Sad News:Kentucky Wildcats Key Player Shocked Fans With Abrupt Resignation And Departure Today For…

We’ve had eight sad mornings after Kentucky Basketball losses this season. Each was unique by circumstance, but a theme is developing as we enter the home stretch: this team is not yet past its flaws. With only five regular-season games remaining, it’s time to accept that they may never be, a sobering reality ahead of a make-or-break March for the program.

If Saturday’s win over Auburn was a drink of water in the desert, last night’s loss at LSU was a kick in the gut. Just when you were buying into the baby steps of progress the team made on defense, the Cats blew a 15-point second-half lead in six minutes. Players not named Rob Dillingham or Antonio Reeves accounted for only 26 points, 8 in the second half. Tre Mitchell remained out with a shoulder injury and DJ Wagner clearly still isn’t at 100%, but Kentucky was able to knock off a top-15 Auburn team with the same roster. Four days later, not even Dillingham and Reeves could save the Cats from their bad habits against a team outside the KenPom Top 75 without its leading scorer. Not exactly what you want to see with less than three weeks until the postseason.

Road losses to mid-level SEC teams — especially ones late at night in the middle of the week — are not uncommon, especially this season in college basketball. Kentucky now has three of them this season. A few things make this team’s struggles unique. Clearly, they are still prone to defensive breakdowns, which is not a good sign for the sustained March run that John Calipari keeps pointing to. The Cats have lost big this season, and small. Last night was their fifth loss by five or fewer points. It was the seventh time they’ve led in the second half of a game and still lost. Closing out games remains an issue. John Calipari cited youth, but this team has played 26 games already. The freshmen are just a handful of games from being sophomores.