed up for a fight and Kentucky did not and that’s why they’re going home smiling so yeah there there was a lot of I’m still going to believe in my guys there’s a lot of fight a couple possessions here and there ball

Doesn’t bounce bounce the right way and we got ourselves a game but it feels like we say this after every single game and that’s what you know it’s boy who cried wolf at this this you can only you can only use the same excuse and well

What about this well if we were at full strength well we’re young well this or that it at some point you just kind of are who you are this is I mean it’s February 4th guys like we got 10 regular season I think nine now 10 regular season games

Left at at some point this is a team that just gives up 103 there’s a lot of optimism with Reed Shepard after the game was saying I believe in my guys I know we’re going to bounce back aduo is visibly frustrated you could tell there’s something missing there but

He even said we’ll get it figured out I don’t know what it’s going to take but we’ll get there it’s like they’re trying to will the the Aaron Harrison it’s going to be a magical story into existence but like I don’t know if I believe the what they’re selling I don’t

Believe it it’s good that they’re feeling that way I mean we want them to feel that way and I’m glad they’re optimistic from our seats out here I’m looking for reasons to be optimistic I I wish I feel what they feel but good for them because the season is not over I

Mean losing to Tennessee sucks being in fifth place in the SEC at the halfway point in SEC play I can’t imagine that’s ever happened that also sucks but there’s still a lot of basketball left uh before we do move on we have to address what I cannot believe happened

After the game several people asked me will John calip Perry skip the postgame radio show and I said absolutely not there’s no way he will skip there 0% of me believed that he would send an assistant out here with all these fans wanting answers and damn it Orlando and

Tiga walked right out I I’m not even going to be mad I’m stunned that he had the audacity really I mean Cal the fans out here one year they were screaming where’s Cal when Orlando started walking out here you call on all these people to show up and they brought it tonight and

A lot of them just wanted to hear from you and I again I’m not even upset I can’t believe he did it Zach I don’t have any I don’t have any comment on that Tennessee game I mean I agree I think even if you’re on Cal’s team you

Know he’s got to come out for that I’m not going to beat that one up the the game was much worse losing to Tennessee sucks losing twice in R arena in a row sucks if they lose an next one that’ll be three in a row that’s never happened

Gonzaga next time next game if Gonzaga wins this three straight losses in Ran never happened before let me just tell you the years twice has happened before uh 1989 2006 I’m losing it okay excuse me 1989 2006 2009 2020 2021 in 2024 those are the only six years in history kuy’s lost back-to-back

Games in this building was a pretty recent very recent and God forbid it happens a third time hopefully it won’t but we got to fix things in this building and it wasn’t on the fans tonight got a lot of things to fix internally number one is getting DJ

Wagner back we hope to see that no matter what Anonymous people on the internet say but right now I don’t know Y is there anything positive y’all can say moving forward I guess we got Vandy got Missouri beat them in Nashville if there has ever been a must win in the

History of this program it is it is Tuesday night in Nashville I thought that was today is has won five games this season by the way if if there is ever a game that you cannot afford to lose it’s that one and it what’s frustrating is cuz I

Try to not focus on the micro the little individual in instances and say okay well you know we can’t just call every tiny loss the worst loss in the history of Kentucky but like but once it becomes the macro like once you start taking a

Step back and look at these stats of the back to backs and it does turn into a big picture foundational issue that we have now and that’s the scary part like the this little stuff is turning into big stuff and it’s kind of feeling like it’s turning into the permanent stuff I

Don’t know what the fix looks like I I’ve been Mr Optimist well what about this we’ll wait till this guy looks you know looking for something and grasping onto something hoping for that that aha moment and we’re going the wrong direction we’re turning I I I just I don’t know

What the turnaround looks like and it’s going to have to happen in Nashville I don’t know what it looks like but surprise me please please surprise all of us cuz this feeling right now is not fun at all we’ll sign off from a horrible night in R up Arena Tennessee I

Want to say you still suck and I assume there’s a lot of vs fans in our comments you all suck too go cats we’ll bounce back