Kentucky Basketball blown up at Ole Miss: End RESULT, SUMPTION, 4 TAKAAWAYS AND MORE

Kentucky Wildcats hit the road tonight for a date with Ole Miss Rebels. It did not go as planned for the cats when they were drilled by the rebels, 98-84.

If you had played in the first half, you really have to love Kentucky Basketball as it was the ugliest, we’ve seen a Kentucky team play in a long time. From sluggish passages to lazy defense, the cats did not appear in Oxford.

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

For as ugly as the first half was, the second half probably had the best possible reaction of the British team. As the offense got hot, the cats came within 11 at one point.

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

Kentucky is now turning attention to a matchup with South Carolina on Saturday in Rupp Arena. In what has now become a must-win game, can this team answer? We hope everyone better.

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

Defense remains terrible

There aren’t many other words we could use for this Kentucky team defense. It’s terrible. Especially tonight despite some improved belongings in the last 20 minutes. Whether the team went man or zone, it seemed that Ole Miss could do what they wanted when they wanted.

It needs to be corrected and fast.

The conversation in the last few weeks has been surrounded by this team’s overall potential. Can they take a deep run? I think it’s reasonable to say at this point, they hope they better get the perfect matchup in the first round if they want a chance to do the second weekend.

Amari Williams Triple double

While this was largely a forgetful evening, Amari Williams turned another great performance.

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

Williams’ ascent in recent weeks would be the biggest story for this Kentucky team, if not for all injuries and recent bad games. Let’s hope he can hold this up when Butler will hopefully return soon.

Cats need lamont butler

Against Arkansas, the cats really struggled with the pressure on ball. That’s what made the evening’s game even more of a nightmare.

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

This team’s future is likely to be determined by whether he will be available for the rest of the season. If not, this team probably looks at an exit from the first week.

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

Lack of toughness returns (but gets an answer?)

This was a concern for a few weeks back and the team responded pretty well. Well, it reappeared tonight and if you turned off the game at the break you never got to see the answer.

This team answered and you finally saw the effort and talent this team has played with all season.

Unfortunately, it was almost 25 minutes late.

Just not a good look for this team and this coaching staff as the toughness question still stays. There are some serious questions about this team in the future, none bigger than this one.

Now let’s discuss this one.