SEC Basketball: Each team’s worst performance of the last decade
By Joey Loose
Kentucky
April 2, 2011 (Connecticut 56, Kentucky 55) (GS: 87)
I’m well aware that this article will be loaded by several Kentucky fans that will skip past the first five teams to make sure I picked the right game. It’s a lot of pressure, and there aren’t many options for a Blue Blood who’ve made quite a mark under Calipari these last nine seasons. The initial thought was to focus on the Billy Gillispie years, but the only game that stood out was a 111-103 loss to run-and-gun VMI. The 2013 season was just bad all around, with blowout losses to Baylor and Tennessee standing out before a horrible effort against Robert Morris in the NIT.
However, for once we’re going to focus on a Final Four game, a game with a remarkable Game Score despite how awful this ended for the Wildcats. It’s almost impossible to pick one game over the other, but we’re going to sway away from the 2014 title game. There a lot of issues dropping a title game to a 7-seed while only scoring 54 points, and having an All-Star roster, but let’s turn the focus to the 2011 Final Four for the first big UConn-UK match-up.
The winner of what would become a thrilling 56-55 affair earned a date with Butler in the title game. Kemba Walker poured in 17 points and Jeremy Lamb added 12 points; but let’s focus on Kentucky’s downfall. They should’ve won this game. They were just 4-12 from the free throw line, missed 18 3-pointers, went scoreless for five minutes late in the second half as the game slipped away. Connecticut shot very well (59% from 2, 47% overall) but committed 15 turnovers that Kentucky couldn’t take advantage of.
Kentucky pissed away an extremely winnable game with so many missed opportunities and threw away a shot at a title, especially considering the awful game that Butler and UConn would play two days later. The 2014 title game had some of the same issues for Kentucky against this familiar opponent, so it is really hard to choose one over the other. Throw in their title in 2012 and it’s surely been an eventful decade in Lexington, and at least they seized one championship, though it should’ve been two or three.