COLUMBIA, S.C. — The inbound play couldn’t have developed more perfectly for Kentucky. Star freshman guard Reed Sheppard was wide open under the basket. All he had to do was lay it in. But he didn’t give it enough effort, as his shot barely grazed the iron with 27 seconds remaining in Tuesday’s first half.
South Carolina’s Meechie Johnson pulled down the rebound and went the other way. The result: Gamecocks guard Zachary Davis sank a 3-pointer just before time expired as the hosts sent the Wildcats into the locker room trailing 33-25 — tying Kentucky’s largest halftime deficit of the season.
It didn’t get any better for No. 6 Kentucky after the break, as South Carolina went on to win, 79-62, at Colonial Life Arena.
“South Carolina really played a physical, physical game,” said UK coach John Calipari, who fell to 5-5 in road games against USC. “They were a little bit too much for us.”
Sheppard’s miss at the rim encapsulated the night for the Wildcats (14-4, 4-2 SEC), who suffered their most decisive loss of the 2023-24 campaign. Not only did UK have one of its worst shooting nights of the season — it finished at 40.3% (25 for 62); only its performance in an 89-84 loss to then-No. 1 Kansas on Nov. 14 was worse, when Kentucky made just 32.9% (25 for 76) of its attempts — but where the misses occurred boggled the mind.
Per the official stats, the Wildcats converted only 38.1% (8 for 21) of their layups. That was better than the Gamecocks (16-3, 4-2) performed at the rim — they made 7 of their 19 layups (36.8%). But USC threw down five dunks to Kentucky’s one.
Calipari said the closer his players got to the bucket, the more out of control they became.
“You get bumped and you shoot the ball like that? You’re not making layups,” he said. “Or how about this one? You have one and you go like this because you’re trying to avoid (contact) and you shoot it that way and miss.
“Versus, ‘I’m going through this contact, and I’m either getting fouled or making it.'”
Antonio Reeves couldn’t dispute that assertion.
“They were more physical,” said UK’s fifth-year senior guard, who had 15 points but was only 6 of 18 from the field. “(We knew they were) going to battle us. They (were) going to try to punk us — and we got punked.
“So we’ve just got to go back to the drawing board and figure out what we’ve got to do.”
Kentucky entered Tuesday as the most lethal offense in the country, averaging 91.6 points per outing, reaching 70 points in all 17 games and 80 in all but one. South Carolina, on the other hand, was the SEC’s most stingy defense (64.6 points per game) and hadn’t allowed an opponent to eclipse 80 points this season.
Something had to give.
The Wildcats gave.
“I guess people will watch that tape and say, ‘That’s how you’ve got to play (Kentucky),'” Calipari said. “So we’ve got to protect ourselves somehow.”
Nowhere is that more true, Reeves said, than UK’s freshmen. So stellar, so poised all season, Reeves conceded Tuesday was the first time the group looked more like newcomers than seasoned veterans like himself.
“They struggled a lot,” Reeves said. “I could tell, down in those situations, you could actually tell. But that’s what I’m here for: just to guide them and things like that.
“When guys are hitting shots on the other team like that, we’ve just got to come together even more, we’ve got to bond even more.”
In a season in which so many things — especially points — had come so easy for an ultra-talented but ultra-youthful team, Tuesday was a sobering dose of reality.
A much-needed one.
“Just muscle them back,” Reeves said of the biggest lesson from the lopsided loss. “Give it all we’ve got. Give it 100% out of the gate. We know what we’re dealing with now.
“When it happens, we’ve just got to punch back.”
Reach Kentucky men’s basketball and football reporter Ryan Black at [email protected] and follow him on X at @RyanABlack.
