Kentucky's poor start is 'eye-opening' for Mark Pope -- but 'we can fix it'

It took 45 minutes for Mark Pope to make his way from the locker room to the podium to address Kentucky‘s 83-66 loss to Michigan State, only to talk for five minutes with short-winded answers — clearly desperate to get out of what has become a House of Horrors for the Wildcats, losing by a combined 47 points in back-to-back years at Madison Square Garden. Then he had even less to say to Tom Leach during his postgame radio show, sharing one-liners and no-comment equivalents. He only did two segments overall in that one.

Then Jeff Goodman of The Field of 68 caught the second-year Kentucky coach outside the media room for a one-on-one, Pope keeping it brief once again, but revealing quite a bit in very few words.

First, it started with giving credit where credit is due to Tom Izzo and Michigan State for thoroughly destroying his team on both ends of the floor. As much as he hates the way the Wildcats played, the Spartans have a lot to love about what they accomplished in New York City.

“Well, I don’t want to take away anything from Michigan State because Tom is one of the great coaches in college basketball,” Pope told Goodman. “Those guys played tough and together and hard and played well. So, you know, mostly just credit those guys.”

Then, the transition to his own team and where they’re falling short after back-to-back disasters against name-brand competition.

“We are facing a monumental challenge right now,” he continued, “and I’m excited to see if we can figure it out.”

If is not the phrasing fans want to hear right now, but the pessimism comes as a result of a disconnect he has with his players and that the players have within themselves. Last year’s group was so close and cohesive, but this one just feels like a bunch of puzzle pieces that don’t fit together right now.

He didn’t sense it brewing at any point throughout the offseason — even before or after the Louisville loss last week, no matter how bizarre the “pregame experience” nonsense was. But now? Yeah, it’s concerning.

“I’m disappointed with how disconnected we’ve been. I thought I had a better pulse — I thought I was doing a better job coaching than I’m doing right now,” Pope said. “So, it’s been eye-opening for me a little bit. I’m a little bit surprised.”

When asked if it was a buy-in issue with this group and if they were playing for the right reasons, he said it was an all-systems failure with the coaches coaching and the players playing.

No one person is to blame for this ugly start to the season, one that began with so much promise and Final Four expectations.

“No, I think it’s everything,” he continued. “I think it’s development in culture. It’s the right care. It’s the right focus. It’s the right schemes. It’s the right Xs and Os. It’s a poor job.”

Looking for good news?

“The nice thing is I can fix it,” Pope said. “We can fix it. It’s a really disappointing result.”

We can agree on the latter point, but the former? Show me, don’t tell me.