Three takeaways from Kentucky basketball’s road loss to the Vanderbilt Commodores

Three takeaways from Kentucky’s 74-69 loss to Vanderbilt in an SEC men’s basketball game on Saturday at Memorial Gym:

1. Vanderbilt’s strength beat Kentucky’s strength

Coming into the game, Kentucky and Vanderbilt were among the nation’s better teams at protecting the basketball. Kentucky ranked 13th nationally in turnover percentage at 13.6%. Vanderbilt ranked 16th at 14.3%. The biggest difference: Vandy ranked 16th in defensive turnover percentage, forcing a turnover on 22.3% of opponents’ possessions.

Saturday played out Vandy’s way. The Commodores forced 17 Kentucky turnovers while committing just five of their own. New coach Mark Byington’s team leads the nation in points off turnovers and, sure enough, Vandy doubled Kentucky in that department 14-7.

“They got us on our heels, which was super disappointing,” UK coach Mark Pope said afterward. “We kept giving them the ball.”

This has become a bit of a troubling trend for Pope’s club. The Cats committed 17 turnovers in the home win against Texas A&M for 23.7%. They made 14 errors with an 18.7 turnover percentage compared to eight assists in the road loss at Georgia.

Perhaps some of that has to do with the health of Lamont Butler. UK’s point guard committed six turnovers Saturday, including a costly one after Vandy had taken a 71-69 lead with 1:47 left. (Otega Oweh followed with a turnover of his own next possession.) But Butler has been playing hurt, of late.

“He’s going through a lot right now,” Pope said in his postgame press conference.

That leads us to takeaway No. 2.

2. Kentucky missed Andrew Carr in this game

With Andrew Carr unable to practice for two weeks, and with every game the Wake Forest transfers does play, setting him “back to zero” while dealing with a back injury, Pope and staff decided to sit the 6-foot-11 forward for the game at Memorial Gym.

The decision will surely help the Cats in the long run, but it certainly hurt Kentucky in the short run. Vanderbilt is not the tallest team. Carr’s size could have given Kentucky an advantage. Plus, the veteran is often a calming influence on the Cats when matters grow chaotic.

With Carr out, Pope was forced to alter his substitution pattern. Ansley Almonor started and shot the ball well. The Fairleigh Dickinson transfer made four of his five 3-point shots. Freshman Trent Noah, who had not played a minute in UK’s five SEC games, played 12 on Saturday. The former Harlan County star grabbed four rebounds but also got caught in a key defensive matchup late.

With a little over a minute to go, and Noah in the game, Vandy’s veteran guard AJ Hoggard challenged the UK guard on a 1-on-1 drive to the basket. This is the same Hoggard who previously played four years at Michigan State under Tom Izzo. Hoggard was able to get the ball to the rim. He missed the shot, but teammate Devin McGlockton was there to score on a follow shot to give Vandy a 73-69 lead with 1:02 left.

Unfortunately, there’s little time for the Cats to heal. Kentucky travels to Knoxville to face Tennessee on Tuesday night.

3. Kentucky must concentrate on stops

None of this should be a surprise. Given the overall strength of the league, you had to know that most SEC teams would be fighting to keep their heads above water in conference play. And Saturday’s loss dropped the Cats to 3-3 in the SEC.

To keep from sinking, however, Kentucky has to play better defense. The Cats are one of the most efficient offensive teams in the nation. But they were ranked just 80th in adjusted defensive efficiency by KenPom’s numbers going into Saturday’s matchup.

They then proceeded to see Vanderbilt go on a 20-4 run over the final 7:30 of the first half for a 41-27 lead at the break. A pair of 10-0 runs put Kentucky in front in the second half, but when the Commodores fought back, the Cats failed to get enough to stops to pull out the victory.

After Kentucky took a 62-60 lead with 6:14 remaining, Vanderbilt scored on seven of its next eight possessions to basically seal the victory. The Commodores scored six baskets during that stretch. Only one of those buckets came from behind the 3-point line. The other five were either off drives, baskets at the rim or (in McGlockton’s case) an offensive rebound.

“We’re not far away,” Pope said, but added, “We have some issues that we have to find some creative answers to.”

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