Kentucky Basketball: 3 Things to know from the blowout loss to Florida

That was the hardest game to watch all year. The Kentucky Wildcats struggled to do anything at all against the Florida Gators, losing 88-66.

It was Kentucky’s worst game of the year; they got beat by 22, they lost the rebounding battle by 22, they had 7 shots get blocked, and they shot just 37.7% from the field. Meanwhile, Florida shot the lights out (48.4%) and Kasey Hill showed out, scoring 21 points on 50% shooting to go along with 5 assists and 5 rebounds.

This rock bottom is terrible for Kentucky, they’re buckling under and falling to SEC competition that they were expected to beat, and this stretch is going to look awful on their tournament resume.

The one positive to take away from this game is that De’Aaron Fox seems to be recovering from his illness well. He didn’t start, but scored 19 points on 5-11 shooting. He led the team in points, and also chipped in 3 rebounds. However, he had no assists.

Here’s what to know about Kentucky’ worst game of the season.

Kentucky was held to its lowest-scoring half this season

Kentucky didn’t exactly start off hot. They scored just 26 points in the first half, the fewest number of points the team has scored in a single half this year. They shot terribly from everywhere in the first half, as they were held to 30% shooting from the field, 28.6% from 3-point range, and 60% from the free throw line.

Kentucky’s best scorer, Malik Monk shot 0-5 from the field in the first half. It didn’t get much better in the second half, as they finished the game with 66 points, and shot 37.7%/31.6%/60.9% for the game.

Malik Monk didn’t have the best birthday

Can’t imagine this is the way Monk wanted his 19th birthday to go. He was held scoreless in the first half, and started the game 0-7 before his first make, a 3-pointer.

He ended the game shooting 4-14, and 3-7 from deep. He had just 11 points and 4 personal fouls. Not the kind of day that the 19-year-old wanted.

Kentucky has regressed horribly

The Wildcats are looking like half the team they were early on in the season. This loss is the third in Kentucky’s last four games, and their only win in that stretch was over a Georgia team in overtime at home.

Even in wins, the Wildcats have struggled ever since barely managing to beat Vanderbilt. Since then, they’ve beaten Mississippi State by only 7, struggled to pull away from Auburn until the very end, and lost to Tennessee and Kansas. It’s been a rough stretch for the ‘Cats, and even if the illnesses are worse than we think, there’s no excuse for looking this bad.

If this continues, they’ll fall way out of that No. 2-3 seed conversation.