NEW YORK CITY – It took Mark Pope 45 minutes to get from the Madison Square Garden floor to the press room. He entered through a side entrance, sank into his seat, then hardly moved at all. He was poised, but you could see it in his eyes — Coach was falling apart.
“There was one team that was really, really well coached and one team was really poorly coached,” he said. “So that’s it.”
By the end of the first half, Kentucky’s Champions Classic match against Michigan State was decided. The Spartans beat the Wildcats on the boards, outshot them from the field and annihilated them from the arc to lead 44-27 at the break.
Final score: 83-66.
Every reporter offered Pope an out — absences, continuity, luck. He wouldn’t bite. Pope did not discuss gameplay, nor acknowledge 6-foot-4 senior Otega Oweh and 7-foot freshman Malachi Moreno, who sat beside him. His voice cracked once, when asked about the impact of injuries on the Wildcats’ culture.
“It shouldn’t matter if we had built a great organization and a great culture. So I’ve clearly failed to do that up until today,” he said. “I’m doing it poorly, and we won’t do it poorly for much longer. Thanks.”
He stood and disappeared into the locker room. Oweh and Moreno didn’t watch him leave.
Kentucky’s game plan was obvious: Get physical in the paint, rebound hard, set the pace. Pope’s Wildcats are at their best when they maximize possessions and go on scoring runs. They excel when they can play fast and push opponents around; their three wins have come against mid- and low-major programs. Per KenPom, Kentucky is No. 79 in the nation in pace.
“I told them it would be a football game on the hardwood because (Kentucky) are such a good rebounding team,” Michigan State coach Tom Izzo said of his pregame huddle. “But we’ve been ‘Rebounding U’ for a long time. That didn’t change tonight (the Spartans finished with a 42-28 rebound advantage).”
Pope’s plan banked on the assumption that Michigan State could not sink 3-pointers. It seemed like a safe bet: Ahead of Tuesday’s game, the Spartans had shot just 21.7 percent from the arc.
Early on, Pope left openings on the perimeter to run a double in the paint. Then, the 3s began to fall. By the time the first official TV timeout came at the 13:15 mark, Michigan State had hit four. The Spartans finished 11-of-22.
Every time Pope tried to adjust, the Wildcats were dragged into the quagmire by one of the slowest-paced teams in the country — 267th per KenPom. On long possessions, Kentucky got restless and made mistakes. The defense faltered. Holes opened beneath the basket. Spartans’ sophomore point guard Jeremy Fears Jr. logged a career-high 13 assists as Kentucky imploded. The Wildcats could not piece together a bona fide scoring run all game.
Kentucky sorely missed point guard Jaland Lowe and forward Jayden Quaintance, both sidelined indefinitely with injuries. While it’s easy to write the loss off because the Wildcats were shorthanded, they must learn to play with new facilitators or prepare for a losing season.
Pope has been vocal about his struggles with continuity since he became coach at BYU in 2019. Kentucky’s starting lineup Tuesday included two returnees, two transfers and a freshman, an eclectic group that Pope believes he has failed.
“I got to do a better job. I’m not. My messaging is not resonating with guys right now,” he said. “That’s my responsibility.”
The Champions Classic marked Kentucky’s second consecutive loss to a ranked opponent, following a 96-88 loss to Louisville on Nov. 11. In that game, the Wildcats committed 14 turnovers and defended terribly.
Statistics aside, Kentucky bombed the eye test Tuesday night. It did not look like a Sweet 16 — much less a championship-caliber — roster.
Pope has the right idea: Shoulder the blame and get back to the drawing board.
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