This shocking stat will shed some light on Kentucky's defensive struggles

Heading into this 2025-26 Kentucky basketball season, the Wildcats were supposed to have one of the best defenses in all of college basketball. KenPom had the Wildcats defense ranked inside the top ten before the season started, but it has not lived up to the hype. Part of this is knowing that Jayden Quaintance has only played in four games, but there are other factors.

Currently, after the Wildcats ' devastating loss last night to the Georgia Bulldogs, the Kentucky defense is ranked 40th in KenPom. In Mark Pope’s tenure as a head coach, his defenses have been nowhere near as good as his offenses, and it looks like more defensive struggles are plaguing Pope’s team this year.

Last night in the loss to the Bulldogs, Georgia went 14-31 from three. On the season heading into this game the Bulldogs were shooting a little over 31% from deep, but they shot 45% in this game. This led to some Kentucky fans saying the Wildcats got unlucky as Georgia just couldn’t miss. This was not the case for Georgia. The reality is they had wide-open threes and were making them.

It felt to me Kentucky has had its fair share of struggles defending the three-point line in SEC play, so I did some digging. In SEC play, opponents of Kentucky are 106-304 from three. That comes out to about 35% for Kentucky's opponents in SEC play from deep.

In Kentucky’s five SEC losses, opponents are 55-140 from three, which comes out to about 39%. Teams are making threes at a high rate against Kentucky, and it is leading to losses.

Feb 17, 2026; Lexington, Kentucky, USA; Kentucky Wildcats guard Collin Chandler (5) drives to the basket against Georgia Bulldogs guard Jeremiah Wilkinson (5) and forward Kanon Catchings (6) during the second half at Rupp Arena at Central Bank Center. Mandatory Credit: Jordan Prather-Imagn Images | Jordan Prather-Imagn Images

The two main reasons we have seen opponents make threes are because the Wildcats are going under screens or they are trying to help down low and can’t get back to their man before the shot goes up. Kentucky has to understand that the scouting report against them is becoming “shoot the three ball, it will be open.” If Kentucky can’t start defending the three-point line, they will keep getting killed from deep. Even by teams like Georgia, who aren’t known as knockdown shooters.

The coaching staff is going to have to make some kind of adjustment because all it will take is one team to get hot in the NCAA Tournament to send the Wildcats home. It is safe to say that three-point defense will be worked on at practice before the Wildcats head to Auburn on Saturday.