The final buzzer rang on the Michigan State disaster, leaving the score at 83-66. The humiliation was complete. But Mark Pope's press conference may have left Big Blue Nation feeling even worse.
Instead of fire, defiance, or concrete answers, the head coach offered a passive, analytical assessment of the chaos.
“We're really disappointed and discouraged and just completely discombobulated right now.”
In a postgame setting where your team just got whipped, that one word, discombobulated, spoke volumes. It is a light, analytical term for "confused" or "befuddled." And it validates the fan feeling that the coach is aloof and passive rather than angry and focused. His remarks will probably just make an already angry BBN even more upset.
The passive leader: Pope sounds lost
Pope is right: the team is discombobulated. They can’t block out, they don’t communicate on defense, and they certainly don't play with the toughness required to beat good teams.
But hearing the coach use that phrase is the ultimate alarm bell. If the coach is defining his team as "completely discombobulated" after five games and a record investment, what confidence can the fans have that he knows how to recombobulate them?
This is a crisis of leadership. The players are reportedly barking at each other on the bench; they need a leader to unify them, not a linguist to describe their confusion.
The Stoops contrast: BBN wants anger
For a quick lesson in what the BBN wants to see on the court just look down the street.
When Mark Stoops’ football team takes a tough call he uses fighting words. Then he goes out and yells non-stop at the referee. That matters in basketball too. Refs will give you more of a whistle if they fear you.
Pope's quotes and actions do the oppositet defines the problem in soft terms and implies the solution is simply finding a way to get "un-discombobulated." Sometimes it just doesn't work that way.
Time to scrap the plan
Pope admitted that whatever the initial plan was coming into the season, whether driven by analytics or a "gut feeling," it needs to be scrapped.
The scariest part? The coaching staff had all offseason to see this and they thought it was going to be good,
And that should worry every single person who wants to win number 9.
Drew Holbrook is an avid Kentucky fan who has been covering the Cats for over 10 years. In his free time he enjoys downtime with his family and Premier League soccer. You can find him on X here. Micah 7:7. #UptheAlbion