National media takes on Kentucky, 'the most disappointing team in college basketball'
For the second Wednesday in a row, we’re digesting a depressing Kentucky Basketball loss. Last week’s may have come at the hands of our rivals, but in many ways, this one feels worse. At least you could explain the loss to Louisville away with the Cardinals, especially Mikel Brown Jr., being very good, and the Cats not handling the moment — and whatever happened in the locker room beforehand — well.
You would think that loss would have served as a wake-up call; however, Kentucky was its own worst enemy once again in the 17-point loss to Michigan State. The breadcrumbs of concern that Mark Pope has been dropping over the past few weeks led to a feast for Tom Izzo and the Spartans, all under the bright lights at Madison Square Garden.
The national media is weighing in on Kentucky’s embarrassing night in New York City. The reviews are not kind.
Matt Norlander, CBS Sports
Norlander, a friend of Pope’s, spent time with the team ahead of Tuesday’s game. He noted how Kentucky’s coaches prepared the players for a “street fight” and how the Cats failed to follow through. Even before the game began, Pope told Norlander he was worried about “failure of communication” and physicality. Both of those were on full display once the game began.
I’ve never seen Pope like I saw him Tuesday night at the postgame dais. It took him almost 50 minutes from the end of the game to even show up to the presser. He looked quietly angry but stubbornly determined. He had respectful but short answers to legitimate questions. He seemed, frankly, a bit shattered. Five games in, it’s as though this is already an inflection point for the season. The UK staff knew this game was going to be a key learning opportunity, it’s just that nobody saw a pasting of this level coming.
Matt Norlander, CBS Sports
Few media members are as close to Pope as Norlander. After spending Tuesday behind the scenes with the Cats and watching them in person, he believes they’re the most disappointing team in college basketball so far.
The Field of 68 After Dark
Rob Dauster and Jeff Goodman echoed Norlander’s comments about Pope’s mood after the game, noting the stark contrast between last year’s team and this year’s team.
Norm Roberts was an assistant on Kansas’ staff when Kentucky beat the Jayhawks by 32 in the Champions Classic in 2014. He offered his advice to Pope on how to regroup and move forward.
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You can see the entire clip about Kentucky vs. Michigan State below:
Brendan Marks, The Athletic
Marks started his recap of the game with the question a lot of people are probably asking today: “That is a $22 million roster?” After detailing Kentucky’s preseason hype, Marks opined that Mark Pope’s squad “looks and sounds like a team with problems money alone can’t solve.” Pope’s postgame quotes hammer that home, but so do these numbers:
Quaintance’s rim protection and direction might help the Cats navigate ball-screen situations better than they have, but he alone won’t fix what has been a leakier-than-anticipated defense.
And about that damning 30-10 run, the one the Wildcats spent the rest of the game attempting to make up for?
Kentucky’s offense entered Tuesday averaging 92.8 points per game. But the final 13 minutes of the first half were a slog in every sense: missed 3s, turnovers, and listless drives that Michigan State had no trouble stuffing. Kentucky shot just 27.6 percent in the first half, making a dismal four of its 14 2-point attempts. UK’s 27 first-half points were not only the fewest the team has scored in a half this season, but the fewest in any half since Pope returned to his alma mater in spring 2024.
Brendan Marks, The Athletic
Myron Medcalf
Medcalf is pretty tuned into what’s happening with Kentucky as a friend of KSR. He is one of the first national media members to bring up the pregame Louisville incident that Pope referenced last Thursday.
Dana O’Neil, CNN
O’Neil also referenced the Louisville pregame incident in her column for CNN, using it as an example of the dichotomy between Kentucky, with its $22 million NIL payroll, and Michigan State, which didn’t even spend a quarter of that, per Rob Dauster. Her comparison of the clothing both teams were wearing coming into the arena (Otega Oweh wore a $1,200 designer jacket while the Spartans wore team-issued sweatpants) is a bit heavy-handed, but it’s hard to argue with her on how Pope did himself zero favors by bringing up whatever happened before the Louisville game last week.
By not specifically identifying the issue – joking later he wanted to plant some Taylor Swift Easter eggs – he opened the door to frantic speculation among a fan base that does not need to be led into the deep end of paranoia where its basketball team is concerned. It happily gets there on its own.
At least now the issue seems clearer. Bad good news, if you will. It would be insulting to say the Wildcats don’t care. Athletes care. But perhaps this crew is currently misguided in what exactly it ought to care about.
Flanked by Oweh and Malachi Moreno, who both looked like someone stole their lunch money (or maybe their NIL money?), Pope was asked how player injuries (point guard Jaland Lowe didn’t play) might be affecting his team’s performance. A Mormon who doesn’t really curse, Pope started, “I’m going to temper my words.’’
He then took a deep long breath. “If you build an organization, your identity isn’t about an individual person; it’s about a collective group.”
Dana O’Neil, CNN
Rob Dauster
Dauster also focused on the NIL divide between the two programs in his column this afternoon — which you can read with a KSR+ subscription. Again, that number isn’t going away any time soon.
But the Wildcats paid $22 million for this roster, according to reporting from our own Jeff Goodman. According to our sources, Michigan State spent less than a quarter of that on their roster — somewhere in the neighborhood of $5 million. If the discrepancy between payroll is that large and the talent discrepancy is almost inconsequential, then what are you paying for?
Right now, Kentucky is paying for a roster of guys that appear to be playing for their current paycheck, for their next payday, or both. That might sound harsh, but that’s what it looked like. Kentucky let a 17-14 lead at the 13:00 mark turn into a 44-27 deficit at halftime because they didn’t have anyone with the mental or physical toughness to fight back and stop a 30-10 siege. Where’s the leadership? Otega Oweh is the SEC Preseason Player of the Year, and he just … let it happen?
Rob Dauster, The Field of 68
KSR+
Speaking of KSR+, Jacob Polacheck has been speaking to national media members all day to get their reactions to the loss. Jon Rothstein hasn’t been as high on Kentucky as other members of the press, but he urged fans to be patient with this squad. That said, has has concerns.
“I heard, and everybody heard all offseason, about how deep Kentucky was and the plethora of options Kentucky had,” Rothstein said. “With that said, when you have that many players, it’s very difficult to cement any sort of role allocation. That, to me, is all nonexistent.”
Jacob also has some other interviews in the works. I’ll direct you to KSR+ for more.
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