Mark Pope said the boos from Kentucky fans were 'incredibly well deserved'

by: Tyler Thompson5 hours agoMrsTylerKSR

Kentucky fans who attended tonight’s game vs. Gonzaga at Bridgestone Arena made their feelings about this team known. When Gonzaga led 15-2 at the first media timeout, a smattering of boos broke out in the arena. As the Bulldogs’ lead ballooned as the half went on, the boos got increasingly louder, to the point that when the Cats left the floor down 43-20 at halftime, the crowd’s reaction was the story. The broadcast lingered on a few of the angriest fans in the stands and then on Mark Pope and Kentucky as they walked into the locker room.

The boos continued after halftime, but not with quite the same luster. The shock of the butt-kicking had settled in, and fans became resigned to the fate that this team isn’t good. At least not right now, and unless things change drastically, probably ever.

After the 94-59 loss, Collin Chandler and Pope were asked about the boos. Chandler gave about as good an answer as you can expect from a player whose team just got embarrassed for the fourth time in a month.

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“Yeah, well, it is disappointing, because we care about BBN and the people that come support us, because they come in every night, so we’re going to do a better job at showing up for them and playing for them.”

Yeesh pic.twitter.com/QKkAOH8mLb
— Mike Rutherford (@CardChronicle) December 6, 2025

The boo’s have started to hum throughout Bridgestone Arena from Kentucky fans, as the Cats trail by 19. pic.twitter.com/E9Jp023rrC
— Vince Wolfram (@vincewolfram15) December 6, 2025

When prompted for a response, Pope took a beat before sighing deeply.

“I don’t have a great answer for you other than that, you know, we’ve kind of diminished a little bit into a bad spot right now, and we have to dig ourselves out of it, and it’s going to be an internal group thing, and we feel the responsibility we have to this university and this fan base, and that all the boos that we heard tonight were incredibly well deserved, mostly for me, and we have to fix it. That’s all we have. As you roll through life, you just have your response, and our response, so far, it’s not been adequate, and we have to fix it.”