Seven things you need to know from UK’s 80-76 loss to Oakland in the NCAA Tournament

Seven things you need to know from No. 3 seed Kentucky’s 80-76 loss to No. 14 seed Oakland in the men’s basketball NCAA Tournament round of 64 at at PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh:

1. Another Cat-astrophe. John Calipari made the NCAA Tournament look so easy in the early years of his Kentucky coaching tenure.

In Calipari’s first five NCAA tourneys as top Cat, Kentucky went 22-4, advanced to five elite eights, four Final Fours and won the 2012 NCAA title.

That now seems like a gazillion years ago.

On Thursday night, Kentucky lost in the NCAA Tournament round of 64 to a double-digit seed for the second time in three seasons.

By seeding, falling to No. 14 Oakland as a 3 seed is not as bad as losing to No. 15 Saint Peter’s as a 2 seed was in 2022 — but because it is the second such loss in three seasons, it may actually be more damaging.

One could be conceived as a fluke. Two in three years starts to look like a trend.

UK saw its record in NCAA tourney games drop to 1-3 for its last three trips to the tournament — and that does not factor in the Wildcats missing the 2021 event after a 9-16 season.

Over its past five NCAA tourney contests going back to the 2019 Elite Eight loss to Auburn, Kentucky is 1-4.

Combining the NCAA and SEC tournaments, UK is 2-9 in its last 11 postseason tourney contests.

To the extent there can be heat under the seat of a coach with a $34 million buyout clause in his contact, Calipari should now feel a growing warmth.

Simply put, the standard for men’s basketball at Kentucky is excellence.

While there are various factors, some within Calipari’s control and some not, that have led to the Wildcats’ declining results in recent seasons, the fact remains that the historic expectations of the UK program are not being met.

2. Cats done in by an historic shooting performance. Oakland’s Jack Gohlke — a transfer from NCAA Division II Hillsdale College, don’t forget — put on one of the best exhibitions of outside shooting in a big spot that I have ever seen in person.

The 6-foot-3, 215-pound product of Pewaukee, Wisconsin, took 20 3-point shots and made 10 of them. He also went 2-of-3 from the foul line to finish with 32 points.

Though Kentucky’s defense was suspect from start to finish of 2023-24, Gohlke drained treys Thursday night under tight guard again and again and again.

Hit hit off-balance 3-pointers, made a trey when UK literally had three men guarding him — and, of course, even banked one in.

It was, simply put, a breathtaking shooting performance.

3. Kentucky failed by its 3-point shooting. UK entered the NCAA Tournament as the nation’s leading 3-point shooting team by percentage, making 41.19% of its treys as a team.

While Oakland’s Jack Gohlke was lighting up the Pittsburgh night, Kentucky went 9-of-28 on treys.

The estimable Antonio Reeves went 5-of-9 from behind the arc; the rest of the Wildcats were 4-of-19.

4. UK freshmen AWOL. Kentucky’s primary freshmen did not have good nights in their first exposure to the NCAA Tournament.

Only days after the U.S. Basketball Writers Association chose Reed Sheppard as the National Freshman of the Year, the former North Laurel star made only one field goal, a 3-pointer, vs. Oakland and finished with three points and four assists.

Rob Dillingham, the SEC’s Sixth Man of the Year, had 10 points but made only 2-of-9 shots.

D.J. Wagner failed to score and missed all five of his shots.

Justin Edwards had 10 points, but also missed both a dunk and an open layup that were costly to UK’s efforts.

Zvonimir Ivisic had three points and five rebounds, but committed a costly moving pick that negated a Sheppard bucket that would have tied the game at 64 with 5:19 left.

Aaron Bradshaw had three points and three rebounds in four minutes of playing time.

Calipari often reminds that players are not robots. Freshmen players are still young people who, sometimes, are susceptible to feeling pressure in big events such as the NCAA Tournament.

5. Reeves report. Playing in the NCAA Tournament for the first time since his 1-for-15 shooting nightmare in Kentucky’s 75-69 loss to Kansas State in last season’s round of 32, Antonio Reeves came up big for the Wildcats.

In what would turn out to be his final college game, Reeves hit 11-of-18 shots, 5-of-9 treys and finished with 27 points.

It was a redemptive performance for the Chicago product even as his team came out on the wrong end.

The 6-foot-5, 195-pound super-senior will end his Kentucky career with 1,155 points. He moved past in his UK career, good for Wallace “Wah Wah” Jones (1,151) and Vernon Hatton (1,153) into 45th on the all-time UK scoring list.

Reeves ends his Kentucky career trailing only Bill Spivey (1,213 points) among players who played only two seasons for the Cats.

6. Not so sweet run. With its defeat, Kentucky has now gone five years without advancing to the NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 (recall, there was no NCAA Tournament in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic and the efforts to contain it).

Since the NCAA tourney bracket expanded to at least 64 teams in 1985, this is the first time that Kentucky has gone five years without making a Sweet 16.

7. “Ten-Loss Cal.” Kentucky finished its season with a 23-10 record.

It is the sixth time in John Calipari’s 15 years as UK head man that the Wildcats have finished with double-digit losses.

That moves Calipari past Tubby Smith for the most such seasons in UK basketball history.

In fairness, I will point out that one reason modern Kentucky coaches are more apt to have 10-loss season is because teams play more games now.

Still, it’s hard to argue that the arc of the UK men’s basketball program is headed in the right direction.

Kentucky suffers another massive NCAA Tournament upset. Oakland ends the Wildcats’ season.

Box score from Kentucky basketball’s 80-76 NCAA Tournament loss to No. 14 seed Oakland

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