Mark Pope on Kentucky's improved competitive spirit: "It takes all of us"

Kentucky basketball has gotten bashed lately for their lack of effort and even heart, as many criticized the way they were dismanted against Gonzaga in Nashville. Then, there were lapses of effort against NC Central, so much so that Pope benched Brandon Garrison for the entire second half. They sure responded well to all of the criticism, but most importantly the messages Mark Pope has been sending them: If you're not going to play with effort, you're not going to play. For the first time this season, the Wildcats were all smiles against a quality opponent.

The Wildcats responded with a 72-60 win over Indiana in Rupp Arena on Saturday. It was a game that was a rock fight, with the first half being a really hard one to watch as the physicality really took over the game and caused bad offensive play. Kentucky could've just folded when Indiana's 7-0 run towards the end of the half helped put Kentucky down by seven at halftime. But, Kentucky chose to have fight, because Big Blue Nation has been waiting on them to respond and fight for the school, the program, and the fans they play for. A 19-4 run over an eight minute span in the second half helped Kentucky pull away for the first quality win of the season, now 1-4 against power four teams.

Mo Dioubate's return led to him coming up big on the boards on his birthday, Jaland Lowe played an extended role and clearly is a difference-maker for the offense, and Brandon Garrison's effort finally translated to the games. There was plenty of great stories, and they all boil down to the team's competitiveness. Mark Pope was proud of the team's competitiveness, and he knows it's all about their growth.

"It takes all of us," Pope said following the win over Indiana. "The nice thing about a season is that every day we tell a defining story about what a team is. So in a day, we say this team is this or this team is that. And that is the fans job and thats media’s job, right? Is to make an evaluation of the team. But as the team in the inner circle, we are work in progress, we know that. We know where we were yesterday but that does not mean that we are going to be that today. In fact, if we were the same thing we were yesterday, then what are we doing with the season, right? We are excited to grow these guys, we have to grow and we have to get a lot better, and we will. ...We talked about it all week and one of the things that we have been disappointed in is in high-level games we have been very poor in our response to adversity. We just haven’t rallied around each other. We’ve had some go away instead of dig in and I thought that was the opposite tonight. We are going to need to continue to practice that. It’s actually a practice skill and we are going to need to continue to talk about it and make it a real thing so that when it happens, it’s not a surprise and we know how we are going to react."

Kentucky certainly had guys rally when they needed it on Saturday, especially with it being such a must-win game. Now, they'll look to use that mindset and the result of it as momentum as non-conference play wraps soon with just two games until SEC play.