Mark Pope Bashes Kentucky’s ’Discombobulated’ Performance vs. Michigan State

The No. 12 Wildcats lost by 17 points to Michigan State in the Champions Classic.

Kentucky head coach Mark Pope did not mince words after the team lost to Michigan State. / Matt Stone/Courier Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

No. 12 Kentucky suffered a pretty brutal upset on Tuesday night, losing 83–66 to No. 17 Michigan State at the Champions Classic. The matchup was a chance for the Wildcats to show off their strength on a national stage, but they fell short.

Kentucky coach Mark Pope was feeling understandably defeated after the loss, and he didn’t mince words when speaking to media during his press conference.

“We’re far away from a team that we hope and aspire to be,” Pope said. “... We’re really disappointed and discouraged and just completely discombobulated right now. So, we just have work to do.”

Those are three pretty negative words to use about your team this early on in the season. Thankfully for Kentucky and Pope, the Wildcats are only five games into the year and have time to work on things before the end of the season.

Pope plans to see his team improve as the season progresses, including bettering his coaching. Pope wants the Wildcats to build a better team identity.

“It shouldn’t matter if we had built a great organization and a great culture, which I’ve clearly failed to do up until today. But, we won't fail this season. We have just failed up until today,” Pope said. “We will build an organization that won’t be disrupted every time someone steps in and steps out because we’ll have a team identity, not an individual identity. Until we get there, we're gonna really struggle. That's my job. ... I'm doing it poorly. But I won't do it poorly much longer.

Kentucky is now 3–2 on the season and will likely fall in the AP Top 25 rankings this upcoming week because of Tuesday’s loss. Michigan State, on the other hand, has a good chance of propelling up the rankings.

---

More College Basketball on Sports Illustrated

FREE NEWSLETTER. SI BTN Newsletter. Start off your day with SI:CYMI. dark

feed