Last season, it was three losses to Alabama, more than anything else, that set the stage for Mark Pope‘s Year 2 in Lexington.
The Wildcats suffered progressively worse losses to the Tide last season: 102-97 in Lexington, 96-83 in Tuscaloosa, and then 99-70 at the SEC Tournament in Nashville.
Last season, UK set a new single-season record for made 3-pointers with 341, and for the first time in school history, had six players average double figures in scoring. Its 3,040 total points scored ranks seventh in school history and the Cats also recorded 607 assists, good enough for ninth on the school’s single-season list. Kentucky also ranked seventh nationally in scoring, averaging 84.4 points per game.
But those losses, for all the success in his first year, which included an NCAA-record-tying eight wins over top 15 teams and Kentucky’s first Sweet 16 appearance since 2019, served as the impetus for Pope’s team to get more physical, more athletic, and better defensively.
But on Saturday in Tuscaloosa, the result was the same as the Tide led by as many as 21 and threatened to run the Cats right out of Coleman Coliseum in an 89-74 win, which cemented Alabama’s first-ever 4-game win streak over Kentucky.
Perhaps the most painful part of the loss for fans is that head coach and would-be UK target Nate Oats has Alabama playing the way fans thought Kentucky would play when Pope was hired as the Tide connected on 15 of 38 3-pointers.
The Wildcats, meanwhile, made just 4 of 19 (21%) from beyond the arc while managing just nine assists on the day as the offense continues to struggle.
You can miss on your portal evaluations or you can overpay for players, but you can’t do both and there’s no longer any denying that this roster is poorly constructed, especially for a whopping reported $22 million. During the offseason, I was told Kentucky was like Noah’s Arc, they had two of everything. I’m not even sure they have two of anything.
With league play getting underway, Saturday was supposed to be a new start as Kentucky was finally at full strength for the first time this season. Instead, it was same old, same old as UK is in the midst of a full blown identity crisis.
It felt like Kentucky found something in the second half of its CBS Sports Classic win over St. John’s, in which they outscored the Red Storm 53-34. But it doesn’t mean anything if the team is not willing to embrace that identity as a defensive, rebounding and effort team.
To make matters worse, the lineup that shined against the Johnnies didn’t see the floor together at Alabama. Pope may have failed in putting a competent roster together but it’s also hard to argue he hasn’t mismanaged it.
Last season, the whole was more than the sum of its parts and every player made others better. This season, I’m not sure anyone does. Last season, the pride was evident. This season, effort has been an issue.
Based on his body of work at BYU and Kentucky, I never thought I would see a Pope offense look this inept, and maybe even more surprisingly, this unentertaining.There’s no ball or player movement in the halfcourt. The ball sticks to anything it touches. The ball is pounded into the floor. And there is a shocking lack of perimeter shooting on the floor at all times. All of this is exacerbated by the fact that Pope steadfastly refuses to start his five best players or even play them together.
At the midway point of the regular season, it’s clear Pope zigged when he should have zagged after last season, sacrificing far too much skill in the name of defense. To a certain degree, you have to be who you are as a coach and recruit guys to play your style.
This team feels like it’s left in no-man’s land with no identity and no direction whatsoever and instead of pulling together, they pull apart. And far too often this season, before, during, and after games, Pope has had the look of a man with no answers.
Last summer, Pope likened this team to a Ferrari that he couldn’t wait to take for a spin. As they enter SEC play, this UK team is still stuck in park.
Every season in the portal era, there are teams that pay an exorbitant amount of money for a collection of talent instead of building an actual team that goes on to massively underachieve.
And right now, Kentucky looks like a prime suspect.