Armour: Perfect Kentucky not invincible, after all

LOUISVILLE — The question of the NCAA tournament has been answered: Yes, Kentucky is beatable, and Cincinnati just showed everybody how.

Push the Wildcats around. Beat them up. Make it ugly. Never back down.

Kentucky withstood the challenge this time, but this was against Cincinnati, an undersized and lesser-skilled team that hurt itself far more than the Wildcats did.

Put this same game plan in the hands of an Arizona or Wisconsin, especially in an arena that isn't Rupp West, and Kentucky is no longer guaranteed of becoming the first team to go unbeaten since Indiana in 1976.

BOX SCORE: Kentucky 64, Cincinnati 51

"Every guy that walked into that locker room expected to beat Kentucky, and that's not just talk, that's the truth," interim Cincinnati coach Larry Davis said. "Had we finished a little better down the stretch with some point-blank shots that we had, had we made some free throws, we'd have made it very, very interesting."

There is little question Kentucky is one of the best teams college basketball has ever seen. You don't start the season with 36 consecutive wins, a record for a Division I men's team, without being special. But the Wildcats have shown occasional flashes of vulnerability throughout the season, and they are not playing their best basketball at the most critical time of the year.

Now that might sound odd when the final score Saturday was Kentucky 64, Cincinnati 51. But the Bearcats lost this game as much as Kentucky won it, shooting a miserable 24% in the second half.

On one possession alone, the Bearcats bricked a pair of free throws and missed not one, not two, but three shots after getting the offensive rebound. Kentucky can't count on similar butterfingers next weekend or, if the Wildcats advance, in the Final Four.

Kentucky has four players 6-10 or taller on its roster, compared with Cincinnati's one. Yet the Bearcats outrebounded the Wildcats 45-38, including a 21-12 edge on the offensive glass.

The Wildcats didn't shoot particularly well, either, finishing at 37%. Aaron Harrison finally found his groove, going 5-for-11 for 13 points, including a monster three after the Bearcats had pulled within 39-34 with 14 minutes left.

But his brother, Andrew, and Devin Booker might as well have their faces on milk cartons for as much as they've contributed to the offense. Andrew Harrison had five points on 2-for-7 shooting, and Booker is 4-for-15 in Kentucky's two tournament games.

"What they learned today is we don't have to shoot the ball well, and we can still survive," Kentucky coach John Calipari said. "You just want them going into every game saying, `It doesn't matter what happens. We can still win.' And that's the mentality I want them in."

It's a good lesson to learn, no question. But Kentucky also needs to realize there are some other very good teams out there, and it won't always be able to impose its will.

If a better team can duplicate what Cincinnati did, and has the depth and energy to keep it up for 40 minutes, the Wildcats will find themselves in a fight they might not be able to win.

"I think they're a very beatable team. You just can't give them anything easy," Cincinnati's Jermaine Sanders said. "They feed off of transition buckets and easy layups and things like that. So you just can't give them anything easy. Make it tough for their big guys to score around the rim."

Not that the Wildcats are buying that.

"Just add it on to the list of things," Willie Cauley-Stein said when asked if Cincinnati's game plan could be a blueprint for other teams. "We just seem to overcome everything."

Assuming that will continue to be the case is a dangerous thing, however.

Though Calipari called Saturday's victory "a good win," he has been sounding the alarm all week about his young players needing to realize perfection won't come on their terms. If there is one certainty in the NCAA tournament, it's that nothing is a given.

Except this: Cincinnati showed there's a way to beat Kentucky, and everyone who's left has taken note.

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