LEXINGTON, KY. ? Bobby Perry still likes Roy Williams’ current team more than he likes Williams’ former team.
Kentucky has dropped only two games this season — a 65-59 home loss to Kansas University on Sunday, and a 91-78 decision to North Carolina in early December in Chapel Hill, N.C.
Although KU is ranked No. 2 nationally and North Carolina No. 3, Perry sounded like the Tar Heels should be rated higher than the Jayhawks.
“I’d rank them right behind North Carolina,” said Perry, a 6-foot-6 sophomore who scored a career-high 10 points and had seven rebounds in Sunday’s defeat. “They have size and great athleticism, but they’re probably somewhere behind North Carolina.”
Then again, Perry and the rest of his teammates did not have to face Kansas with Wayne Simien, whose 20 points and 12 rebounds a game were on the bench for the fourth straight game.
Asked if the Jayhawks’ performance without Simien caught him off-guard, Perry replied: “They’re still undefeated when he couldn’t play, so we weren’t surprised how they played. They just took it to us.”
Tubby Smith, the first Kentucky coach ever to lose to Kansas in Lexington, gave due credit to the Jayhawks.
“They took us out of our game,” Smith said, “and we weren’t strong enough and disciplined enough to win it. We had some major breakdowns.”
Most of those breakdowns were brick-related.
Kelenna Azubuike, the ‘Cats’ leading scorer (15.0), was 4-of-16 from the field. Guard Patrick Sparks was 4-of-13, and forward Chuck Hayes 4-of-11.
“Those guys have to shoot better for us to win,” Smith said.
Even worse, starting center Randolph Morris was 0-for-8.
“I thought we could get some things done inside,” Smith said, “but we just didn’t get the productivity we wanted, so we went with a smaller lineup.”
Even the smaller lineup couldn’t prevent the Wildcats from shooting a chilly 30.9 percent (21 of 68). Kentucky missed 20 of its 26 three-point attempts, with Sparks the worst offender at 1-for-8.
“Some of the same problems that have been hurting us all year hurt us today,” Smith said. “We struggled shooting the ball, and we made some bad decisions.”
The ‘Cats also were tabbies at the free-throw line, missing eight of 19 charities.
“If we had made our free throws,” Hayes said, “we would have won the game.”
Still, Smith sounded more perturbed about his team’s defense than about the shabby shooting. The Wildcats held the Jayhawks to 21 points and 27 percent shooting in the first half, but Kansas shot 51.9 percent (14 of 27) in the second half and scored 44 points.
“Their shooting 50 percent in the second half proved we weren’t playing defense,” Smith said. “And they were shooting two shots from the line with 11 minutes left.”
Kansas made 19 of 25 free throws.
“I think we could have been more mentally tough,” Azubuike said. “We just gave them too many chances to get to the line.”
Sparks, a junior guard who sat out last season after transferring from Western Kentucky, lost for the first time in Rupp Arena, and he didn’t like it.
“We had big-time mental lapses,” Sparks said. “We deserved this loss.”
Kentucky (10-2) will play host to Vanderbilt on Wednesday.
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