It's All About the Details for Bruiser Flint as Kentucky Looks to Turn Season Around Against No. 5 Tennessee

The associate to the head coach spoke at length about the Wildcats working on the little things to try and stop the scathing skid they currently find themselves amidst.

There's a laundry list of issues that have began to plague Kentucky basketball. 

Injuries, on-court chemistry problems, reported off-court chemistry problems, lack of toughness, lack of energy. You name it and it's come up when talking about the hellscape that currently surrounds coach John Calipari and his players. 

The bloated number of obstacles in the road have seen the Cats stumble to a 10-6 record with no number next to their name in the AP Poll, as well as no seed next to their name in ESPN's latest bracketology update. The regular season is now over 50-percent complete, yet Kentucky is still sputtering out of the starting gate. 

Talks of turning the corner are far gone — especially after the 71-68 loss at home to South Carolina on Tuesday night. Kentucky has dug a deep hole. The digging is now taking a quick pitstop for a game in Rocky Top, as the No. 5 Tennessee Volunteers will welcome the free-falling Cats to Thompson-Boling Arena this Saturday. 

It's a challenge that if successfully conquered, could finally flip the season trajectory on its head for UK. The main issue for Kentucky may not even be stifling the hard-nosed Vols, denying 3-point shooting or winning the rebound battle. The Wildcats have to first get out of their own heads and try to play as the sort of team that was promised back in November. Associate to the head coach Bruiser Flint harped on consistency and the little things when speaking to reporters on Friday.

"For me, our details have to be more consistent, I think sometimes our details aren't consistent, and it shows in the game and we go through periods in the game where we struggle. We gotta be better in our details as a team," Flint said. "I thought we were making some progress, then we sort of took steps back, we did. Some of it is who you've got in the game, who you don't have in the game, things like that, but our details have to be better and be more consistent within the game."

Throw up whatever excuse you've got in the back pocket. Sure, injuries and lack of continuity have made for tough times with trying to figure out proper rotations, but the end result is still the end result. Kentucky isn't the first team to deal with missing an important player or two and it won't be the last. 

Lack of attention to detail had been doing damage to the Wildcats in most-all areas for the first chunk of the season — except defensively. UK was seen as a stout unit on that end of the floor, until SEC play began. 

In its four conference matchups, Kentucky is allowing an average of 77.25 points-per-game. That number of points is a mark that the Wildcats themselves have been able to reach just once in nine games against Power 5 competition, which of course was against the bottom-feeding Louisville Cardinals. 

"Got to pay attention to the details, bottom line," Flint said. "It's all about the details in what we're doing. It has slipped, because our defense has been one of the more consistent things we've done all season. But again, it goes back to the small things, and sometimes we don't do them well. Now we got to get back to that."

The root of some of Kentucky's defensive issues comes in the paint, as opposing coaches have voiced over the course of the season that attacking star center Oscar Tshiebwe is a huge point of emphasis, most recently Alabama's Nate Oats and South Carolina's new skipper Lamont Paris. 

The plan is rather simple. Drag Tshiebwe into a ball screen and let the magic ensue. Putting the big man in uncomfortable situations out from underneath the paint has yielded positive results, getting open looks down low or leading to good looks from the perimeter. 

While the spotlight is now glaring on how teams are going right at the reigning National Player of the Year, Flint says the strategy is nothing new: 

"Everybody tries to put Oscar in ball screens. Like I said, our defense has slipped a little bit, so it's not just Oscar, we got to get ourselves together as a unit, but don't let anybody tell you that they came up with a plan to attack Oscar, because they all attack Oscar that way." 

Flint's answer for the newfound success on getting past Tshiebwe was nothing more than props for certain teams ball-screening better than others, and of course UK needing to play much better around him, not leaving Tshiebwe in no-man's land. 

"They do it to try and get him out of the game, because they know if they get him out of the game, that's a huge loss for us. Last year, same thing. They put Oscar in ball screens ... our details have to be better ... that's why we haven't been as good on defense, our details have to be better. And not just Oscar, the other guys too."

Saturday afternoon will also provide a monumental challenge on the offensive end of the court for the Wildcats, as Tennessee currently boasts the No. 1 ranked defense in the nation, according to multiple metrics. 

The Volunteers allow just 53.4 points-per-game (2nd in DI), average 41 rebounds-per-game (5th) and have the best 3-point defense in the country, holding teams to 20.9 percent from behind the arc. They allow an average of 82.5 points per 100 possessions, which is also the best mark in the country, per KenPom. 

Flint attributes size and strength to much of the success on defense for coach Rick Barnes' group:

"One, they've got great size. They're very physical. They take up a lot of space on the court ... very physical, so they make you earn — not only every shot — but every catch. Just catching the ball, they make you earn it. That's a big part of their game, if you get past the physicality, then it becomes a little bit different." 

Matching intensity has been a tough ask for the Wildcats thus far, so keeping the nose on the grindstone for 40 minutes will prove challenging — especially on the road. Kentucky is yet to win a game in a hostile environment this season. 

On a two-game losing streak with the season seemingly hanging on by a thread? That's a situation that can weigh on a team rather heavily. It also doesn't help when you struggle to put the ball in the basket outside of Rupp Arena. 

"I think we have a great mindset going into the game, but again — we miss a lot of shots especially on the road. Not necessarily at home," Flint said. "But on the road, we do miss. So we got to do a better job of just being focused."

That mindset will be put to the test in a big way on Saturday afternoon. Tipoff between the Cats and Vols is set for noon EST and will air on ESPN. 

More on the South Carolina defeat HERE.

More on Oscar Tshiebwe's postgame words HERE.

Everything John Calipari said after the loss HERE.

WATCH: Tshiebwe, Fredrick and Collins post-SC loss

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