Andrija Jelavic didn’t mince words when looking back at Kentucky’s sluggish start against LSU. The Wildcats had to claw their way out of an 18-point second-half hole to steal a win in Baton Rouge - and while the comeback was impressive, Jelavic knows that kind of performance won’t cut it against Tennessee.
“In the first half, I was like, ‘These guys are so not better than us and we can do so much better,’” Jelavic said Friday, still clearly frustrated by the team’s early effort. “We had a poor performance and that cannot happen against Tennessee.”
He’s not wrong. LSU, despite the fight they showed, came into that game winless in SEC play.
Tennessee is a different animal - a top-tier team in the league with one of the stingiest defenses in the country. The Vols rank 11th nationally in overall defensive efficiency, hold opponents to just 38.7% shooting from the field (14th-best in the nation), and limit teams to 29.2% from beyond the arc, good for 25th.
Translation: Kentucky’s 8-for-11 shooting from deep in the second half at LSU? That’s not likely to happen again in Knoxville.
Jelavic, now a starter after spending time on the bench earlier in the season, didn’t have an answer for why Kentucky keeps stumbling out of the gate.
“Even Coach Pope, he’s adjusting the lineup so we cannot have a slow start,” Jelavic said. “But I don’t really have an answer to that, I’m not going to lie.”
What he did have was confidence - even when things looked bleak in Baton Rouge. Despite trailing by nearly 20, Jelavic said he never believed the Wildcats were going to lose that game.
“In my mind, we were never losing that game in any manner,” he said. “Even at halftime, there was no nervousness, no anger. It was just, ‘What are we doing wrong and what can we upgrade to win this game?’”
That mindset paid off. Kentucky showed serious resilience in the second half, flipping the script with energy, execution, and belief. Jelavic saw it in his teammates’ eyes - they weren’t rattled, and they never doubted the comeback was possible.
Still, he knows that digging out of double-digit holes isn’t a sustainable formula, especially against elite opponents.
“Our number one problem is falling behind early,” Jelavic admitted. “That shows character and it’s inspirational, but against real opponents, you need 40 minutes of good basketball to win. That’s what we need to do.”
And that’s the challenge today in Knoxville. Tennessee has already dropped a home game to Kentucky this season and will be hungry to return the favor. But Jelavic says this UK squad is locked in.
“We feel really confident that we’re going to give a good fight,” he said. “The team is in the right place.
We’re not underestimating them, but we believe in ourselves. We believe in our players.
We feel we’re going to win no matter what.”
That confidence, paired with a complete 40-minute performance, is exactly what Kentucky needs if they’re going to take another one from the Vols - this time on their home floor. The comeback at LSU was gutsy. But against a team like Tennessee, the Wildcats can’t afford to wait until the second half to show up.