The Cats were shooting 1-8, and Florida opened it up on an 11-0 run. The Cats looked defeated from that moment on. And though they made a run, that disastrous start made it impossible to overcome a double-digit deficit like they have done so many times this year.
On the radio after the game Goose Givens had a stunning statement.
He said in his opinion, he didn't think the Kentucky players thought they could actually beat Florida.
Defeatist mindset destroying Kentucky basketball
If a former player, current analyst, sees that in your team on Senior Day in a game you must win, what does that say about you as a team? What does that say about you as a coaching staff? This is a team under Mark Pope that has been mired with bad start after bad start. Tennessee twice, Vanderbilt, St. John's, Indiana, Gonzaga, Michigan State, and Louisville all had terrible starts. I could go on, but you see the picture.
Goose Givens isn't some nobody who decided to criticize the team. This is a Kentucky legend who helped lead the Cats to the promised land with a 41-point explosion in the title game against Duke.
And that is what he sees in the players before the game?
Mark Pope is a coach selling a message his team isn't buying
For Mark Pope's part, he sounds like a coach begging his guys to believe. On the radio with Tom Leach, Pope spent a lot of time talking about belief.
"Now we move to the postseason, and we’re going to win...Hopefully, we will use this as a catalyst to make us believers."
Hopefully?
This is game 31, man. If you aren't a believer at this moment, with everything that has happened already, then you never will be.
Now, Kentucky opens up on the opening day in the SEC Tournament on Wednesday with a coach trying to rally the troops who just don't seem to believe.
"I believe we are going to win. We are heading down to Nashville to win… We can’t wait to get to it...I think our guys believe…we are going down there (Nashville) with 1 job and that's to win." He's trying, but if Goose is right, it isn't working.
There should never be a team playing in Kentucky white that fears anyone. The Cats should always be the predator, and far too often under Mark Pope they feel like the prey.
Can they turn it around in Nashville?