Kentucky players consoled teammate Olivier Sarr after he missed the final shot in Saturday's loss. Now the KenPom rankings are predicting a lot more losses for UK - PHOTO - Vicky Graff
Did you wonder what the mood might have been like in the Kentucky locker room Saturday when the Cats were down by 22 points — the biggest halftime deficit in UK basketball history — to Notre Dame on Saturday? Let sophomore Jacob Toppin explain what it was like — and it might surprise you.
“We were trying not to be negative. We were staying positive because we knew what we were able to do and we wanted to do something special,” Toppin said after UK had outscored the Irish by 21 points in the second half.
“We just told each other we had to keep fighting and keep pushing and good things will come. We took it one possession at a time, we just didn’t get the outcome we wanted.”
That’s happened four out of five times this season and it might be going to happen a lot more.
The KenPom computer rankings, which is supposed to take emotion out of the equation, doesn’t forecast a bright outlook for the Wildcats.
Kentucky has already lost four straight games but if the KenPom rankings are right, that streak is not going to end any time soon. Instead, KenPom has UK not only losing to UCLA this Saturday but then also losing to rival Louisville.
If that’s not bad enough for Kentucky fans, the overall season outlook has UK finishing 12-14. That’s right. A preseason top 10 team is now projected to not even be a .500 team less than a month into the season.
KenPom has UK going 10-8 in Southeastern Conference play but losing at home to Tennessee. He also has the Cats going down at home to Texas.
Kentucky coach John Calipari insinuated after Saturday’s loss that UK treated losing streaks like a “natural disaster” but he was not buying that. He has said several times he won’t panic. But he also said sometimes a team had to hit rock bottom to listen and start understanding how to win.
If being down 22 at halftime at home is not rock bottom, losing the next two games to UCLA and Louisville would seem to me to put the Cats below rock bottom at 1-6 — and that’s where the KenPom ratings seeing Kentucky go.
