Kentucky Basketball: 3 takeaways from UK’s stunning upset loss to Evansville

1) Perimeter shooting remains a real weakness for Kentucky

This was the biggest concern I had coming into the season about this Wildcats team, and the problem became undeniable here. Evansville packed the paint and forced Kentucky to shoot from the perimeter, and Kentucky simply couldn’t do it at an adequate level.

John Calipari’s squad went just 4/17 from deep (23.5 percent) in what wasn’t even their worse shooting performance of the week. They went a measly 2/14 (14.3 percent) from three-point range against Eastern Kentucky and 6/18 (33 percent) against Michigan State. Outside of Tyrese Maxey’s 3/7 performance against the Spartans, Kentucky is 9/49 from long distance as a team – a putrid 18.4 percent.

18.4 percent!!

This isn’t even a new problem for Kentucky. They lost their four best three-point shooters from a season ago and only one returning player (Immanuel Quickley, 34.5 percent) shot at least 29 percent from deep – and no one is going to confuse Quickley with a knockdown shooter.

Kentucky has managed to get by and mask this weakness with their size, athleticism, and ability to get to the rim. Evansville employed a sagging defense designed to take away the paint and almost invite shots from the outside. And, with E.J. Montgomery sitting out with an ankle injury, Kentucky didn’t have the interior offensive presence that could create from the post.

The Wildcats took the open shots, but they were the ones Evansville wanted them to take rather than the ones they wanted to get. As a result, they played right into the Purple Aces’ hands.