John Calipari focusing on 'fixable' issues to right Kentucky in losing streak

Wildcats will get chance to fix some of their defensive struggles against Georgia on Tuesday night

By Kyle Boone

Jan 31, 2017 at 3:14 pm ET • 2 min read

Kentucky is on its first losing streak since January 2016 after back-to-back losses to unranked Tennessee and No. 3 Kansas. As CBS Sports' Gary Parrish noted this weekend, the Wildcats will have a hard time securing a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament after dropping to 3-4 against teams in the KenPom top-50. The rest of SEC play doesn't allow for many resume-boosting opportunities.

The glaring issue for the Wildcats appears to be defense. Allowing 91.8 points per 100 possessions is good for 12th among all NCAA teams -- but it's still not good enough for coach John Calipari.

"The issue becomes whoever is guarding the ball, you've got to get up in the guy. You've got to disrupt them," Calipari said via the Courier-Journal. "We're just trying to figure out, again, as coaches, we're just looking at it and saying, 'What else, how can we help these kids?'"

It's not been an awful defense by any stretch. Most coaches would kill for a defense that ranks better than 339 other NCAA teams in terms of defensive efficiency. Yet there's no denying that some of those issues have been what has hurt Kentucky and could be its weakness in March.

UCLA stormed into Rupp Arena and scored 97 in the Wildcats' first loss of the season. Kentucky beat North Carolina, but the Tar Heels still scored 100 points. And Kansas, which was short a front-court player in Carlton Bragg Jr., still shot 50 percent while gathering up 10 offensive rebounds.

Even with the four losses, Kentucky is far from calling it a lost season. Jerry Palm projects the Wildcats as a 3-seed in the Big Dance. And let's be honest, there's a short line of teams that would volunteer to play a team this talented in the postseason. It's a long process to get a team as young as Kentucky into top shape and prepared to play at an elite level. Calipari knows it, too. And he's still optimistic the ship can be righted.

"All this stuff is fixable," he said. "I've got a terrific team. Still got the same guys that if we had won two games [last week] we'd have had votes for No. 1, and I would've said 'We're not No. 1 because we still have these issues.' We practiced [Sunday]. We're gonna get after it a bit [Monday] and see what happens."

Kentucky (17-4) takes on Georgia (13-8) on Tuesday evening in Rupp Arena, where the Wildcats are looking to avoid a three-game losing skid for the first time since 2009.