Mark Pope says fatigue cost Kentucky big in loss to Florida

Kentucky gave up some big, costly runs to Florida in the loss on Saturday.

Mar 7, 2026; Lexington, Kentucky, USA; Kentucky Wildcats head coach Mark Pope talks to his players from the sideline during the first half against the Florida Gators at Rupp Arena at Central Bank Center. Mandatory Credit: Jordan Prather-Imagn Images | Jordan Prather-Imagn Images

The score doesn't really do any justice as to how ugly of a game it was for Kentucky against Florida. They lost 84-77, but it wasn't always that pretty. Kentucky required a late comeback, which was unsuccessful, but thanks to digging themselves a big hole, they kind of had to.

Florida started the game out going up 11-0. Immediately, Kentucky was on their heels, forced to respond. The response was good from the Wildcats, bringing it back within two, but the Gators responded with another run of their own to push their lead back up to as much as 18 in the first half. That's the big hole Kentucky had to attempt to dig back out of. After the loss, Mark Pope was asked what went wrong in two massive runs that forced them to play catch-up for the rest of the game.

"We've done that to start games, where we've been a little bit sticky and a little paralyzed," Pope said on Saturday. "Their bigs really want to come back to the baseline, we did a poor job on both of those defensive possessions and just didn't have any pace on the offensive end, so that was the start of the game. Then, the run later in the half was really tough for us. ...We make poor decisions when we're tired on the floor. We just do. We're trying to figure out how to fix it. That's been a problem for us the last couple of games."

Mar 7, 2026; Lexington, Kentucky, USA; Kentucky Wildcats forward Mouhamed Dioubate (23) claps from the bench against the Florida Gators at Rupp Arena at Central Bank Center. Mandatory Credit: Jordan Prather-Imagn Images | Jordan Prather-Imagn Images

In the first half, it was transition points that really killed Kentucky. The Gators were able to defend and slow down Kentucky's offense while also getting out and running in transition. Fatigue ties into that, but let Mark Pope tell you what went wrong there in the abysmal first half.

"We give up 18 or 19 points in the first half in transition. There's really two things that you have to do with Florida: You have to rebound the ball and you have to guard in transition. We did a poor job with that," Pope said. "Part of it was turnovers, even though the turnover number in the first half wasn't crazy, it was six. But, part of it was poor shot selection at the rim, which is what they do. And as much as we tried to communicate that and teach that to our team, I did a poor job of getting that messaging across because we continued to do it."

Kentucky's lack of urgency and turnovers were a common theme in losses throughout the regular season, along with going down early, and now fatigue is becoming a common excuse. They have a lot to clean up before one game can end it all in the postseason and hearing about fatigue is not what fans want to hear ahead of an important few weeks.