{"id":524020,"date":"2026-01-08T03:45:17","date_gmt":"2026-01-08T03:45:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/524020\/"},"modified":"2026-01-08T03:45:17","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T03:45:17","slug":"kentucky-basketball-quickly-is-playing-its-way-out-of-ncaa-tournament","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/524020\/","title":{"rendered":"Kentucky basketball quickly is playing its way out of NCAA Tournament"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>LEXINGTON \u2014 <a href=\"https:\/\/ukathletics.com\/sports\/mbball\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Kentucky basketball;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Kentucky basketball<\/a> is playing its way off the NCAA Tournament bubble and into having a lot of free time in March.<\/p>\n<p>The Wildcats fell to Missouri 73-68 at Rupp Arena, dropping to 0-2 in SEC play and suddenly looking like a team that has to sit and sweat out its name being called on Selection Sunday. Similar to their home loss to North Carolina, the Cats could not execute in the closing minutes when they needed to the most.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>UK led 68-65 with 2:17 left but didn&#8217;t score another point for the remainder of the game. It watched Mizzou take the lead off a turnover when <a href=\"https:\/\/ukathletics.com\/sports\/mbball\/roster\/player\/otega-oweh\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Otega Oweh;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Otega Oweh<\/a> couldn&#8217;t handle a pass from Malachi Moreno. And Oweh missed a layup off a frantic scramble after a steal by <a href=\"https:\/\/ukathletics.com\/sports\/mbball\/roster\/player\/collin-chandler\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Collin Chandler;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Collin Chandler<\/a> prevented a sure basket. <\/p>\n<p>Unlike their other losses, this was a game that <a href=\"https:\/\/ukathletics.com\/sports\/mbball\/roster\/coach\/mark-pope\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:UK coach Mark Pope;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">UK coach Mark Pope<\/a> threw out his best lineup from the start.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/sports.yahoo.com\/article\/jaland-lowe-commits-kentucky-basketball-145323012.html\" data-ylk=\"slk:Guard Jaland Lowe;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;outcm:mb_qualified_link;_E:mb_qualified_link;ct:story;\" class=\"link  yahoo-link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Guard Jaland Lowe<\/a> and forward <a href=\"https:\/\/sports.yahoo.com\/article\/kentucky-basketball-sit-jayden-quaintance-091321950.html\" data-ylk=\"slk:Jayden Quaintance;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;outcm:mb_qualified_link;_E:mb_qualified_link;ct:story;\" class=\"link  yahoo-link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Jayden Quaintance<\/a> each made their first start of season, which meant, for the first time this season, the Cats had their most talented five on the floor from the opening tip.<\/p>\n<p>This column will be updated.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>Reach sports columnist C.L. Brown at\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/sports.yahoo.com\/articles\/mailto:clbrown1@gannett.com\" data-ylk=\"slk:clbrown1@gannett.com;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">clbrown1@gannett.com<\/a>, follow him on X at\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/clbrownhoops\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:@CLBrownHoops;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">@CLBrownHoops<\/a>\u00a0and subscribe to his newsletter at\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/profile.courier-journal.com\/newsletters\/cl-browns-latest\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:profile.courier-journal.com\/newsletters\/cl-browns-latest;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">profile.courier-journal.com\/newsletters\/cl-browns-latest<\/a>\u00a0to make sure you never miss one of his\u00a0columns.<\/p>\n<p>This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.courier-journal.com\/story\/sports\/columnists\/c-l-brown\/2026\/01\/07\/kentucky-basketball-rotation-mark-pope-roster-jaland-lowe-stats-missouri-loss-ncaa-tournament\/87857840007\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:UK basketball rotation finally set by Mark Pope \u2014 for better or worse;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">UK basketball rotation finally set by Mark Pope \u2014 for better or worse<\/a><\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LEXINGTON \u2014 Kentucky basketball is playing its way off the NCAA Tournament bubble and into having a lot&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":524021,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3723],"tags":[7,17884,217,8087,3275,6658,234,12713,4418,231,772,1400,1544,1773,3272,4004],"class_list":["post-524020","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ncaa-basketball","tag-basketball","tag-cats","tag-college-basketball","tag-collin-chandler","tag-jaland-lowe","tag-jayden-quaintance","tag-kentucky","tag-malachi-moreno","tag-missouri","tag-ncaa","tag-ncaa-basketball","tag-ncaa-tournament","tag-ncaab","tag-north-carolina","tag-otega-oweh","tag-rupp-arena"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115857426035529804","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/524020","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=524020"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/524020\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/524021"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=524020"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=524020"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=524020"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}