For all of the key plays one can pick out from Kentucky's latest near-miss on the road, one theme remains constant in the Cats' losses this season--poor first half play.  I can only imagine how frustrating it is for a coach to see his team repeat the same mistake by not taking the fight to the opponent.  That feeds the confidence of teams like Arkansas that could be prone to doubts if the Wildcats would jump on them early and send the message that nobody wants this win more than they do.  Kentucky has given up an average of almost 38 points in the first halves of their SEC losses and only 25.5 in the wins.  Against an Arkansas team that can be defensively-challenged at times, UK freshmen Terrence Jones failed to show for the first half, leaving Kentucky with little inside presence and a propensity for settling for three's instead of attacking the rim and drawing fouls.  And Arkansas had twice as many offensive rebounds at halftime as Kentucky did.  My former football broadcast partner Jeff Van Note, a veteran of 18 NFL seasons, always would say "winning is a habit and so is losing" and if Kentucky can't find a way to kick that habit of letting close games get away, a promising season is going to slip into obscurity.

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