Takeaways from Kentucky's 96-88 loss on the road at Louisville

The Kentucky Wildcats hit the road to take on in-state rival #12 Louisville Cardinals on Tuesday night, in one of the most anticipated games in the rivalry in years, since both teams were ranked top 12. Kentucky came in with the 4th-best defense in the country, while Louisville came in with the 4th-best offense with two 100+ point games to start the season.

It didn't go as planned for much of the game. The Wildcats did in fact make it interesting in the final minutes, but the Wildcats did make it interesting, cutting it to four late in the game after being down by as much as 20. Credit to Kentucky's fight, but it wasn't enough to out-duel a team that was the aggressor for much of the game aside from spurts by Kentucky.

Let's take a look at some takeaways from Kentucky's brutal 95-88 loss to the Cards.

Kentucky's defense got punched in the mouth

The Wildcats looked like they were shocked late in the first half as Louisville's quick pace started to get to them on the defensive end. Kentucky really struggled to get back quick on defense, close out lethal shooters, and stay in front of star guard Mikel Brown Jr. Well, they got torched on that end of the floor. It was clear that especially in the first half, Kentucky's flow was being affected on the defensive end, too, whenever Lowe was on the bench. The Cards were aggressive all game long, and late in the half is when things began to go really wrong, as a 13-0 run was the first run to really open up their lead.

Kentucky's defense allowed not only 96 points, but it was that many points at will essentially. The Cards got plenty of easy looks from three, and a lot of it was due to them getting down the floor quickly on offense, or Kentucky leaving their lethal shooters open on the perimeter on help defense. Louisville was able to shoot 13-40 from deep on the night. Talk about volume, as Kentucky handed the Cards plenty of easy looks from deep. Kentucky allowed three double-digit Cardinal scorers, but those three were unstoppable. Mikel Brown Jr. had 29, Ryan Conwell with 24, and Sanada Fru with 10.

Louisville's aggressiveness bothered Kentucky's offense

Kentucky's top 4 defense wasn't the only side of the ball struggling on the night, it was the offense, too. Louisville has the 4th-best offense in the country and it showed against the Wildcats, but that offensive success translated to the defensive end, too. Kentucky had to shoot the ball well to win given Louisville's very good two-point defense, but their pressure made it very hard for Kentucky to find shots from deep that weren't contested, or even late in the shot clock in many cases. Kentucky shot 12-34 from three, 47 percent overall from the floor. Most of that success came late in the second half when they cut it to just four with 4:02 left. The Cats showed fight, but late missed free throws and lazy rebounds hurt them.

The Wildcats had 5 turnovers early in the game that the Cardinals really capitalized on, which was the first sign in the game that Louisville really was the aggressor. Lousville had 11 to steals to Kentucky's 4. The assist-turnover ratios were one of the biggest stories on Tuesday. Louisville had 20 assists to 6 turnovers, while Kentucky had 14 assists to 14 turnovers. Thanks to a late-game spark by Kam Williams, Kentucky had some life in the final minutes despite that rough stat, but it just wasn't enough.

The Wildcats deserve a lot of credit for the fight they showed, because they were down by as much as 20 in the second half, including a crucial four-minute stretch of no points in the first half turned out to be important in hindsight. Kentucky's defense especially has a lot of work to do after getting manhandled and out-physicaled for much of the night.