After a disappointing first year with Mark Pope at the helm, Kentucky is back in the national title mix as the 2026 SEC Tournament approaches. Star forward Otega Oweh returned to Lexington to win that elusive championship, which the Wildcats face an uphill battle toward.
A rough non-conference slate and a 0-2 start to SEC play knocked Kentucky out of the AP Top 25, but the Wildcats have responded with a strong month-long stretch from mid-January to mid-February. Following their Feb. 7 win over No. 25 Tennessee, Pope's team has won eight of its last nine games, improving to 17-7.
While Kentucky's record is not as clean as that of a prototypical national title contender, it is heating up at the right time. Aside from an ugly 80-55 loss to Vanderbilt, arguably no team has been as hot as the Wildcats have been over the last four weeks.
Kentucky's recent run of fortune has been filled with second-half comebacks and late-game heroics to keep it in the SEC title picture. The wins are thrilling, but their tendency to get off to slow starts provides a lot of reason for concern as the calendar flips to March.
With three victories over top-25 opponents in the last three weeks, Kentucky has a chance to officially re-enter the title conversation with matchups against Auburn, Georgia, a pair of games against Florida and a rematch with Vanderbilt looming before the end of the regular season.
The 2025-2026 season has been a roller coaster for Kentucky thus far, but all that matters is how the team finishes in the SEC and NCAA Tournaments. The Wildcats have played themselves into dark-horse title contention, even if their obvious concerns could eventually lead to their downfall.
Slow starts have plagued Kentucky all season
Perhaps Mark Pope is the best pep-talker in college basketball, but Kentucky tends to be a different team in the second half nearly every game. As exciting as that can be, that play style almost never works out in the postseason.
Of its first 17 wins, five have been double-digit comebacks, including four in SEC play. The Wildcats have only been outscored in the second half by two conference foes.
Kentucky's second-half team persona has it ranked just 119th in first-half scoring, while it scores the 12th-most points in the country after halftime. Its defensive numbers are also better in the second half, ranking 198th in first-half points allowed and 66th in the second period.
It would always be better to be a second-half team than a first-half team, but Kentucky's luck is bound to run out. True championship-caliber teams will work around the Wildcats' late surges. The ‘Cats might be able to stun one top-25 team in the postseason, but their habitual play style will not work in four consecutive games to win the SEC Tournament.
Kentucky's slow starts stem from its inefficient and inconsistent offense, which routinely takes far too long to get going. The Wildcats do not have an all-around offensive attack strong enough to consistently beat the best teams in the country and end the season on a high note.
Kentucky lacks perimeter threat to open up interior attack
Even at its best, Kentucky's offense is not diverse enough to consistently beat the SEC's top teams. Veteran guards Otega Oweh and Denzel Aberdeen spearhead an aggressive, slashing attack, but the Wildcats otherwise lack a substantial perimeter game to threaten the nation's top defenses.
Aberdeen hits a respectable 36.3 percent of his three-pointers, but Oweh's game revolves around the paint. The senior attempts 8.8 two-point field goals per game, while also shooting 5.9 free throws per game.
Kentucky's success inside is not just Oweh; the team gets into the paint at a high rate and finishes there at a respectable clip. The Wildcats are 45th in the country with 36.8 points in the paint per game, according to CBB Analytics, and they hit 54.8 percent of their two-point shots, which ranks 70th.
Kentucky is even better in the trenches than its numbers suggest, but it does not even come close to having a consistent perimeter attack to open up its game. The Wildcats hit just 8.2 three-pointers per game, ranking 139th nationally, at a mere 34.9 percent clip, ranking 123rd.
Only two Wildcats — Collin Chandler and Aberdeen — who average more than 15 minutes per game hit more than 35 percent of their long-range attempts.
The Wildcats are best when Oweh gets going, but his limited arsenal does not allow that to happen enough against the creme of the crop. Kentucky does not have enough shooting around him to space the floor, particularly with its two main frontcourt players, Mouhamed Dioubate and Malachi Moreno, clogging the paint.
Kentucky is still a top-50 offense without the threat of a consistent three-point attack, but the Wildcats' game lacks the weaponry to win the 2026 SEC Tournament.
