Look, losing can do some weird things to you. Believe me, I’ve been there as a fan, especially of the Kentucky Wildcats and the Cincinnati Bengals.
Try being the head coach of Kentucky basketball, a program
you played for and won the national championship with in 1996, playing for Rick Pitino. Losing can do some weird things to you. Mark Pope talked about, after the loss to Arkansas last season, how there’s a grieving process that takes place after a loss.
This season, Kentucky lost to Louisville. Pope mentioned something that happened in the pregame that was “out of character.” What exactly happened?
“There’s nothing there. Literally, we flipped the switch early,” Pope said during his Thursday press conference. “We came into our 40-minute meeting. And normally, our 40 minutes, we try and keep it really calm and really relaxed, because we’re trying to manage our emotions, and it didn’t work. The guys were kinda like, ‘Nah,’ essentially, ‘We’re ready to flip the switch now.‘
“There was no…I wish there was more drama to make it more exciting, but there just wasn’t. But the management of your emotions is really important to what we do. So I’m sorry that that’s a dud. I wish, I wish I had more, more salacious material for you.”
That’s it? That’s what happened? Again, losing can do some weird things to you. Pope took the loss to Louisville hard. I saw it in his postgame press conference, which lasted just about five minutes. The way he took it clearly has trickled down to the players. Perhaps that explains what happened against Michigan State on Tuesday in the Champions Classic.
Now we know what happened before the Louisville game. What exactly was it? I still can’t wrap my head around it.
Here’s to hoping we can all move past this now and focus on the path ahead.
