This stat on Kentucky's defense will shock you
It's no secret Kentucky's defense has been awful this season.
The Wildcats just lost their second game of SEC play on the road to the South Carolina Gamecocks 79-62. Kentucky's defense has been bad all year, as all Kentucky fans know, but their ability to score the basketball made up for it, leading to lots of wins. The problem against the Gamecocks is the offense didn't show up, which fully exposed the defense, leading to the embarrassing blowout loss.
We know the defense has been bad, but when I saw this start, it absolutely blew my mind. The Wildcats are allowing 77.3 points per game, which is 306th in college basketball. This puts Kentucky only 45 sports from the absolute bottom. This really sheds some light on how bad the defense has been, and it needs to get fixed soon. I knew the defense was the weak point of this team, but I didn't realize it was almost the worst in all of college basketball.
Now, to look at this from a more positive light, Kentucky's offense is the best in all of college basketball. This means if they can find a way to get better on the defensive side of the floor, this team can truly win a National Championship. The players lose their man a lot, which leads to some wide-open three-point shots. You wonder if Coach John Calipari needs to make some kind of drastic change to the way he plays defense.
There is no question the defense has struggled, but if they can turn it around with how good this team is offensively, Kentucky can make a deep run in March.