If you’ve spent the last few months watching this Kentucky Basketball team and found yourself physically shaking your head at the screen, don’t worry, your head coach is doing the exact same thing.
Following
the rollercoaster stretch that saw the Cats bounce from a blowout loss in Nashville to a massive win in Fayetteville, Mark Pope offered a perfect, if slightly “dated,” self-assessment of his roster.
“I think we’re a SMH team right now,” Pope laughed. “Shake my head a little bit in a beautiful way. Like, I love every—is that too old? That was like 10 years ago. Sorry, I’m dated. Blame the Pope girls.”
The “SMH” stats
It is the only way to describe a season that feels like two different teams wearing the same jersey. Looking at the schedule, the inconsistency is staggering. This is a team that dropped 107 points on Valparaiso and looked like an offensive juggernaut, yet struggled to find the basket in a 67-64 slugfest against North Carolina.
We’ve seen the “Beautiful” side: massive wins over Indiana, No. 22 St. John’s, and Tennessee. We’ve seen the “Shake My Head” side: a 35-point shellacking at the hands of Gonzaga and a puzzling loss to Missouri.
The injury bug bites hard
A huge reason for the “SMH” nature of this season is availability. It’s hard to build a rhythm when the floor keeps falling out from under you. 3 cornerstones coming into the year have spent more time in training rooms than on the court:
- Jaland Lowe: The loss of Lowe’s playmaking has forced the Cats to reinvent their half-court offense on the fly. It has been an uneven experience.
- Jayden Quaintance: Getting him back to just see him go down again is a huge letdown.
- Kam Williams: Just as the team seemed to find a spark, Williams went down, stripping the rotation of one of its most important 2-way players.
Beautiful chaos
Despite the injuries and the head-scratching losses, Pope’s “SMH” comment wasn’t a complaint; it was an appreciation. There is a “beautiful” element to a team that refuses to fold despite having every excuse to do so.
Navigating a schedule that includes trips to Alabama, Tennessee, and Arkansas while missing three of your most impactful players is enough to make any coach shake their head. But as the Cats head into the final stretch of the regular season, that chaos is becoming their strength. They are unpredictable, they are battered, and they are making it up as they go.
It might be “dated” terminology, but Pope is right. This team is a total SMH experience, and right now, that’s the best we can get.
Drew Holbrook has been covering the Cats for over 10 years. In his free time, he enjoys downtime with his family and Premier League soccer. You can find him on X here. Micah 7:7. #UptheAlbion
