Watch the Tape: Kentucky 72 South Carolina 63

Kentucky was in a “must-win” situation at South Carolina on Tuesday night. That mission was accomplished. The Wildcats went into Colonial Life Arena and defeated the Gamecocks 72-63. However, aside from the scoreboard, there wasn’t much to get excited about from this contest. It was 40 minutes of pretty ugly basketball that saw the ‘Cats shoot under 40% from the field, just 7-25 from three-point range, turn the ball over 15 times, and lead lowly South Carolina by only two points with under three minutes to play. Kentucky’s complete domination on the glass, 43.9% offensive rebounding rate and 85.7% defensive rebounding rate, was a big part of them escaping with a win. Denzel Aberdeen also played well finishing with 19 points (4-6 from 3), 4 rebounds, and 5 assists.

The Wildcats desperately needed to snap their three-game losing streak. Now they will welcome #25 Vanderbilt to Rupp Arena on Saturday afternoon. We obviously know how the first meeting went against the Commodores. It was another ugly trip to Nashville with Vanderbilt winning 80-55 in what was a completely non-competitive game. Not only will the ‘Cats have to be much better than they were on January 27th, but they will have to be much better than they were on Tuesday as well. The losing streak may be over, but bad habits from those three losses were still present in the win over South Carolina. Coach Pope and company will need to work hard to flush out some of those negative trends and start fresh in Lexington against the Commodores.

As always, we’ve been hard at work in the KSR Film Room breaking down Kentucky’s latest contest. There was absolutely nothing pretty about Tuesday’s game. Kentucky will receive zero “style points” for their win at South Carolina. However, the Wildcats needed to snap their three-game losing streak and they did that. The mission was accomplished. Improvements will have to be made though in order to win any of the three final regular season games. Guarding the three-point line, over helping, and a general lack of urgency remain problematic defensively. Also, turnovers have been a big issue for the ‘Cats in four straight games now. On the positive side, there were flashes of offensive execution. Let’s dive on in and take a closer look at Kentucky’s 72-63 win at South Carolina.

Guarding the Three, Over-Helping, and (a Lack of) Urgency

It looked for a moment like South Carolina was going to shoot Kentucky out of the gym. Meechie Johnson made a deep three-point shot on the first possession. Then, the Gamecocks hit three more to jump out to a 12-5 lead less than five minutes into the game. The Wildcats had recently given up 14 three-point shots in a loss to Georgia and 10 triples in a loss at Florida. There was a collective thought of “here we go again” as South Carolina rained them in from deep. However, the ‘Cats eventually got some things figured out defensively to just four more made threes through the rest of the game. South Carolina finished 8-29 (27.6%) from beyond the arc. Kentucky will have to be more disciplined and urgent going forward as Vanderbilt and Texas A&M are excellent shooting teams.

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In a vaccum, a semi-contested shot from well beyond the arc by #5 Johnson isn’t super high percentage. However, the Wildcats need to do a better job of setting a tone defensively. This goes back to letting #1 Lee make two three-point shots behind the ballscreens at Florida. In theory, the game plan is correct. At the beginning of a game though, especially on the road, there is something to be said for breaking their rhythm and not letting really good players get going. If you are a little tighter to #5 Johnson on the very first possession then, when you closeout short later, he might not even be thinking about shooting. Turning up the intensity through the first four minutes, and then “falling back” into the game plan after the first media timeout, should be a focus going forward.

This three-point shot by #55 Sharavjamts comes down to urgency as well. Andrija Jelavic just has to get closer and take away that in-rhythm attempt. He moves his feet well enough to stay in front of Sharavjamts if he drives it. Jelavic needs to be aggressively showing a high hand, stunting hard at Sharavjamts to break his rhythm, and ultimately DETER this shot as opposed to throwing a hand up to CONTEST it.

In this clip we see a glaring example of Kentucky’s over helping problem. Letting #5 Johnson drive it in a straight line to the front of the rim is a mistake. However, there is no need to compound one mistake with a second. That is an issue that we see very frequently from the Wildcats. Instead of trying to survive their first mistake they compound it by completely leaving a shooter on the perimeter. Here you see Collin Chandler collapse off of #55 Sharavjamts which led to the Gamecocks’ third open three-point shot of the game in as many minutes. The first mistake was worth two points, but the compounded second mistake led to three points.

Kentucky tightened things up defensively after their bad start, but bad habits reared their ugly head late in the contest as well. Watch Otega Oweh on this possession. #5 Johnson gets by Malachi Moreno on the perimeter, but Moreno stayed on his hip and Mo Dioubate was there at the front of the rim. However, that did not keep Oweh from simply running at the ball. This elementary behavior on the defensive end of the floor. His closeout was rather lackadaisical as well. #55 Sharavjamts made Oweh and the ‘Cats pay with another three-point shot that cut the Gamecocks’ deficit to just two points. Don’t compound one mistake by making another!

Sloppy and Careless Turnovers

During Kentucky’s stretch of winning eight out nine SEC games they were turning the ball over, on average, just 9.3 times per game. The one outlier was, as you can imagine, the 80-55 loss at Vanderbilt when the Wildcats turned it over 15 times. Then, during the recent three-game losing streak, the ‘Cats turned the ball over 14, 13, and 14 times respectively. On Tuesday night, despite getting back in the win column, Kentucky turned the ball over 15 times. It is hard to explain the recent carelessness with the basketball, but it has clearly been a problem. Many of the turnovers could be classified as “unforced” as well. In order to have a chance at winning any of the next three games the ‘Cats will have to get back to valuing each possession and taking care of the basketball.

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Prior to Tuesday night’s game we talked about containing #5 Johnson, guarding the three-point line, and not turning the ball over. We detailed above how Kentucky allowed the Gamecocks to get off to a hot start from three-point range. Now, in this clip, we see an early turnover from the Wildcats’ best player. Turnovers are bound to happen. Aggressive offensive players who have the ball in their hands a lot, like Otega Oweh, will turn it over more than others. However, Oweh simply loses the ball far too often. He has to get stronger with the basketball and take more pride in not turning the ball over. Oweh has 12 turnovers in Kentucky’s last four games. When turnovers have been a problem and your best player coughs it up on the first possession it makes it hard to get off to a good start.

There are a lot of adjectives that you could use to describe these to senseless offensive fouls. We will stick with “low IQ.” Brandon Garrison and Andrija Jelavic completely give these two possessions away with blatantly illegal screens. Watch Coach Paris in the first clip. Garrison got away with the first two-hand shove, the official got alerted to it, and then caught him the second time. Jelavic’s illegal screen came at a time where Kentucky could have gotten up double-digits on South Carolina going into the half. These are the completely unforced turnovers that the Wildcats must really work to minimize.

South Carolina had just made their run and tied the game at 38-38. That means that Kentucky should come down, make sure they are organized, and get ready to execute at the highest level they have all game. This is where you run something you know you can execute because it is such an important possession. Instead, look at how sloppy this is from the very beginning. Collin Chandler comes off of the elbow Grenade action, Brandon Garrison rolls hard which draws a tag, and Jasper Johnson is open on the left wing. However, Chandler quite literally throws it in between Johnson’s feet. Johnson then drives towards the baseline, creates zero separation, and appears to have predetermined that he was going to throw the drift pass. That is an embarrassing possession given the situation.

This is where Kentucky simply has to get better in order to have any sort of success between now and the end of the season. The ‘Cats had fought hard to finally get a seven point lead with under four minutes to go at South Carolina. If they get a bucket on this possession it starts to get really hard for the Gamecocks to come back. However, Otega Oweh immediately drives into a crowd, inexplicably dribbles behind his back, and loses the ball. When your best player, who is a senior, makes mistakes like this it leaves little room for hope that improvement can actually be made. This is an incredibly careless decision in a really big situation.

Flashes of Offensive Ability – ATO’s and Limiting Dribbles

It wasn’t all bad on Tuesday night. Obviously, Kentucky got the win which should always be celebrated. However, there were also some flashes of offensive ability in specific situations. Coach Pope and his staff are starting to have a very high hit rate after timeouts. Whether he is drawing something up or calling a pre-installed set play the success rate is impressive. The Wildcats executed some beautiful ATO sets at South Carolina. Additionally, as the last section would allude to, when dribbling is at a minimum good things happen. Nobody aside from Denzel Aberdeen should dribble it more than twice before shooting or passing. If Kentucky can manufacture some more scoring opportunities via set plays, especially those that require less dribbling, it could be a good way to elevate the offense late in the season.

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Who would have expected one of Kentucky’s best offensive clips to involve Jasper Johnson, Brandon Garrison, and Andrija Jelavic? Kentucky has turned the ball over 56 times in their last four games. Denzel Aberdeen has accounted for just three of those turnovers. Therefore, everyone else needs to either take care of the basketball or stop dribbling so much. After Aberdeen gave it up the basketball only bounced one more time in this clip. That is perfect. Johnson hit Garrison on the slip. Garrison steadied himself with a power dribble and found a cutting Jelavic. Jelavic showed off his fluid athleticism by laying it in on the other side of the rim. You can’t execute much better than that.

Good, old-fashioned Zoom Action still works. For whatever reason we haven’t seen it as consistently as last season, but the ‘Cats execute out of Zoom Action pretty well. Collin Chandler set a good, physical screen to get Otega Oweh open coming off of the handoff. When Oweh can shoot the mid-range pull-up in rhythm it is a pretty high percentage shot. Also, you only needed two uncontested dribbles by Malachi Moreno and one dribble from Oweh to get this bucket.

Kentucky has experienced their fair share of struggles on both sides of the floor this season. However, one constant has remained. They are efficient and effective in transition. Per Synergy, the Wildcats rank in the 98th percentile of points per possession in transition. When the ball gets moved up the floor in a hurry it also leads to less dribbling. This is another clip where only two dribbles were made after Denzel Aberdeen threw it ahead. Aberdeen hit Collin Chandler who moved it to Otega Oweh in the corner. Oweh then attacked a closeout and found an open Aberdeen trailing the play for a wide open three-point shot. Good things happen when Kentucky dribbles less.

Kentucky went to this elbow Grenade Action a couple of times against the Gamecocks. Collin Chandler was able to turn the corner a bit after receiving the handoff and attract the attention of multiple defenders. Andrija Jelavic attacked a closeout and made a strong move off of two feet to the rim. This is good ball movement and controlled aggression from the ‘Cats. Only three dribbles after Denzel Aberdeen gave it up.

Here is a look at an after timeout set that Kentucky executed to perfection. Running Collin Chandler off the flare screen and then bringing him right back off a screen manipulated South Carolina’s secondary defender and left Malachi Moreno wide open on the roll. Credit to Moreno for finishing this one in a big spot as well. This possession featured zero dribbles after Denzel Aberdeen gave it up. It is not a coincidence that all of the Wildcats’ best offensive clips featured minimal dribbling outside of Aberdeen.