Kentucky basketball facing first real adversity under Mark Pope as Wildcats grapple with Andrew Carr injury

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Kentucky point guard Lamont Butler dribbled stealthily along the baseline before turning on a dime back toward the basket, attempting to muster a decent look late in the shot clock. With the No. 9 Wildcats nursing a four-point lead at Vanderbilt and under eight minutes remaining, Butler was in the process of trying to will his team across the finish line.

He pump-faked twice, to no avail, and then elevated for a contested shot against a much larger defender. Butler crashed to the floor in a heap as his missed shot trickled out of bounds. He lay limp on the floor for a few seconds before teammate Amari Williams helped him up.

Together, they trudged toward the huddle for a media timeout as the Wildcats gathered to try and chart a course to the finish line.

The possession was emblematic of the disjointed stretches that plagued an increasingly battered group of Wildcats on Saturday as they melted late for a 74-69 loss at Vanderbilt, Kentucky’s second in a row. 

“We’re not far away,” Kentucky coach Mark Pope said afterward. “We have some real issues that we have to find some creative answers to. But we’re not far away.”

UK proved Pope right during stretches against the Commodores (16-4, 4-3 SEC). The Wildcats (14-5, 3-3) looked unstoppable during a 27-10 run to begin the second half, building a 58-51 lead with under nine minutes remaining. But by the time Butler collapsed under the basket roughly a minute later, the tide had begun to turn against a Commodores team that was willing to match Kentucky’s pace and more than willing to match its depth.

Kentucky’s rally from a 41-27 halftime deficit showed its ability. But collapses at the end of each half showed its fragility.

The Wildcats are beginning to face a numbers problem — and their first moment of real adversity under Pope — as they stare down a game at No. 6 Tennessee on Tuesday that threatens to bring UK’s losing streak to three games. 

Butler is “dealing with all kinds of stuff right now,” Pope said, and now the Wildcats are also grappling with uncertainty regarding starting power forward Andrew Carr. The dynamic Wake Forest transfer, who’s averaging rounded-up line of 12 points and six rebounds per game, was out of the lineup for the first time this season against the Commodores as he deals with a back issue that is likely to linger.

“We’re hoping that with more time we can get him to some sustainable place where he can endure a practice, endure a game and not be back to zero,” Pope said. “But we’ll see if that actually happens.”

With backup point guard Kerr Kriisa still on the mend from a foot surgery, UK had little choice but to deploy three mostly unproven freshmen as part of its rotation against the Commodores. 

“I think they’re really capable guys,” Pope said. “We desperately need their minutes. We need their minutes to be really quality, and they’re fully capable.”

But with its new starting lineup and tweaked bench rotation, UK committed a season-high 17 turnovers while forcing a season-low five. Vanderbilt’s subsequent 14-7 edge in points off turnovers accounted for the difference in the final score.

The minus-12 turnover differential burned the Wildcats in the closing minutes of each half as Pope leaned on starters like Butler, Robinson and Otega Oweh to play more than usual in a game that featured an abnormally low number of stoppages with just just 19 combined fouls.

“I’m looking out there with about six minutes left and I’m just riding Otega and Jaxson and Lamont…and those guys are fighting like crazy and they’re exhausted,” Pope said.

Pope said Butler is “giving us everything he’s got right now.” But while gritting through the ailments of a grinding season, the San Diego State transfer tied a career-high with six turnovers against Vanderbilt’s pressure.

“They did a good job of getting us on our heels,” Pope said. “Super disappointing. This is a style of play that we love for teams to play, and it’s a part of the game when we’re at our best offensively. For a bunch of reasons that I know and some reasons that I don’t, we were heavy on our heels.”

Saturday’s outcome was as much about Vanderbilt’s sudden emergence as it was Kentucky’s struggles. The Commodores, helmed by first-year coach Mark Byington, have defeated two top-10 teams in a season for the first time since 2006-07 after also beating No. 6 Tennessee at home last week.

After entering the day as a projected No. 9 seed in Jerry Palm’s Bracketology, Vanderbilt is now 3-3 in Quad 1 opportunities. 

Pope was asked after the game if things are “OK” amid a 3-3 start to SEC play. If this were 2012, Kentucky had Anthony Davis and the SEC was barely getting four teams into the NCAA Tournament, then no. In that bygone era, things wouldn’t be OK within Big Blue Nation after a 3-3 start to SEC play.

But in an era of unprecedented SEC basketball dominance, losses are inevitable — even against a team that was picked to finish last in the league’s preseason poll. The glimpses of greatness have been there all season for the Wildcats and were again Saturday, even in defeat.

Now, more than ever, though, life in the SEC is about surviving. And that’s where Kentucky, a projected No. 3 seed entering the day, finds itself now.

“I would choose this league the way it is this year every single year,” Pope said. “It can rip you to pieces, for sure. But our job is to keep finding a way to get better. I have a really good locker room of guys that are going to keep the focus on getting better. We’re not going to lose our confidence or question each other. We’re not going to doubt what we’re doing. 

“We’re just going to use all these experiences to get better.”