Mark Pope Says Georgetown 'Really Picked on Us' in Kentucky's Exhibition Loss

Kentucky didn’t just lose Thursday night’s exhibition game to Georgetown. It wasn’t particularly close. If you ask Kentucky coach Mark Pope, the Cats were exposed.

Pope spoke with the media after UK’s 84-70 loss to the Hoyas. He said that Georgetown came in with a “really, really good game plan” and that they were “really, really physical.”

“I do think we have some toughness and some fight, even though we were out-physicalled for the whole night tonight,” Pope said. “They really picked on us.”

The box score shows some of that physicality. Georgetown scored 38 points in the paint, compared to just 24 for Kentucky. Georgetown was able to get easy shots, finishing 55 percent from the field, while Kentucky had to work for every point, going just 33 percent shooting.

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

Georgetown Put Some of Kentucky’s Guys ‘In the Grinder’

Mark Pope gave Georgetown coach Ed Cooley heaps of credit after the game. It was his game plan, matched with his team’s toughness, that made a massive difference in the matchup.

“I thought Ed did an incredible job of picking on us and put some of our guys in the grinder,” Pope said. “We just weren’t ready to step up to that challenge as a team.”

Pope said that Georgetown did a good job of exploiting some of Kentucky’s ball-screen defensive issues. He said Georgetown hurt them in the midrange coming downhill.

“In the second half, they hurt us a little bit more in isolation,” Pope said. “I thought we were a little bit better [at] handling those things. We got more aggressive in our ball screen defense. Most of the time, that had a positive impact, leaving me walking away, thinking there was some space for us to play that way.”

Pope credited Georgetown’s scheme and physicality in doing two things. One, it made Kentucky slower. Two, it made them more impatient.

“This is a great opportunity for us to learn how to fall into ourselves a little bit better,” Pope said.