Kentucky’s season is on the brink after South Carolina loss. ‘I expect fans to be mad.’

A Kentucky basketball season bubbling with mediocrity boiled over into a badness that seemed unthinkable — even by the low standards of what had happened leading up to Tuesday night.

The latest body blow suffered by the Wildcats? A 71-68 loss to South Carolina in Rupp Arena.

How to put such a defeat into proper context?

Kentucky’s players walked onto the court Tuesday night as 19.5-point favorites.

South Carolina walked onto the court with a 7-8 record.

So far this season, the Gamecocks have lost to Colorado State by 32 points, Davidson by nine, Furman by 19, George Washington by 24, UAB by 14, East Carolina by eight and Vanderbilt by five.

None of those teams is projected to make the NCAA Tournament.

Oh, the Gamecocks also lost on their home court to Tennessee by 43 points just three days before coming to Lexington.

How badly did Kentucky start this game?

South Carolina jumped out to a 13-2 lead, forcing John Calipari to call a timeout before the Wildcats could even get to the first TV stoppage of the night. From there, the Gamecocks’ lead ballooned to 21-6. By halftime, it was 42-32 in favor of the visitors. In just 20 minutes against Kentucky’s defense, South Carolina had matched its point total for the entire game in that loss to Tennessee over the weekend.

“You’ve gotta give them a lot of credit,” UK guard CJ Fredrick said. “They came in here ready to play. And they punched us in the mouth early. … They came in here and beat us.”

That they did.

Playing in Rupp Arena, where the Cats held a 28-game winning streak, this Kentucky team never even led against one of the worst major-conference teams in all of college basketball.

How bad is South Carolina?

The Gamecocks came into the night at No. 214 in the KenPom ratings, No. 263 in the NCAA’s NET rankings, and No. 272 in the Torvik ratings. At the Southeastern Conference’s media day event back in the fall, South Carolina was picked to finish last in the 14-team league.

Until Tuesday night, that certainly seemed to be playing out. When this day started, Vanderbilt was the SEC’s 13th-best team in the NET ratings at No. 118 nationally, which placed them exactly 145 spots better than the Gamecocks.

South Carolina Coach Lamont Paris didn’t beat around the bush. He knows how difficult this season has been for his team. Until they came to Lexington.

“Sometimes in this whole process, very way beneath all the hard work and sweat and in doing that and all that stuff — we tell our guys all the time that there’s fun in disguise buried somewhere in there,” Paris said. “And it showed its head today, that’s for sure.”

At least someone was having fun Tuesday night. There wasn’t much of it to be had for the vast majority of those who showed up in Rupp.

How on edge is this Kentucky fan base?

When the UK players walked to the bench after Calipari called that first timeout, there was a smattering of boos. When the Cats left the court at halftime — down 10 points in what was supposed to be the easiest game they’d play the rest of this season — there was another round of boos. Right around that time, a fan in section 32 with a “Please Go to Texas” sign — a reference to speculation that Calipari might leave Lexington for the Longhorns’ coaching vacancy — was given the choice between handing over his sign or leaving the arena early. He headed for the exits.

“Are fans mad?” Calipari asked, rhetorically, after the game. “They should be. We lost at home. We don’t lose at home. We lost at home. And we were down 10 at half. I expect fans to be mad. And we have the best fans. And I love our fans. I know they may be mad at me right now, but I’ve been here a long time teaching and working and having our fans be a big part of this.

“And all I’m saying is, just be with these kids. They need you now more than they need you when they’re 4-0. They need you.”

The fans were there for the Cats in the second half. On a few occasions, the Rupp Arena crowd got to its feet and roared, an attempt to will the Wildcats back into the lead. The place erupted when Fredrick nailed a three-pointer to cap a 10-0 run and narrow South Carolina’s lead to a single point, 69-68, with 51 seconds left.

That’s as close as the Cats got. When the buzzer sounded, there were no audible boos. Just stunned silence.

“This is not a good feeling,” Fredrick said a few minutes later. “We want to win so bad. We love our fans. And there’s no worse feeling than coming out and not winning at home. It sucks. I’m sorry. There’s just no other way to say it.”

Kentucky shot 50.9 percent from the field. The Cats committed just six turnovers. That’s usually a winning recipe. But in this one, UK was outscored badly from three-point range: 33 to nine. (And the Cats attempted just four three-pointers in the first 35 minutes). South Carolina beat UK on the boards, 32-28, grabbing more offensive rebounds than the Cats got defensive rebounds, winning the second-chance-points battle, 21-12. UK had just nine assists on 29 baskets. The free-throw line was once again a struggle — 7-for-14 from there.

And Kentucky’s defense was, once again, objectionable.

“I thought that we would be a hell of a defensive team,” Calipari said. “And we’ve got to shore that up, because that’s the basis of what we do.”

Calipari said afterward that he still believes in this team. But exactly one week after UK held on to beat Louisiana State and the Wildcats’ coach used the phrase, “It’s fixable,” on several occasions to address what has been ailing his team, this was undoubtedly a low point.

There’s a lot that needs to be fixed. And time is running out to turn things around.

Three days earlier, a 78-52 loss at Alabama put Kentucky squarely on the NCAA Tournament bubble. On Monday, the new Associated Press Top 25 poll was released, showing zero votes for the Wildcats.

UK started this season projected as a 1 seed and ranked No. 4 in the country. It’s unlikely the Cats will be in anyone’s bracket projections after this one.

And this was supposed to be the easy part. Up next: a trip to Knoxville to face No. 5 Tennessee, the team that beat South Carolina by 43 points Saturday.

“This sucks right now. Obviously. It stings,” Fredrick said. “But I still have tremendous confidence in this team. I love this team. I love the coaches. I love my brothers. I love coming in every day and getting better with them. And when we figure this out, it’s going to be a great feeling. Because we’re working really hard, and it’s just not paying off. And it sucks. But we’re gonna keep coming. We’re gonna get back at it tomorrow, and we’re gonna keep fighting.

“We’re going to figure this out. There’s no other option.”

Next game

Kentucky at No. 5 Tennessee

When: Noon Saturday

TV: ESPN

Radio: WLAP-AM 630, WBUL-FM 98.1

Records: Kentucky 10-6 (1-3 SEC), Tennessee 14-2 (4-0)

Series: Kentucky leads 158-77

Last meeting: Tennessee won 69-62 on March 12, 2022, in the SEC Tournament at Tampa, Fla.

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