Mark Pope shared the harsh truth about Kentucky's current lack of competitiveness

Kentucky basketball got a blowout win over NC Central on Tuesday night in Rupp Arena, but it was their offense that actually made it a blowout, because the defense was not on-par to the competition level of the team they were facing, to be honest. The Wildcats have struggled with effort and competitiveness in each of their four losses against quality teams this season.

They needed a good showing effort-wise after the terrible effort put on display in their 35-point loss to Gonzaga. The offense was there, but otherwise, the effort was very inconsistent, especially defensively. So much so, Mark Pope got onto Brandon Garrison for having a lazy defensive effort on one play, before sitting Garrison for the remainder of the game at the 8:06 mark of the first half. Not only that, but both Jaland Lowe and Kam Williams sat out for the entire first half. It wasn't injury related, it was about sending a message, which likely stemmed from something effort related in practice.

Pope's overall point is that he lapses in effort is inexcusable. He knows that it hasn't translated from practices into games, but says they're gonna find it and 'die trying,' but mostly, he wants to see this team bring better effort in more competitive games.

“We just have a standard that we have to live up to and we’re not," Pope said in response to sending messages to his players about effort. "We don't really know what it means to compete yet, which is terrifying, but we will learn. ...It hasn't translated yet, but it will. It will. We're going to be so proud of this team. We're not yet, but we will be. And that competitive spirit, man, I've done a poor job. We're gonna find it, but we're gonna die trying, and so it's there. We just gotta get it, and we gotta find a way to do it, and we gotta get guys outside of themselves. We gotta get guys living and dying for this team and this gym with this fan base and in a competitive game."

That tireless effort from Pope and his squad has not translated into games, as he has talked about, but it seems like they're still searching for why. Pope looked very frustrated after the game in the press conference, and rightfully so, as the competitiveness was lacking in big chunks of the game, something that shouldn't happen, ever, but especially against a 350th-ranked team, one that should've been handled easier, not relying on the offense as much.

It's clear at this point that competitiveness is the team's biggest issue. Aside from whatever you want to say about questioning if the pieces fit on this team, it starts and ends with effort, and this Kentucky team is still searching to find that switch to flip it.