Kentucky Coach Mark Pope Kept it Very Short in Postgame Press Conference After Louisville Loss

by: Jacob Polacheck7 hours agoPolacheckKSR

Kentucky coach Mark Pope and players Kam Williams and Collin Chandler (Photo: KSR YouTube)

Kentucky head coach Mark Pope kept his postgame comments short after his team’s 96-88 loss to Louisville on Tuesday. Before Tuesday, every one of Pope’s postgame press conferences from this season, including exhibitions, went for at least 10 minutes. This time, he didn’t spend a lot of time.

Pope’s latest press conference went for just over five minutes. During that press conference, he gave Louisville credit, talked about the team’s defensive struggles, complimented a few players, and left things at that.

“Congratulations to Louisville. I thought they played great. Guys played together. They played hard. [They] were really competitive in a good venue. Congratulations to them. We’re really disappointed with the product we put on the floor today, and we’re excited to find ways to get better.”

Pope doubled down on UK’s poor night. He said that Kentucky played “extremely poorly, and credited Louisville for that.”

“We played extremely poorly, but we do have a competitive group, and we had some interesting new vibe lineups for us in the second half, trying to respond to some things,” Pope said. “And I thought I was proud of the guys for competing, but that’s not the standard we have at Kentucky.”

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Players Sat at the Podium But Didn’t Speak

Mark Pope wasn’t alone in his postgame press conference, but if you’re reading a transcript of the conversation, it will look like it. Kentucky players Denzel Aberdeen and Collin Chandler sat at the podium with Pope, but didn’t say anything.

To be fair to both Aberdeen and Chandler, they weren’t asked any questions. Several media members expected players to answer questions after Pope’s time was done. That didn’t happen.

Instead, it was Pope who did the talking. He called Louisville guard Mikel Brown Jr. a “really special talent to be as young as he is and come play the game the way he does.”

“He’s got a really, really terrific change of speed,” Pope said. “It was really difficult for us to keep him in front of us, and he actually finished the ball well at the rim tonight, which was really good.”