We all love Jack Givens. He is the ultimate ambassador, the voice of the radio broadcast, and usually the eternal optimist. He doesn't throw players under the bus. He doesn't do "hot takes."
So when "Goose" climbs up on his "pulpit" and publicly calls out the arrogance of this roster, you better stop what you are doing and listen.
He says he sees way too much arrogance in the team 20 minutes before tip-off. He basically admitted that this team believes they are good enough to just show up, "flip the switch," and win, and he can spot the disaster coming before the ball is even tipped.
The warm-up tell
Givens admitted on Tom Leach's show that he can often predict a Kentucky flat performance before the ball is even tipped, simply by watching the team's body language in the layup line.
"I can tell by watching them in warm-ups," Givens said. "That’s why we get there early... Sometimes I can tell. They’re just not as sharp as they need to be... This team is just young enough to think that when that horn sounds... 'Okay, it’s game time. Let’s go play.’ It just simply doesn’t work that way."
Read that again.
A program legend is telling us that our players are so arrogant they believe they can "flip the switch" when the game starts. In Year 2, with a veteran transfer roster, that isn't "youth." That is entitlement.
If Goose can see it from the broadcast table, you can bet the opposing coaches can see it too.
And how has this team earned any right to think they can just show up? Yeah they came back against some teams, but they had to actually COMEBACK. Good teams don't find themselves down so often.
Mark Pope is hitting the panic button
If you think Givens is just being an "old school" grump, look at Mark Pope’s reaction. He knows the culture is slipping. You don't overhaul your entire practice structure in February unless you are desperate.
"We’re trying crazy stuff in practice right now," Pope admitted on Thursday. "We’re gonna have a different format to practice than we ever have before, just because we’re trying to address our current needs right now."
The "Crazy" Reality
When your head coach is admitting to trying "crazy stuff" and "different formats" with less than a month left in the season, the alarm bells should be deafening. Great teams polish their routine in February.
Desperate teams invent new ones.
This is a roster that thinks it is good enough to coast until the horn sounds, sometimes until it sounds at the start of the 2nd half. Pope is frantically trying to administer the cure.
But if the players are still "sleepwalking" through warm-ups in Fayetteville on Saturday, no amount of "crazy" practice drills is going to save them from what comes next.