Thursday Quickies: Cats Upset in Columbia Edition

What a weird game.

By Zac Oakes@ZacOakes Jan 16, 2020, 6:40am EST

NCAA Basketball: Kentucky at South Carolina

That was a very weird basketball game last night. It’s hard to describe it any other way.

Kentucky had control in the first half, but seemed to fall apart defensively in the second as the South Carolina Gamecocks racked up 56 points in the second half. To top it all off, Immanuel Quickley hit a step-back, mid-range jumper to tie the game with four seconds left only to see a banked in three pointer fall in as time expired to give the Gamecocks the win.

You can look at a few things that went wrong for Kentucky:

The offensive rebounds given up by Kentucky destroyed them. South Carolina finished with 20 offensive rebounds on the night. Those offensive rebounds killed Kentucky throughout the night, resulting in plenty of second chance point opportunities.

Fouls... Nick Richards picked up some early fouls, but Ashton Hagans, Immanuel Quickley, and EJ Montgomery all found themselves in foul trouble too with Hagans and Montgomery fouling out.

Turnovers... Winning on the road against a highly-motivated team is a lot harder when you turn the ball over 15 times.

Freshman Jermaine Couisnard played his best game of the season, knocking down four three-pointers including the game winner and finishing with 26 points. On the season, Couisnard has averaged nine points per game.

There are other factors but those are just a few that come to mind.

Anyway, it’s a weird season in college basketball and while this loss isn’t good and will definitely hurt seeding, I don’t think it’s anything that warrants a major reaction. This team is still good and will contend for the SEC and should be in a position to make some noise in March. I still believe that.

Tweets of the Day

Take whoever SC plays next and put a mortgage on it. You will win.
— Trent Harris (@ctharris81) January 16, 2020

Every time.

South Carolina scored as many points in the second half (56) as it did for the entire game in losses to Stetson, Houston, Tennessee and Wichita State.

Absolutely terrible loss for UK, which has now lost to KenPom No. 105, 109 and 248. No complaints allowed on Selection Sunday.
— Kyle Tucker (@KyleTucker_ATH) January 16, 2020