Kentucky’s Comeback Habit Is Thrilling - But Unsustainable. Can the Wildcats Flip the Script Before It’s Too Late?
If there’s one thing this Kentucky team has shown through the early stretch of SEC play, it’s that they don’t lack heart. But heart alone won’t win you games in March - especially not when you're constantly digging yourself into double-digit holes before halftime.
Let’s talk about the trend that’s becoming too familiar for the Wildcats: slow starts. Through their first two SEC road games - at Alabama and LSU - Kentucky has trailed by 16 at the break in both.
And that’s not an isolated issue. They’ve fallen behind big in nearly every marquee matchup this season: down 20 at Louisville, 24 against Michigan State, 37 against Gonzaga, and more manageable but still concerning deficits against Indiana, St.
John’s, Missouri, and again at LSU. That’s a pattern, not a coincidence.
Yes, the comebacks have been electric. Kentucky clawed back to beat Indiana, St.
John’s, and most recently LSU. But the reality is, this strategy of playing from behind is flirting with danger - and the SEC isn’t going to keep letting them off the hook.
Take the LSU game as the most extreme example of this team’s Jekyll and Hyde identity. The first 11 minutes?
One field goal. The first-half stat line?
Just 22 points on a cold 27% from the field, 17% from three, and 50% from the line. Then came the second-half explosion: 53 points on a blistering 65% shooting, including 73% from deep and nearly 80% from the stripe.
That’s a tale of two teams - and Kentucky needs to figure out how to be the second one from the opening tip.
Andrija Jelavic, who actually scored the Wildcats’ first two buckets in Baton Rouge, didn’t sugarcoat it when asked about the slow starts.
“I don’t even know,” Jelavic admitted. “Even Coach Pope is adjusting the lineup so we don’t have a slow start - but I don’t really have an answer to that, I’m not going to lie.”
That’s the thing. There’s no magic fix.
No schematic tweak or motivational speech that’s going to solve it overnight. But what’s clear is that the players feel it just as much as the fans do.
And they’re not ignoring it.
Jelavic emphasized that even when Kentucky was down big at LSU - 18 points early in the second half - there was never a sense of panic.
“In my mind, we were never losing that game,” he said. “At halftime, there was no nervousness, no anger.
It was just, ‘What are we doing wrong and how do we fix it?’ I could see it in the guys’ eyes - we knew we were going to come back.”
That confidence is admirable. It speaks to the team’s belief in each other and their ability to respond under pressure.
But it also highlights the issue: they’re too comfortable playing from behind. That mindset might work against a struggling LSU team whose head coach is firmly on the hot seat, but it won’t fly against the SEC’s elite.
Alabama already proved that.
With 14 regular season games left - 11 of them against teams ranked higher than LSU in the NET - the margin for error is shrinking. Kentucky can’t afford to be the team that wakes up at halftime.
“We need to fix that, definitely,” Jelavic said. “That’s our number one problem - we’re always trailing by 10 at halftime and then turning the game around. That shows character and it’s inspirational, but against real opponents, you need 40 minutes of good basketball to win.”
Otega Oweh didn’t wait for a question to bring it up - he led with it. As one of the veterans in the starting five, he knows the responsibility starts with the leaders.
“We’ve got to start from the jump,” Oweh said. “I think it starts with me and D.A.
(Denzel Aberdeen). We’ve got to get off to a better start offensively, and we’ve got to start sharper.
The intensity has to be what it was in the second half at LSU - from the beginning.”
So what’s going to make this time different? Kentucky’s heading to Knoxville next for a showdown with Tennessee, and they know the Vols aren’t LSU.
Tennessee boasts one of the nation’s stingiest defenses - No. 11 overall, No. 14 in field goal percentage allowed, and No. 25 in defending the three. You’re not going to shoot 8-of-11 from deep in Thompson-Boling Arena like you did in the second half in Baton Rouge.
Those first 20 minutes might decide everything.
“We’re going to start with that intensity from the jump,” Oweh said. “We’ve got our first road win, so we know what it takes.
We can’t get down early. We have to translate that same intensity we had in the second half to tomorrow.”
Jelavic echoed that mindset. The LSU game was a lesson - painful in parts, but valuable.
“We feel really confident that we’re going to give a good fight,” he said. “The team is in the right place, we feel really confident.
We’re not underestimating them, but we believe in ourselves. We believe in our players.”
And while they’re moving past the LSU game, they’re not forgetting the warning signs. Jelavic knows that kind of first half won’t cut it in Knoxville.
“In the first half, I was like, ‘These guys are not better than us, and we can do so much better,’” he said. “We had a poor performance, and that cannot happen against Tennessee.
I’m not underestimating LSU, but Tennessee is a much more dangerous opponent. We need to be in it from the first minute.
We know that.”
The message is clear: this Kentucky team has the talent, the toughness, and the belief to hang with anyone. But if they want to be more than just a second-half story, they’ll need to start writing better first chapters - starting Saturday in Knoxville.