In our regular postgame feature, the Cats Illustrated staff offers its first impressions from No. 17 Kentucky's 94-78 loss to No. 1 Auburn on Saturday at Rupp Arena. Each staff member will share his three main takeaways from the game...

JEFF DRUMMOND:

1. I chalk this one up to Auburn being as good as advertised and Kentucky giving a disappointing performance on its home floor. Put those things together, and you get what you got today. Even on the Wildcats' best day, I'm not sure they could have won this one. Auburn is a legit national title contender.

2. How good were Bruce Pearl's Tigers? National player of the year candidate, Johni Broome, was held without a bucket until early in the second half and finished with only nine points on 3-for-9 shooting. It hardly mattered. Miles Kelly scored 30, Chad Baker-Mazara had 22, and Tahaad Pettiford tossed in 21. The Tigers just have more high-scoring options than the Cats.

3. Kentucky's ongoing inability to find 3-point shots on the offensive end of the floor loomed large again today. The Cats trailed by double figures almost the entire game but only took 17 shots from beyond the arc. Even worse, they made just four of those, finishing minus-24 on the day from long range. UK cannot compete in the NCAA Tournament with those kind of numbers.

JUSTIN ROWLAND:

1. Auburn completely dominated the game. Let's start with that. At times they toyed with the Cats. The way they switched, guarded the perimeter, took away fast break points, and executed a really good game plan was impressive. No question, they are the superior team, by a good margin, and they played like it.

2. Kentucky didn't play well. They played with a lot of frustration. Auburn probably gets some credit for that because of how well they guarded and shot the ball. But a bad game was made worse because Kentucky wasn't mentally right as the game went on. You could see the frustration written on some of the guys, including Oweh.

3. The Cats need better players. Staying really big picture here. Jaxson Robinson may have helped some, but the Cats were worst at every position on the court. Some days that might have been different, but when you saw the contrast today it was clear that Auburn simply has much better personnel. We saw the bar for reaching a championship level today and it's very impressive.

DAVID SISK:

1. Auburn are who we thought they were. It reminded me of Tuscaloosa two weeks ago. They rolled out to an 11-2 lead right out of the gates. Same here. The Tigers led for all but 16 seconds. On the other hand, Kentucky lost by 13 last Saturday at Alabama and gave up 96. They lost by 16 today and gave up 94. Unfortunately, even with the big wins, this current roster does not have the firepower to score with the best offensive teams. It is what it is at this point.

2. Kentucky’s scoring rate was only 5% higher than the turnover rate at one point if the second half. Auburn’s switches really made it tough on UK’s communication lines between the passer and cutter. The Tigers had 21 points off turnovers, and many of them came via the fast break. They won that battle 22-10.

3. Otega Oweh had as many fouls as points. Outside of Koby Brea the team was 0-10 from three. Take away Lamont Butler, Brea, Andrew Carr, and Amari Williams, and the rest of the team totaled nine points. Auburn won the bench points stat 29-5. The inside game was actually good, however. The starting frontcourt had 33 points and 16 rebounds. Auburn’s had just 9 points and 9 boards. Believe it or not, Kentucky had 15 more rebounds and eight more paint points.

TRAVIS GRAF:

1. Kentucky has to get bigger, stronger, and faster to deal with the elite teams in the country. That’s not going to happen this year, but Pope really needs to address defense and athleticism in the portal. That was a huge separator today.

2. Kentucky’s offense is built to shoot threes and they haven’t been shooting enough for my liking lately. Today was athletes running them off of the line and being able to defend, but it’s been a common theme as of late.

3. Speaking of defense, Kentucky has to be able to decide to guard someone at some point. High octane offenses carve them up with zero resistance, and while that’s an athleticism issue with this roster, it’s also a mentality and toughness issue with the approach to the game plan and culture. This team just refuses to sit down and guard anyone and the defensive game plans have been bad all year.