KSR Today: Happy (?) Halloween!

Spooky Season sure is one way to describe what we saw last night at Rupp Arena. My goodness, what a train wreck, Kentucky getting mollywhopped by Georgetown to wrap up exhibition play with a final score of 84-70. There really wasn’t much of anything positive to take away from the loss — Mo Dioubate’s effort through the final horn, no matter what the scoreboard told him, maybe? — outside of the fact that it doesn’t count on the record or resume. The Wildcats shot terribly because the looks were terrible, driven by the lack of ball movement and spacing with two primary handlers out.

On the other end, defense was fairly horrific, specifically when guarding inside the arc (16-24 1H, 26-40 overall while giving up 15-18 on layups and dunks with 1.200 points per possession for the Hoyas). No rim protection, no defense turning to offense with blocks and steals leading to points the other way. Just rough at every angle as Mark Pope’s group is forced to come down from the clouds and straight back to earth.

The film review will not be pretty in the days leading up to the regular season.

We have to talk about it because that’s what we do at KSR HQ, win or lose, but we’ll try to have some fun outside of that result because it’s Halloween and we’re not allowed to be angry on Halloween. Those are the rules.

Greatness follows exhibition losses for Kentucky

Let’s use this opportunity to find the silver lining in it all: UK almost always turns these moments into deep March Madness runs.

The most recent exhibition loss came back in 2014, a 63-62 finish in the Bahamas against the Dominican Republic. How did that season go? Well, the Wildcats went on to win 40 straight games — two exhibition wins over Pikeville and Georgetown College, 31 straight regular season victories, three games in the SEC Tournament to bring home the trophy, then another four in the NCAA Tournament to go to the Final Four.

Before that, Team Nike beat UK 84-75 at Rupp Arena in 2002-03 before going undefeated in SEC play and winning the SEC Tournament en route to a No. 1 seed and an Elite Eight finish.

How about a Mark Pope overlap? The 1995-96 team lost to Montecatini during an international trip to Italy, Rick Pitino ejected as the Cats fell 123-115. We know how that story ended, the captain leading his group to the ’96 championship.

Mark Pope is hurting just like you are

Gone are the days of brain pretzels and mental gymnastics minimizing or even defending losses. No one had fun at Rupp Arena on Thursday, and Coach Pope will be the first to tell you it’s unacceptable. Whether the game counts or not, we don’t lose on that home floor. There is a tradition to protect, and this group did not do that — staff or players.

“I will be honest with you, this is painful. We are not going to sleep. This is never acceptable here,” Pope said. “It is the worst thing in the world. I’m really grateful for it, that it’s happening now because it gives us a chance to try to learn and grow and we need to do that. We can. 

“I’ve got unbelievably competitive guys. I have beautiful guys. And they care, and they are smart. And we will really, really learn and grow from this. In that sense, I couldn’t ask for anything better in a terribly, awful, painful exhibition game.”

What’s the deal with Lowe and Aberdeen?

As we turn the page from exhibition play to the regular season, will the Wildcats get their two starting guards back in Jaland Lowe (shoulder) and Denzel Aberdeen (leg) in the opener vs. Nicholls State? Pope was non-committal about either, but expected them both to be on the floor sooner rather than later.

They were precautionary absences against Georgetown, which feels like good news overall.

“DA has just got a sore leg. He’s trying to get 100% healthy, and so we’re taking a precaution with him,” he said after the loss. “I’d like to have, you know, I don’t know where J-Lowe is going to be, but I’d like to have those guys back in action within the next week or two, I’m hoping.”

He just wants to make sure both guards are healthy for the long haul before throwing them out there.

“We’ll see. I think they’re both close,” he told Tom Leach. “We’ll proceed with caution on both of them. They are guys we’d like to have through the course of the season, but I think they’re both close, and so we’ll just kind of take it day by day by day and see where it goes.”

Pope, Wildcats speak at the podium

The head coach called the loss unacceptable and shared injury updates on Lowe and Aberdeen. What did the players have to say about the physicality and shot-making (or missing, to be more accurate)? Check out all of the postgame interviews on the KSR YouTube channel.

KSR’s Rapid Reaction got wild

Ramel Bradley shouted out cheesecake while Drew Franklin see-you-next-Tuesday’d a staffer and Zack Geoghegan called a Georgetown standout a bum? When a game goes off the rails, you can expect KSR to do the same.

If you missed last night’s Rapid Reaction outside of Rupp Arena, make sure to change that.

Oh, right, football…

As the basketball Cats take one on the chin, the football Cats are hoping to avoid a similar result down on the Plains as Mark Stoops coaches for his job at Auburn.

Who will be out there when Kentucky takes the field on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. ET, live on SEC Network? Well, the availability report wasn’t the prettiest thing in the world when it dropped late last night. Ten players have been ruled out with two others listed as doubtful.

Uh oh.

It does look like standout running back Seth McGowan will be back, however, after missing the Tennessee loss.

• WR Troy Stellato: Out
• CB DJ Waller Jr.: Out
• WR Ja’Mori Maclin: Out
• RB Jamarion Wilcox: Out
• OLB Jacob Smith: Out
• DB Jaden Smith: Out
• LB Devin Smith: Out
• DL Nic Smith: Out
• WR David Washington Jr.: Out
• TE Elijah Brown: Out
• CB Terhyon Nichols: Doubtful
• OL Aba Selm: Doubtful
• LB Landyn Watson: Probable
• RB Seth McGowan: Probable

As for Auburn, the Tigers are mostly sitting pretty with only two absences and no one listed as doubtful.

• WR Horatio Fields: Out
• OL Connor Lew: Out
• DL Jourdin Crawford: Questionable
• WR Malcolm Simmons: Probable
• WR Cam Coleman: Probable
• K Connor Gibbs: Probable
• DL Jourdin Crawford: Questionable

What will the Cats be rocking in the crucial SEC matchup? It’ll be our favorite colors, blue and white — blue helmets and pants with white jerseys and cleats.

Blue and white for Caturday night, 🔵&⚪️ pic.twitter.com/fffxlouqq0

— Kentucky Football (@UKFootball) October 30, 2025

Should be interesting.

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Shake off last night’s result and try to enjoy Halloween today, folks. Eat a few too many pieces of candy and throw on a scary movie as we get the weekend back on track. Whaddya say, folks?