Pope’s offence doesn’t work, and Clemson keeps Kentucky’s offence 30 points below their average.

Mark Pope and the Kentucky Wildcats are known for their high-octane offence and quick scores. That wasn’t shown at Clemson on Tuesday night. Kentucky’s offence had a terrible game on the road against the Tigers. They were far below their season standards in a number of areas, and they lost 70–66.

The loss was Kentucky’s first real test on the road this season, and Clemson’s tough, physical defence showed holes in Kentucky’s normally strong offence.

Kentucky normally scores 96 points per game, but they only scored 66 points on 38% shooting, 30 points less than their average. Kentucky was 13 percentage points off their average.

Kentucky’s offence has been strong all season because they can move the ball well, but they only had 11 assists, which is half of their season average, and turned the ball over 12 times.

The Wildcats also had trouble making three-pointers. They only made 7 of 27 shots, which is 25.9%. This is a big drop from the 11 they normally make per game. Clemson, on the other hand, made only 8 of 25 shots from deep (32%), barely beating Kentucky in a key statistical area where the Cats usually excel.

Kentucky had some success in the paint, getting 30 points to Clemson’s 26. However, the Wildcats missed a number of chances to score more. During the game, Kentucky also had a lot of foul problems. They committed 20 fouls, while Clemson only committed 15. This let Clemson make 14 of 19 free throws, which is 73.7 percent. Kentucky, on the other hand, kept having trouble at the line, getting only 11 out of 18 shots (61.1%).

One good thing about the Wildcats was how well they grabbed rebounds. In the end, both Kentucky and Clemson had 44 rebounds, with 15 of those being offensive. However, the Wildcats couldn’t make enough of their second-chance points. The Cats had an average of +8 boards when they came in.

The Wildcats had the biggest lead of the game by six points, but they couldn’t keep up the offensive pressure, which let Clemson go on important runs. One of these was in the last five minutes of the first half, when Kentucky scored only two points, which changed the game’s direction.

The loss makes it clear that Kentucky needs to make changes, especially to how well they shoot and how well they run their offence when they’re under pressure, since teams will now be able to see the blue pin to stop the Cats.

The Wildcats need to quickly get back into their offensive flow while they get back together if they don’t want to lose again to Gonzaga this Saturday.