Exhibition or not, Mark Pope says Kentucky's loss to Georgetown is unacceptable

A very hoarse Mark Pope came to the podium after Kentucky’s loss to Georgetown. Whether he lost his voice from yelling or a cold, we don’t know, but one thing that’s certain is his disappointment in the result. Last Friday, Kentucky ran No. 1 Purdue out of the gym, 78-65. Tonight, the Cats were the ones that got run, losing to the unranked Hoyas 84-70.

In his first season as head coach, we got used to Pope torturing himself after losses, agonizing over the box score, and vowing not to sleep. He did that again tonight, even though this is just an exhibition and won’t count toward Kentucky’s record.

“It was exactly what we had kind of hoped to get out of this game; we just hoped we would have a different outcome,” Pope said during his postgame press conference. “We’re massively disappointed with ever losing on this floor, so that’s brutal for us right now, and it’s not going to sit well with our guys. It’s certainly not sitting well with me, and this is an unbelievable opportunity for us to learn so much, and so it’s both those things, but that’s never going to be an okay outcome for us.”

Kentucky looked like a different team than the one that beat Purdue by 13 last week. A lot of that is likely due to Denzel Aberdeen being out with a minor leg injury. Without Aberdeen and Jaland Lowe, Kentucky struggled on offense; however, it was the Cats’ defense that disappointed the most. Georgetown sliced the lane and seemingly scored at will, shooting 55.4% from the field, including 62% of its two-point shots. The Hoyas had 38 points in the paint to the Cats’ 24, and beat Kentucky at its own game, with 12 fastbreak points to just six for the Cats.

The win over Purdue was fun, but Pope being Pope, he welcomes the opportunity to learn from his team’s mistakes.

“This is a really, really important game for us. You’re always looking to expose, to get exposed. Through these six weeks, you’re trying every way you can to expose yourself. And they did an unbelievable job of exposing spaces where we don’t expose ourselves, and Purdue didn’t expose us. And so it’s a terrific opportunity for us to learn, which is what we want right now. But you know, at the same time, we don’t do this here.”

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The box score is ugly for Kentucky. The Cats shot just 33.3% (20-60) from the field, 23.3% (7-30) from three, and 65.7% (23-35) from the free-throw line. They didn’t make a single three in the second half and had 15 turnovers to 14 assists. An optimist could look at that and say that shots simply weren’t falling, and Denzel Aberdeen and Jaland Lowe will be back soon to run the show. A pessimist would say the way that Georgetown tossed the Cats around and got to the rim is a big red flag as we look ahead to SEC play in January. As with this preseason, the truth is probably somewhere in the middle, which gives Pope plenty to work with moving forward.

“There were times where we just missed some shots, but for the most part, I think Georgetown did a nice job of kind of challenging us to really have to be insanely physical to get out of a power play and make a play for our teammates,” Pope said. “And we turned it down most of the time. Like, the film is going to be pretty brutal for us, but we have nothing to do with this now but grow from it and to feel some pain and some embarrassment, and that’s — I hate every bit of it, but if we treat it right, it’ll serve us well.”

After the big win over Purdue last week, Mark Pope compared this team to the 1996 national championship squad in terms of depth and lineup possibilities. At the end of tonight’s press conference, he shared one big difference between the two teams.

“I don’t think it takes too long,” Pope said of how long it takes to recognize a team can be elite. “I think this team has a ton of potential, but we’re not runaway good. We’re just team great. We can be team great if we lean into each other and lean into what we do. We have a chance to be great, but we’re not going to just go dominate people just because our individual talent is overwhelming.”

As Drew Franklin noted, the 1995-96 team also lost an exhibition game, to Montecatini, a pro team the Cats played on their tour of Italy, and went on to win a title. Here’s hoping tonight was the wake-up call this team needed to be ready when the games start to count next week. Until then, Pope might not get a lot of sleep.

“I’ll be honest with you, this is painful. We’re not going to sleep. This is never acceptable here. It’s the worst thing in the world, and I’m really grateful that it’s happening now, because it gives us a chance to try and learn and grow, and we need to do that. We can. I got unbelievably competitive guys. I have beautiful guys, and they care and they’re smart, and will really, really learn and grow from this. So in that sense, I couldn’t ask for anything better.”