LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) – Welcome to The Aftermath.
After Kentucky and Louisville face off, there has to be aftermath. This year, we have the most perplexing pregame mystery in the KFC Yum! Center since Ty-Laur Johnson’s missing tights.
Something mysterious. Something undisclosed.
Something that, according to Kentucky coach Mark Pope, happened before the game.
We just don’t know what it was. Not yet.
“I’m not ready to tell the story,” Pope said Thursday, a full two days removed from Kentucky’s 96-88 loss at Louisville.
Not ready? I don't have a job, I have no place to go, you're not in the mood -- well you get in the mood!
No, wait. That was a line from Seinfeld. Had to get it out of my system. This is what I meant to write.
Not ready? This is Kentucky basketball. You have to talk about it all the time. Talk about it when you win. Talk about it when you lose. Talk about it between bites of your pulled-pork sandwich. Talk about it when you beat Louisville by 30. And especially — especially — when you lose to Louisville for the first time in five years while trailing by 20 and getting outplayed in every meaningful category.
But Pope wasn’t giving up the goods.
He gave us a word, though. A favorite word. He used it 11 times, by my count.
Distracted.
Kentucky, he said, was distracted. Distracted in effort. Distracted in execution. Distracted in body language. Distracted in transition defense. Distracted like a toddler in a butterfly sanctuary. Distracted in ways Pope couldn’t quite explain, because, again, he’s not ready to talk about it.
Which is perfectly fine if you’re an accountant. Or a dentist. Or a man recovering from alien abduction.
But if you’re the head coach of Kentucky basketball? After the rivalry loss to Louisville?
We’ll see. Because what happens now is that the rest of us have to talk about nothing else until we finally find out what went on.
I’m not taking a shot at Pope here. I like Pope. I admire Pope. I’ve got no problem with Pope. He’s a brilliant guy and a very good coach. I don’t know what I think of him as a mystery novelist.
Instead of talking about it Thursday, he talked all around it.
He spoke of internal validation. Of focusing one’s heart and faith space. Of channeling intention. He used the phrase “intentional emotion” like it was an offensive scheme.
He quoted five stages of grief. He suggested his players put down their phones. He likened himself to a detox patient. He graded body language. And he talked, in all sincerity, about the perils of carrying “emotional weight.”
God knows, I can vouch for that.
But by the end of his talk, it wasn’t clear whether Kentucky lost a basketball game or just went through a breakup.
Somewhere in that emotional avalanche — maybe just past the “disappointed body language” or the “default defensive habits” — there was a hint. A small crack in the cryptic.
Pope called it “our pregame experience at Louisville.”
He didn’t say what happened. Just that it was “out of character” for his team. And that he’d explain it “at some point.”
Sounds like a new Hulu series. “Only Murmurs in the Building.”
So what was it?
A hostile tunnel walk? A gremlin in the Gatorade? Somebody slip Adele into the pregame playlist?
Pope isn’t saying. Maybe he never will.
Maybe Kentucky’s effort was off. But watching the game at floor level, it looked to me like Louisville was getting to its spots, had a bit better command of what it wanted to do and who it wanted to be, and in general outplayed Kentucky.
To his credit, Pope owned it.
He didn’t blame the refs. He didn’t cite travel fatigue. He didn’t throw players under the bus. But he also didn’t quite explain the performance. Not in basketball terms, anyway.
Instead, he wrapped it in a Hallmark card.
“Every loss is haunting,” he said. “It sits in your gut. Makes you want to vomit in your mouth.”
Well. OK, maybe not Hallmark
Another would be: Louisville came ready. Kentucky didn’t. End of mystery.
But whenever Pope ever does tell that story, we’ll be here.
Popcorn at the ready.
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