Kentucky did show us something tonight: they're worse that we could have ever imagined

Before making the trek to Bridgestone Arena on Friday afternoon, I wrote that Kentucky needed to show us something vs. Gonzaga. Unfortunately, it did. Tonight’s 35-point loss was proof that this team is bad. Worse than we could have ever imagined.

On paper, it was a historically bad loss, the worst by margin since the 41-point loss to Vanderbilt during the Billy Gillispie era. When you factor in this team’s high expectations (and price tag — $22 million!) and the shock and horror of it all, it feels more like the 34-point loss to Duke in the 2018 Champions Classic. Zion Williamson, RJ Barrett, and the Blue Devils annihilated PJ Washington, Keldon Johnson, Tyler Herro, and the Cats that night in Indianapolis, a reality check to start the season. That Kentucky team went on to win 30 games and make it to the Elite Eight. We’re only nine games in, but after four reality checks, it’s hard to imagine this team doing the same, the biggest slap in the face after such an inspiring first year with Mark Pope.

Let’s get back to Nashville. Outside of Otega Oweh’s buzzer-beater vs. Oklahoma in the SEC Tournament, Music City has not been kind to the Cats lately. That said, Big Blue Nation still showed up, packing Bridgestone Arena on a Friday night, buying tickets and booking hotel rooms that were not cheap. By tipoff, the arena was absolutely buzzing, Big Blue Nation loving every second of its home game away from home. When the ball was tipped, it didn’t take long for it to turn into a nightmare.

Kentucky didn’t score a field goal for almost nine minutes. When Gonzaga led 15-2 at the first media timeout, a smattering of boos rang out in the arena. They just got louder and louder as the first half went on, reaching a crescendo as Kentucky went to the locker room at halftime. Gonzaga is a very good team — credit to them for proving that the 40-point loss to Michigan last week was a fluke — but Kentucky didn’t belong on the floor with any Division I squad tonight. The Cats were stagnant, tentative and a step slow on just about everything. Graham Ike made Kentucky’s frontcourt look like a bunch of toddlers. The Bulldogs crashed the Cats’ party, joyfully celebrating each other while Kentucky’s players looked like they’d rather be anywhere else.

It’s always jarring to hear Kentucky fans boo their own team, but I’d argue that tonight, the fans at Bridgestone Arena weren’t booing individual players or even Mark Pope. They were booing because it looked like this team didn’t care. As DeMarcus Cousins bluntly put it, it looked like they had no heart. For fans who care so much about their program that they spend a lot of money to pack an arena in a different state year after year, that’s the biggest insult of all.

To his credit, Pope took the punches in the postgame press conference, calling the boos “incredibly well deserved” and Cousins’ tweet valid. Pope is clearly tortured by how this season is unfolding. You can see it in his postgame press conferences and conversations with Tom Leach, and you can see it on the sideline. The fact that this isn’t working is tearing him apart. Few people know what it means to wear the Kentucky jersey more than Mark Pope. Now, he’s watching what happens when he assembled a roster full of players who seem to care more about the name on the back than the front, and the NIL checks that they’ll cash, win or lose. It’s no wonder he’s a mess, but the spiral cannot continue. Can you imagine what this fanbase might look like if Kentucky loses to Indiana at Rupp Arena next Saturday?

If it follows tonight’s script, there will be anger — oh, there will be anger. The boos were loud tonight at Bridgestone Arena; however, in the second half, they faded as fans sadly accepted that this team just isn’t good. Around the five-minute mark, with Gonzaga up 30+, fans put their complaints into action, hitting the exits in hopes of salvaging an otherwise horrible night. No one can blame them. It was just that bad.

I’m worried that if this season continues on the same course, the latter reaction will win out. Kentucky Basketball fans have been through a lot the past six seasons, enduring March embarrassments at the end of the John Calipari era and going all in on Mark Pope. They have been a patient bunch, waiting for the moment when it would finally get better. Last year was a good start, a lovable bunch of underdogs whose appreciation for the Kentucky jersey was clear from the start. We’re only nine games into year two, but this feels like the opposite in so many ways.

When the lights dimmed ahead of the intros tonight at Bridgestone and Kentucky’s “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” intro video played, I won’t lie, I got a little emotional. It’s impossible not to, if you’re a Kentucky fan. The love this fanbase has for this program is unmatched. Tonight was the most glaring example that it’s also not returned from this team, at least right now. Another embarrassing loss on a national stage, this one in a city that fans love and pay good money to travel to in hopes of seeing the program return to greatness.

As U2 put it, we still haven’t found what we’re looking for.