Five things you need to know from UK’s 97-87 loss to Texas A&M in the SEC Tournament

Five things you need to know from No. 2 seed Kentucky’s 97-87 loss to No. 7 seed Texas A&M in the men’s SEC basketball tournament quarterfinals at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville:

1. Calipari has lost his SEC Tournament mojo. In the first nine Southeastern Conference Tournaments (2010 through 2018) in which John Calipari coached Kentucky, the Wildcats went 22-3, advanced to eight tourney finals and cut down the nets six times.

Alas, the worm has turned on Cal and the Cats in the conference tournament. After Friday’s night’s loss, Calipari and Kentucky have now gone 2-5 in their past 5 SEC tourney appearances.

UK has now failed to even reach the semifinals in three of those tournaments, including the past two.

SEC Tournament history that once seemed easily within grasp for Calipari has become elusive.

The loss to Texas A&M dropped Calipari’s record in SEC tourney games to 24-8.

In the modern history (since 1979) of the event, Calipari remains tied with former UK and Georgia head man Tubby Smith (24-7) for the 3rd-most SEC Tournament wins.

Ex-Alabama head man Wimp Sanderson (25-7) and former Florida coach Billy Donovan (27-15) have the most coaching wins in modern SEC tourney history.

With Kentucky bowing out of the SEC Tournament prior to the semifinals for the second straight year, Calipari also remains tied with Sanderson for the most semifinal appearances in modern SEC tourney history with 10 each.

Given how much emphasis the Kentucky fans puts on the SEC tourney — as shown by the army of blue-clad fans in the stands at the event — UK’s recent failure to play well in the league tournament contributes to an increasingly grumpy fan base.

The mood likely will not get better when Wildcats backers are reminded that, since the NCAA Tournament bracket expanded to at least 64 teams in 1985, no team that lost its first game in its conference tourney has gone on to win the national championship.

2. Texas A&M guards cook UK again. In the Aggies’ 97-92 overtime win over Kentucky in January, the A&M backcourt of Wade Taylor IV (31 points) and Tyrece Radford (28) dropped a combined 59 points on the Cats.

On a Friday night in Music City, it was more of the same.

Taylor, a 6-foot, 170-pound junior from Dallas, hit 6-of-14 3-pointers and had 32 points.

Radford, a 6-3, 190-pound super-senior from Baton Rouge, La., repeatedly beat Kentucky defenders down the lane and had 23 points, seven rebounds and six assists.

Meanwhile, the late-season insertion into the starting lineup of junior guard Manny Obaseki by Aggies head man Buzz Williams continued to pay off. Obaseki, a 6-4, 195-pound product of Allen, Texas, had 17 points, three rebounds and three assists.

Suffice to say, there was literally no evidence that Kentucky’s perimeter defense — nor its rim protection — had improved one bit from the loss at Texas A&M on Jan. 13.

3. A&M dominates the “specialty stats.” One of the best offensive rebounding teams in the country, Texas A&M won the second chance points over Kentucky 26-9.

In points off turnovers, A&M prevailed 18-4.

The Aggies were superior in points in the paint, 36-30.

Fast break points favored Texas A&M 18-14.

The thread that connected many of these categories was that a more physically mature Texas A&M playing rotation had its way with Kentucky’s freshman-heavy roster.

Kentucky’s front court, in particular, largely no-showed. UK’s six primary front-line players combined to score 25 points.

It’s hard to imagine the Wildcats can make any kind of meaningful run in the NCAA Tournament if someone in the front court doesn’t step up to support the Kentucky guards.

4. Foul trouble limits Reeves. Kentucky super-senior guard Antonio Reeves saw his streak of seven straight games with at least 20 points end Friday night.

Limited by foul trouble throughout the game, the 6-6, 195-pound Chicago product fouled out after only 18 minutes of play with 13 points.

Reeves now has 1,128 points in his two-season Kentucky career and moved past Oscar Tshiebwe (1,117 career points) and Randolph Morris (1,123) for 47th place on the all-time Kentucky scoring list.

Immediately ahead for Reeves are No. 46 Wallace “Wah Wah” Jones (1,151), No. 45 Vernon Hatton (1,153), No. 44 Derrick Miller (1,156), No. 43 Reggie Hanson (1,167) and No. 42 Wayne Turner (1,170).

On the career scoring list of players who only played two seasons for Kentucky, Reeves passed Tshiebwe for second. Only Bill Spivey (1,213 points) has scored more points in a UK uniform than Reeves among players who played only two seasons for the Cats.

Coupled with the 1,195 career points Reeves scored in his three seasons (2019-22) playing for Illinois State, he now has 2,323 total points as a college hooper.

5. Reed Sheppard needs to shoot more. The former North Laurel star started Friday’s night’s game with his shot dialed in — Sheppard had a team-high 14 points at halftime and had made 5-of-6 shots overall, 3-of-4 3-pointers.

Alas, Sheppard took only 2 shots in the second half, both 3-pointers, and missed them both to finish with 14 points for the game.

For all Sheppard’s skill as a facilitator, Kentucky needs the 6-3, 187-pound freshman to be more assertive offensively.

Sheppard was credited with one steal in Friday night’s game, which gives him 79 for the season. That moved him into a tie with Wayne Turner (79 in 1996-97) for second on the UK single-season steals chart.

Only Rajon Rondo (87 in 2004-05) has had more steals in a single season than Sheppard has had this year while playing for Kentucky.

Kentucky goes one-and-done in the SEC Tournament again. Texas A&M beats Cats in Nashville.

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