Why Kentucky isn’t as awful as it has looked this season

Kentucky has opened its basketball season by going 1-3, with losses to Richmond, Kansas and Georgia Tech. Notre Dame pays a visit to Rupp Arena this weekend, and a 1-4 start for the Wildcats is a real possibility.

A team that the AP ranked No. 10 in the preseason has now vanished from the rankings entirely and, indeed, you won’t even find the Wildcats in the small print under “others receiving votes.” Then again, optimists in Lexington with long memories stretching into the distant past will say don’t worry about it. Just look at last year.

In its third game of the 2019-20 campaign, UK lost at home to an Evansville team that would go on to finish winless in Missouri Valley Conference play. Yet Kentucky still won the SEC regular-season title with ease, finished 25-6 and, we think, probably would have ended up with something close to a No. 4 seed in an NCAA tournament that was never played.

Can this year be a repeat of 2019-20? Possibly. But first let’s sift through the rubble of Kentucky’s dismal start to 2020-21.