Mark Pope thought he assembled the Avengers -- now he's realizing he overpaid for heartless portal mercenaries

It came across as disrespectful watching Gonzaga players line up at midcourt during pregame warmups with a football, drawing up plays and going long, tossing Hail Marys to each other inside Bridgestone Arena. The Bulldogs were goofing off, loose to the point of not taking the competition seriously, at least to an opposing fan totally unfamiliar with their day-to-day. Graham Ike later clarified it’s a team tradition before games for all opponents, not just Kentucky — but would you have blamed them for specifically singling these Wildcats out as unworthy opponents? What have they done to be treated to any more attention than a mid-major before the real stuff begins? That’s all they’ve been proven capable of beating, so why not approach these frauds the same way you approached, say, Texas Southern in November? No offense to the Tigers, who just gave College of Biblical Studies the business right before Thanksgiving. I’m sure they’re great people (and would probably give this Kentucky team a game at this point).

The reality is that no one should respect Mark Pope or this roster right now because neither has earned it through nine of the most embarrassing performances in this program’s rich history. That’s not hyperbole, either. They let Louisville curb-stomp them in enemy territory to retake the state bragging rights, then responded to that by letting Michigan State curb-stomp them in the World’s Most Famous Arena with the entire college basketball world watching. Given the chance to regroup after Thanksgiving by hosting a mediocre North Carolina team at Rupp Arena, they failed to put the ball in the basket for ten-and-a-half minutes in the second half to lose that one as 8.5-point favorites.

Certainly couldn’t get any worse than that, right? Try a crowd of 98 percent blue in the most BBN-friendly city in the world outside of Lexington giving you the best home-court advantage imaginable, only to respond with the most disgraceful effort yet. It was the third-worst Kentucky loss of the shot clock era, behind only a 55-point defeat at Kansas in 1989 and a 41-point trouncing at Vanderbilt in 2008, while tying the 35-point loss vs. LSU in 1987. The 94-59 embarrassment extended Pope’s streak of six straight losses against top-25 competition, the program’s longest since January 2009.

Pope calls the Kentucky uniform a “sacred piece of cloth.” This team is currently making a mockery of it as the laughingstock of college basketball, a reputation they don’t even care to fight off because they’re too busy cashing checks they know will clear no matter the result.

The reality is that this staff overcorrected coming off a solid, but not truly elite debut season in Lexington. They had the shooting, basketball IQ and, above all else, heart to represent this program in the form of results, tying an all-time NCAA record for top-15 victories while also returning to the Sweet 16 for the first time in a half-decade, but also gratitude and understanding of the privilege that it is to wear that name across their chests. It was easy to root for an Ansley Almonor from Fairleigh Dickinson and an Amari Williams from Drexel, because you knew how much the opportunity meant to them. Sure, they were well-compensated — and earned every penny, as far as I’m concerned — but you felt their blood, sweat and tears through the highs and lows.

They were limited as athletes, however, with toughness and physicality missing at times. That’s where Pope turned in the portal, leaning into what was missing with high-flying athletes and pro potential — on paper, at least — and addressing the injury bug that gnawed at the roster all year with what was thought to be top-end depth. He didn’t add, though; he replaced. That green-light identity with ball movement, cutting, spacing and shot-making turned into incompatible hero-ball chuckers, repeatedly shoving a square peg into a round hole and one day expecting different results. The connective tissue holding the locker room together was single-ply and it disintegrated the day they “flipped the switch early” against Louisville or whatever totally believable excuse we were fed to explain why these guys woke up one day seemingly just not liking each other.

Did they ever like each other? Is it possible to truly build camaraderie in a locker room when the foundation is a pile of cash, the roster constructed on the model of bidding wars won and lost?

The $22 million has been thrown back in this team’s face every step of the way, even after beating No. 1 Purdue in a stupid exhibition game. Well, yeah, you’re supposed to beat good teams. You paid more. Lose and roster salaries are compared with opponents and their coaches doing more with less. And, somehow, after years of the portal and experience deciding championships, it happened to be the freshmen dominating the sport again in a cycle Pope whiffed on quite literally every single one of the game-changers. Even with blank checks handed out as the New York Yankees of college basketball, you bought the wrong guys.

When given the chance to prove themselves as the team of Avengers their head coach thought he was buying — no discounts, only premium rates after being taken to the cleaners by agents, mind you — they’ve folded like crappy lawn chairs at every step of the way, the Louisville near-comeback the lone exception (and that was also a product of bad shots by the Cardinals early in the shot clock giving the Wildcats unnecessary life). This one against Gonzaga was the most egregious example, trailing for all but 28 seconds with the Bulldogs’ first double-digit lead coming just over five minutes into the game. It ballooned to as many as 25 before halftime, then hit the 30-point mark not even eight minutes into the second half.

Never competitive with bad body language and minimal energy, no hunger. It’s why BBN booed the players and coaching staff off the floor and former players felt the need to call this team out for what it is.

“Can’t lie…this (UK) team has no heart!” DeMarcus freaking Cousins tweeted. “This is hard to watch (shake my head).”

Ironic considering the five-stars from that first one-and-done era were seen as single-season rentals using the school as a stepping stone for the draft and NBA superstardom. Well, the fan favorite on campus for eight months who went on to make nearly $100M as a pro is saying you don’t have the same passion for his school as he did. So much for that sacred piece of cloth they were going to protect at all costs in this new era, making sure they woke up every day understanding what it all meant.

That’s what happens when you assemble a roster of portal mercenaries, a soulless, individual-focused group that doesn’t obsess over wins and losses like you and me. That’s what happens when the captain of the ’96 championship team says these Wildcats are “not going to have one voice that’s going to run this thing” and leadership is “going to be by committee” — allowing no one to step up rather than everyone.

This isn’t Kentucky basketball. And the buyer’s remorse is real.