NCAA Basketball Takeaways: UNC, Gonzaga, Houston and UCLA all get major wins

4. Kentucky’s offense stalls once again versus a good team

Before the CBS Classic matchup against UCLA, the Wildcats have played one really good team in Gonzaga, along with two decent teams in Michigan and Michigan State. They went 1-2 in those games with a common theme of players not named Oscar Tshiebwe struggling, mainly the newcomers to the team.

In the game versus the Bruins, those issues showed up once again. The National Player of the Year had 16 rebounds but just eight points on 4/12 shooting. Sahvir Wheeler had 11 points and six assists but also six turnovers as well. Chris Livingston gave them a nice boost off the bench with 14 points but no one else did much. The duo of Antonio Reeves and Cason Wallace combined for 4/26 from the field and 3/15 from three-point range.

Kentucky scored just 53 points total in the 10-point loss to the Bruins, who didn’t play all that well themselves. And since the game against Louisville next week means nothing, the key non-conference games for the Wildcats have concluded, with just a win over Michigan to show for it.

Right now, the Wildcats don’t look like a top-25 team and is too reliant on Tshiebwe offensively. Unless guys like Reeves and Wallace become more consistent against good teams, they’ll be in danger of losing more SEC battles than expected the rest of the way.