After a disappointing showing in the Champions Classic Tuesday night, in which Kentucky Basketball lost by 20 to Kansas, Mark Pope still has a lot of faith in his team.
The backlash to Tuesday night’s performance has been, well, rough, to say the least. The frustrations are understandable, and Pope realizes that.
“Well, I don’t think it’s possible to overreact to this loss,” Pope said about the game. “This is a tough loss for us. We did not play well. We did not play up to our standard. We did not deal
with disruption well. So on that front, this is a full-on reaction, and we have to get better.”
Of course, it is early November, and the game against Kansas was just the third game of the season. There is still a lot of basketball left to play, and Pope believes as time goes on, this team will get better.
“Listen, there was zero part of me that thought we were going to skate through the season without taking a couple hits,” Pope said. “We took a massive, really disappointing, not-living-up-to-our-standard hit tonight.”
Pope believes this team’s mentality of sticking together and continuing to learn will ultimately pay off, but questions remain about how long that will take and what kind of patience the fanbase will have. The Big Blue Nation is hungry for success and returning to the Kentucky standard.
Hopefully there were some good lessons learned from the loss that the players and coaches can build off of, and Pope pointed to that following the loss.
“It’s a brutal lesson, but this is a learning group. I thought that from the first day I had them. This is a group that will look internally, and they’ll learn and get better. I also have a staff that’s good and they’ll look internally and get better. …”
There is still a lot of basketball left to play this season, so we’ll see how things turn out for Mark Pope and the Cats.
Meanwhile, Kenny Brooks’ squad was dominant in a win at Historic Memorial Coliseum last night, defeating Evansville 98-30 behind a historic outing from freshman Emily McDonald.
McDonald knocked down 9 three-pointers in the win, breaking the previous record of 8 held by Rhyne Howard and Ajša Sivka, who tied the record earlier this week. McDonald finished with a game-high 27 points.
McDonald struggled with her outside shot in the first three games of the season, but found her footing last night, knocking down nine three-pointers on 12 attempts.
This group has shown they have multiple weapons that can be a difference-maker on any given night, and McDonald’s historic performance is proof of that.
Tweet of the Day
Legendary.
Headlines
McDonald sets three-point record – UK Athletics
What a night.
Kentucky offensive line named semifinalist for Joe Moore Award- UK Athletics
A nice recognition for the Kentucky O-Line.
The Power K will return in 2027 – KSR
Sounds like the Power K will be hitting the road next season.
Kentucky falls out of Top 25 And 1 – CBS Sports
Understandably so.
Kamario Taylor finalizing deal to return to Mississippi State – ESPN
That’s big for Mississippi State.
SEC proposes fines for exceeding rev-share cap – Yahoo Sports
What do you think about this proposal?
Jacob Misiorowski, Cam Schlittler Win AL, NL Cy Young – Bleacher Report
No major surprises here.
Dan Lanning and Kyle Whittingham continue back-and-forth verbal jabs – Yahoo
Saturday’s game could get interesting.
Do the CFP rankings show impending doom for 24-team playoff? – SI
Time will tell.
Deal to make Phillip Rivers head coach at NC State expected to be finalized tomorrow – ESPN
How many people think this will go well?
UFC fighters got into a brawl in a hotel lobby – Bleacher Report
This is a wild scene.
