Early on, Iowa State (29-7) looked like a team without two-way star Joshua Jefferson (ankle), sluggish offensively and a little disoriented at the other end. Like a band trying to play the song after naming someone else lead guitar.
“I credit these guys, they really paced our offense and made sure early that we didn’t score too many points and we didn’t make too many shots,” Iowa State coach T.J. Otzelberger said, tongue planted firmly in cheek.
Kentucky, meanwhile, appeared in the mood early to make the tough ones necessary to win. Denzel Aberdeen (20 points) led the way, Collin Chandler trailing behind him with two corner 3s.
But the Cyclones didn’t need Jefferson to sustain their pressure. Intensity underpins their identity. The erratic basketball forced out of the Wildcats — as has been the case far too often this season — is theirs.
“Iowa State was terrific,” Pope said. “They exert a ton of pressure. They’re very disruptive, and certainly they were very disruptive with us.”
Iowa State’s intensity turned the game around
The further the game drifted away from Kentucky, the more ragged its performance became.
The early flow of turnovers did not stop — Kentucky finished with an eye-watering 20 for the game, the Wildcats’ 30.8% turnover rate basically double their season average. Just as damaging, as the game slipped away and a frustrating season wound down, there were aimless, unimaginative offensive possessions marked by a lack of ball movement and a perceptible loss of faith in the wider plan.
The tighter Iowa State squeezed, the more Kentucky came apart, first with sloppy offense and then with deconstructed defense. Otzelberger’s team shot 19 of 30 in the second half, averaging an even 1.5 points per possession after the break.
Where the Wildcats’ early punches seemed to harden undermanned Iowa State, the Cyclones’ response put Kentucky on its heels. Pope’s team never really got back on the front foot.
“We got a little disoriented the last eight or 10 minutes of the first half, and that’s what Iowa State does,” Pope said. “Their defense ratcheted up in the second half, and we had a tough time finding baskets, and more importantly, we had a tough time getting a stop.”
Otega Oweh finished with 18 points but did too much of his scoring once Iowa State led by double digits for his performance to really influence the game. Disparities in fouls and free throws told the story of which team was more aggressive. The sharper Iowa State became, the deeper that cut into whatever confidence and belief Kentucky had left.
Kentucky must find consistency, identity Iowa State enjoys
This was not entirely an indictment of the Wildcats. Iowa State served notice yet again that so long as Otzelberger walks their sideline — All-Americans be damned — the Cyclones are going to deliver these kinds of ruthless, relentless performances.
That’s what Kentucky expects, annually. And at least to a reasonable extent, it has the right to. At times, these Wildcats flirted with delivering something closer to it.
This was the team that swept Tennessee. That beat St. John’s and won at Arkansas. It was also the team that lost at home to Missouri, lost at Auburn and in the aggregate looked like its level would eventually even out roughly where it did.
The Wildcats were competent at many things but excellent at precious few. Per Bart Torvik, they were 9-12 against top-50 competition this season, with pedestrian adjusted offensive and defensive efficiency numbers. That’s about right for a 22-win team that doesn’t get out of the first weekend.
Time might prove Pope able to build the same sort of success in Lexington. But it’s possible to ask questions of why this season never really achieved lift-off, without that turning into a scathing and unanswerable indictment of his stewardship of his alma mater.
For example, whatever Iowa State’s concerns by comparison, Pope’s injury complaints aren’t entirely unfair.
Jayden Quaintance only appeared in four games this season. For Jaland Lowe, so good at Pitt in 2025, that number stopped at nine in 2026.
Lowe scored 13 points in Kentucky’s best win of the season, the 12-point victory over St. John’s in late December. But neither Lowe nor Quaintance has appeared in a game since Jan. 10.
“We didn’t get to play the way we planned to,” Pope said. “We didn’t get to play with the personnel we planned to. All of that changed, and I think our guys raised up and they made the very, very best of a complicated, difficult situation.”
