Kentucky gets a much-needed therapy session in a blowout win over NC Central

The Wildcats played much cleaner on Tuesday night in Rupp Arena.

Dec 9, 2025; Lexington, Kentucky, USA; Kentucky Wildcats head coach Mark Pope talks to his players from the sideline during the first half against the North Carolina Central Eagles at Rupp Arena at Central Bank Center. Mandatory Credit: Jordan Prather-Imagn Images | Jordan Prather-Imagn Images

Kentucky basketball entered Tuesday night's home contest against the NC Central Eagles, a game that the Wildcats really desperately needed, as they found themselves in a similar spot again like after the Michigan State loss, where they needed to look good after a very rough week, dropping two more quality non-conference games this time. Kentucky's offense has looked stagnant, and their effort was very questionable in their blowout loss to Gonzaga. They followed that up by playing much cleaner and smoother against NC Central on Tuesday. As for defense, it was a slow start before a huge run to close the first half, but it remained inconsistent from then on as far as that end goes.

The Wildcats left Rupp Arena with a 103-67 win after a great offensive performance and are now 6-4 on the season, all of their wins coming against low-quality opponents, with all of them ranked as quad 4 wins. Against quad 1, it has been a major struggle for the Wildcats, but they certainly can use their performance from Tuesday as fuel and confidence moving forward with the tough road ahead, because they'll need it. Let's take a look at a couple of takeaways from the feel-good win.

Kentucky showed inconsistent defensive effort

Dec 9, 2025; Lexington, Kentucky, USA; Kentucky Wildcats head coach Mark Pope talks with forward Brandon Garrison (10) during the first half against the North Carolina Central Eagles at Rupp Arena at Central Bank Center. Mandatory Credit: Jordan Prather-Imagn Images | Jordan Prather-Imagn Images

Overall, it was a good defensive performance, but it was an inconsistent one. It was in question early on defense, with some effort lapses giving NC Central some easy buckets. They turned that around quick with an 18-2 run to close out the fist half that helped open a lead, but their efforts remained inconsistent on that end with a chunk of lapses here and there throughout. When the effort was there, you could tell, as the Wildcats were able to easily force turnovers, forcing 13 turnovers and generating 27 points off them. They also had a couple of stretches with forced scoring droughts, too, which helped. As for their offense, it was clicking the entire game. With as bad of a night it was in Nashville, it was still really good to see them playing hard overall. It goes back to the quality of the opponent, but the Wildcats moved the ball much, much better, and they also got up and down the floor better on offense, two areas that they have lacked effort in, although defense was still inconsistent there. It's crazy to have effort as a headline, but that's where we're at right now with this team. If there effort was there for the complete game on defense, the win would've been by a much bigger margin.

The effort is under a microscope with this team right now, but as we saw on Tuesday night, it has to be more consistent. Aside from that, Kentucky ran a much smoother offensive product than they have lately, though, which gets us to our next takeaway.

Kentucky's offense was much, much smoother

Dec 9, 2025; Lexington, Kentucky, USA; Kentucky Wildcats guard Collin Chandler (5) reacts with forward Trent Noah (9) during the first half against the North Carolina Central Eagles at Rupp Arena at Central Bank Center. Mandatory Credit: Jordan Prather-Imagn Images | Jordan Prather-Imagn Images

The offense has been one of the more criticized areas with this Kentucky team, with many noticing a lack of flow, including the players not seeming to know what to do at times, with minimal movement off the ball to help spread the offense. Well, the quality of the opponent probably did play a factor, but the product on offense was much better. Guys were sharing the ball and moving, something that has been missing badly in their games against top 25 opponents. Kentucky finished with 27 assists on the night to just 9 turnovers, as well as shooting 61 percent from the field and 12-29 from three. Oh, and Otega Oweh looked more like his old self, too, putting up 21 points on the night, 12 in the first half. Overall, It starts with improving their effort and confidence before anything else can be fixed, ultimately. Maybe that is the confidence-booster they need right now, but it's up the players to use the result the right way.

It's hard for fans to trust any result against a 300-plus-ranked team after how they have performed against quality opponents, and that's totally understandable. Because as we've learned over the last few weeks, it really is hard to trust these types of performances. Maybe this team can finally use this game as fuel and finally get some confidence in them, but that remains to be seen until their next quality opponent, which will be an unranked Indiana team who is just outside of the top 25 rankings.

We'll find out soon enough, because we'll really get to see if this team is making any progress as they host Indiana on Saturday, before heading to Atlanta the following Saturday to face Mark Pope's former coach, Rick Pitino, and the #22 St. John's Red Storm in a matchup that's already enough of a highly-anticipated matchup.