Obviously, as fans we care most about wins and losses, as we should. And close losses often hurt more than blowouts. But margin of victory/defeat is a better predictor of future performance than the result is. In that respect, a close loss is much more like a close win than it is like a blowout loss.
For this reason we actually moved up a spot in KenPom after the Utah loss (someone can correct me - we’re 45 now and I think we were 46. In any event it’s close). It is too early to give up hope on this season and too earlier to give up on KY. We’re a couple bounces or whistles from 13-4 and a few more from 15-2. Prediction models know that, and that’s even assuming no improvement, which many of us (me included) are hopeful can still happen. We could still turn this into a decently successful season.
Just gotta hit some free throws…