Kentucky hits rock bottom in blowout loss to Georgia Tech: 4 things to know and postgame banter

The Kentucky Wildcats were embarrassed by the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets Sunday night by a score of 79-62.

Yes, this is the same 0-2 Yellow Jacket team that lost to Georgia State and Mercer. Not much else to say. This team just isn’t very good right now.

John Calipari said earlier this week that his team may need to hit rock bottom before things get better.

Well, this is rock bottom.

Next up, the Cats will return to Lexington to take on the Notre Dame Fighting Irish.

Turnovers are a huge problem

The offense is brutal to watch to begin with, but this team’s biggest issue is turnovers. The young Cats consistently turn the ball over and 90% of the time, they’re unforced errors.

Devin Askew picks up his dribble the second he crosses halfcourt, leading to traps and no one being able to get open to get the ball from him. Everyone throws bad passes and they’re just generally weak with the ball in their hands.

Of course the offense has been bad, but having more shot attempts from not turning the ball over would certainly help. Turnovers aren’t this team’s only issue, but it is probably the biggest.

The threes started falling

Well, the offense was still ugly, but at least Kentucky started knocking down some deep balls. BJ Boston and Terrence Clarke were a combined 0-19 from three coming into this game, but they both made multiple in this game.

Clarke was especially hot, both from three and all over the floor. He was by far the team’s best player today, but he didn’t get much help. Devin Askew and Davion Mintz also chipped in deep balls, although the latter struggled big time from behind the arc.

Shooting is a problem, but tonight’s game showed it isn’t the biggest problem. Even when the Cats were hitting threes in this one, they still went on multiple scoring droughts due to poor decision making, turnovers, and bad shot selection.

Jackson is a machine

Isaiah Jackson isn’t the most polished offensive player, but he does a lot of really good things for this team. He’s all over the floor. He’s a rebounding machine. And when he’s not blocking shots, he still does a good job of altering shots.

Jackson is one of the few bright spots on this team. It sucks we probably only get to see one year of him, but I love watching him play. He hustles and he does the little things. And that’s something almost everyone else on this team could use.

Thank goodness for Isaiah Jackson because he’s the only thing keeping me sane watching this basketball team right now.

There is no point guard

Kentucky does not have a true point guard, and that sucks. Askew looks lost and unable to adapt to the speed of college basketball. He can’t get around his man and picks up his dribble far too often.

Mintz, on the other hand, has struggled in his own right. The veteran makes silly mistakes, and his shooting today was bad. Mintz should be the starter and getting most of the minutes at the lead spot for now, but neither him nor Askew look equipped to lead UK to No. 9.

Maybe, it’s time to try out Clarke at the point guard position—similar to Tyreke Evans at Memphis—and see how it works out. It couldn’t be any worse.

It was an ugly game and I’m not sure where this team goes from here. There’s a lot of things that need fixing and it only looks like it’s getting worse each game.

Let’s hope for a quick turnaround.