After losing to Clemson, here are four things Kentucky basketball needs to work on.

The Clemson Tigers beat the Kentucky Wildcats 70–66 on Tuesday night, which was their first loss of the season and the first loss under Mark Pope. They are now 7–1 on the season following their loss.

When the Wildcats played their first real road game of the season, they just couldn’t get their offense going. Every time it looked like they might with a couple of made baskets, Clemson answered back in a big way, which helped them pull off the upset. For the season, the Wildcats made just 38% of their shots from the field and 26% of their 3s.

Junior guard Otega Oweh scored 17 points and grabbed seven rebounds to lead the Wildcats. Senior guard Lamont Butler added 16 points and five assists to finish the game. That game will be late Saturday night in Seattle and will be between Kentucky and the No. 7 Gonzaga Bulldogs.

What did the Wildcats do that kept them from pulling off an upset? Here are four things that went wrong and need to be fixed going forward.

Trouble making 3-point shots

In the first five games of the season, the Wildcats shot over 35% from three-point range. But it looks like their fast start has finally caught up with them, as they’ve had trouble from three-point range in their last three games, hitting under 30%. The Cats lost the game against Clemson because of that cold shooting. Kentucky needs to start making more 3-point shots again, and their game against Gonzaga on Saturday night would be a great time to do that.

Free shots missed

There were a lot of close games, and free throws were a big reason why Kentucky lost their first game of the season. When you’re on the road, it’s not easy to make 61% of your free throws and still expect to win. When SEC play starts, I can promise you that the Wildcats will be in more close games. Whether they are on the road or not, free throws will probably be a big part of the difference between winning and losing.

How it looks

Last week’s games against Georgia State and Western Kentucky were rough, which seemed to worry the Wildcats. In the end, Kentucky did win easily, but when they played Clemson, a much tougher team, they gave up.

The Cats averaged 97 points per game before Tuesday night’s game, which was good enough for first place in the NCAA. However, they couldn’t get their offense going all night and were stopped to just 66 points.

The Tigers did a good job because they not only slowed down the Wildcats but also played rougher for most of the game. Being rough with each other seems to bother the Kentucky team and, more importantly, it looks like it could help the other team win.

The staff and coach Pope need to get to work on that right away, because it looks like other teams are figuring out what stops this team from moving freely on offense.

Minutes that aren’t Lamont Butler

There were a few times during the game when Kentucky’s offense had trouble getting going while Butler was on the bench for early foul trouble. It’s also worth mentioning that he had to leave the game because he hurt his ankle in the second half. When he wasn’t on the court, Clemson usually took advantage, but not this time. It seems likely that Lamont Butler will take this attack as far as he can.

For the reason that he protects so well and can get to the basket whenever he wants, I say that. This group doesn’t seem to be as good offensively when he’s not on the court.

Is Lamont Butler the most important guy on this Kentucky team in terms of how well they can play? What else does Kentucky need to get better at?