Poor Kentucky. As they watch their tournament hopes swirl down the drain--or, more accurately, clang helplessly off the iron--they’ll naturally start wondering how things went so wrong.
Kentucky’s Shooting Woes Are, To Say The Least, Unexpected
↵They won’t have to wonder for very long, because the obvious answer is that their long-range shooting was absolutely disastrous. When DeAndre Liggins hit a three-pointer with 3:29 left, it was Kentucky’s first made three-pointer of the evening. It was also their 21st attempt.
↵That’s clearly an aberration; Basketball Prospectus’ Kevin Pelton tried to figure out just how unlikely it is and came up with some surprising results:
↵↵I just ran some #s that said the odds of these UK players shooting 0-of-19 from 3 are 1 in about 2,000,000.
↵↵Pelton would quickly revise that number down to “only” 1 in about 5,400, which makes sense. Even if Kentucky were 50% three-point shooters (they’re certainly not), the odds of missing 19 in a row would be barely over 500,000 to 1. But look, the point is that missing every long-range shot for 37 minutes is hardly something Kentucky could have A) expected, B) game-planned around, even at halftime, or C) survived. And so they didn’t, and they’re going back to Lexington empty-handed.
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