CRAWFORD | Kentucky's problems are evident. Whether Pope has answers is not | Sports

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) – For all of the notes Kentucky coach Mark Pope tried to sound after his team’s 94-59 blowout loss to Gonzaga Friday night – and there is no right note after a loss that lopsided – one he did not hit was “coach with an answer.”

He did not sound like he had one. Not for the 10-of-47 three-point shooting over the past two games, not for the ineffective interior play, not for the tentativeness against a tougher team.

Diagnoses, the former med student had. Cures were not offered. At least, we can say, they've caught it early.

Pope said Kentucky tried to be more physical Friday night, but its mentality wasn’t right.

“I felt like we were really physical and we were really tentative, and that's something we’ve got to figure out,” he said. “Almost like we got ourselves in a space where we were a little paralyzed offensively. I don't have a lot more than that right now. I felt like we struggled to get downhill, struggled to turn the corner, struggled to be on our toes on the offensive end. It was surprising. We’ll figure on that.”

Louisville | Kentucky | Indiana | Eric Crawford

It wasn’t surprising to the many blue-clad fans who had made the trek to Nashville to support Kentucky’s uphill climb, and wound up booing their team and coach to an extent many of us who have followed the program for a long time have never heard.

Kentucky has lost games, yes. It hasn’t lost its fans. Not like that.

“It is disappointing, because we care about BBN and the people that come and support us, because they come in every night,” Collin Chandler said. “So, we're going to do a better job at showing up for them and playing for them.”

The disapproval wasn’t limited to the arena. DeMarcus Cousins, former Wildcat, took to the social media platform X and said, “Can’t lie. This UK team has no heart! This is hard to watch. Smh.”

His was far from the only head shaking.

“I have no issue with what he said, in the sense of, like, if you're watching that game, you feel like, starting with the coach, this this product is completely unacceptable. Unacceptable,” Pope said. “So, I think that, you know, as a former player here, I'm (ticked) at the coach too, and that's just all deserved. There's nothing inappropriate about what he said at all.”

I’m sure it’s not the case, but if you feel a certain resigned capitulation in some of those remarks, I can’t argue with you. But I’ll also say this, having covered some ugly losses and ugly seasons fairly recently. Following a 35-point blowout loss is no time to come out with a spirited defense.

This hasn’t happened in a while at Kentucky. It was, according to UK stat guru Corey Price, Kentucky’s worst loss as a ranked team since a 39-point loss to CCNY as the No. 3-ranked team in 1950, (a game played in the midst of a college basketball point-shaving scandal that would envelop both schools).

“We've kind of diminished a little bit into a bad spot right now, and we have to dig ourselves out of it, and it's going to be an internal group thing,” Pope said. “And we feel the responsibility we have to this university and this fan base, and that all the boos that we heard tonight were incredibly well-deserved, mostly for me, and we have to fix it.”

Asked what messages he would have for his team after the game by UK Network host Tom Leach, Pope said that they weren’t fit for radio broadcast.

Shouldn’t have stopped him. Many would say the game wasn’t either.

But here’s also something nobody wants to hear in a time like that. Things are never as good as they seem – and Kentucky wasn’t in the midst of all the preseason hype – but they’re usually not as bad as they seem either. Gonzaga, coming off a 40-point loss to Michigan, was primed to dish out what they had just received.

Kentucky could’ve played well in this game and lost by 20. Instead it played poorly and lost by more. That’s no consolation, just that Kentucky walked into an ambush, and one most people saw coming clearly.

Still, Kentucky’s inability to shoot from the perimeter, its lack of answers defensively, these are things that may or may not be fixable. Kentucky got Jalen Lowe back on Friday, but he wasn’t himself, didn’t make a shot and scored only one point. He’ll be better. But how much better? Enough to hit the gas on an offense that has stalled? And defensively, he’s never been a stopper.

Asked if “hero ball,” guys trying to do too much or take ill-advised shots, was a problem, Pope said he thought not.

“I didn't feel that about tonight,” he said. “I just felt like more us indecisive. It's all coming from me. Like, that's on me.”

Indecision may or may not be Kentucky’s problem, as the joke goes.

But there is a problem. That much is decided. Whether Pope has a solution is very much up in the air.