The push-off hurt, but Kentucky’s mistakes hurt more

We can point to the push-off as the difference-maker in Auburn stealing a win from Kentucky’s grasp. It was a big swing, and Mark Pope believes Kentucky was cheated out of a road SEC win. His postgame meltdown was bizarre.

Still, Kentucky had plenty of opportunities to put away a team that had lost five straight games. Let’s not lose sight of the bigger issues in the loss while debating whether Collin Chandler should’ve been called for an offensive foul. He shouldn’t have.

Kentucky lost because of these reasons, too:

Failure to grab the game-winning rebound

Even after the whistle, Kentucky was one rebound away from heading home with a win. Just grab it. Finish the defensive possession. Win the game with a defensive rebound.

One player in particular stands out: Brandon Garrison. He watched as Auburn’s Elyjah Freeman, who Mark Pope recruited at nearby Lincoln Memorial last spring, went untouched, grabbing the offensive rebound and scoring the game-winning basket with a second to go.

Kentucky defended well enough to win, but lacked the effort on the glass to grab the game-winning board.

Missed point-blank opportunities

With 1:20 to go and Kentucky down by one, Otega Oweh‘s missed layup attempt hung on the front of the rim for Brandon Garrison to clean up, only for Garrison to miss the uncontested tip-in.

Kentucky went just 10-for-21 on layups.

Second-half turnovers

Collin Chandler made the steal and assist to Oweh to put Kentucky ahead with under a minute to go. Before that, he had three costly second-half turnovers and went 0-for-3 from deep, before the push-off turnover with 14 seconds left. Jimmy Dykes said on the broadcast that Chandler looked rattled during the game. He had to cool off at some point.

As a team, Kentucky had seven turnovers in each half, leading to Auburn winning the points off turnovers battle, 17-10.

Offensive collapse

This is the real story. Kentucky’s offense completely stalled in the second half. The Wildcats led by nine and looked like the better team on Auburn’s home floor until the offense vanished. Over the next 11 minutes, the Wildcats managed just two made field goals, going 2-for-16 from the floor. The score went from 46-37 Kentucky to 59-55 Auburn during the Tigers’ 22-9 run. That’ll do it.

Blame the bad call if you’d like, Mark Pope, but it never should’ve come down to that.