Thumbs Up/Thumbs Down: UK vs. Tennessee

Free Throws- If the Cats did not shoot as well from the charity stripe as they did, this game could have been really ugly. Free throws have been a concern lately, but against the Vols Kentucky made 21 of 27. DeMarcus Cousins led the way, making 7 of 9. John Wall hit 7 of 8.

DeMarcus Cousins- Cousins seemed to have a lot of energy from the opening tip. He had a great block on Scotty Hopson in the first couple minutes, and despite a few defensive lapses, had a solid all around game. He finished with 15 points, 14 rebounds, and two blocks.

Defense- Several different aspects of this game can be dissected to determine what went wrong for Kentucky, but it starts with the defense. Bobby Maze and Melvin Goins got into the lane for easy lay-ups way too often. The Vols were able to get breakaway baskets off missed shots as well as made shots because the Cats were lazy getting back on defense. Tennessee only shot 24% from three, but overall they shot 28 of 59 for 47.5%. That tells me that they got a lot of easy shots in the paint, which they did. In the possession that Hopson hit the three at the end of the game, Eric Bledsoe was screened and just completely wandered deep into the lane, allowing Hopson a wide open look. It was a poor defensive effort throughout, and that is what will get the Cats beat in the tournament if they don't fix it.

Three-Point Shooting/Offensive Execution- The Cats shot 2 of 22 from deep. That's bad. But the bad shooting performance is part of a bigger problem in terms of getting into a better offensive rhythm. Kentucky's best offensive option is posting up Cousins and letting him go to work. I can only remember a couple of times during this game that actually happened. Even if Cousins doesn't turn and try to score, the defense will collapse and the shooters might have a better chance at making the three. Tennessee played a lot of zone, and Kentucky did not shoot them out of it. Patrick Patterson is the key in that situation. He has to find open space at the free throw line or on the baseline and make that 15 foot jumper.

Things Went UT's Way- The scouting report for J.P. Prince is to make him shoot the jumper and not let him get into the lane. He shoots only 27% from three, but he hit two early shots from deep. That set the tone for the rest of the game. After that, his defender pressed up on him a little more, which allowed Prince to get in the lane and do more damage there. I won't mention any potential fouls in the paint early in the game because those can be missed by the officials, but you can't miss an obvious goaltending on the drive by Wall. That led to a breakaway three-pointer on the other end.

Who couldn't see this one coming? All Kentucky fans knew this would be the most difficult stretch of the SEC schedule. The Cats were lucky to get out of Mississippi State and Vanderbilt with wins. Look at it this way. In the SEC and NCAA tournaments, there will not be a crowd so heavily pumped up to beat the Cats. Kentucky plays the toughest road games of any team in the country due to how much the opposing crowd gets pumped up to play the Cats, and it's not even close.

Kentucky has one more difficult road game at Georgia on Wednesday. They finish off the regular season next Sunday with Senior Day against Florida. A record of 38 and 2 with a National Championship sounds pretty good to me.