One week after an exhilarating win over No. 1 Purdue, Kentucky basketball came crashing back to earth with an 84-70 exhibition loss to Georgetown that was as ugly as the score indicates. After the game, a clearly frustrated Mark Pope didn't mince words.
“Really really disappointing night for me… on this sacred hallowed court,” Pope began his radio appearance. “This is a really really important night for us to get better… So many teams play us with this exact same gameplan.”
It wasn't the shooting, it was the 'dysfunctionality'
While many fans will point to the team's abysmal shooting, a combined 33.3% from the field and a baffling 0-for-13 from three-point range in the second half, Pope insisted that wasn't his primary concern.
“Yeah I mean, that is the last thing I will go to evaluate,” Pope said of the missed shots. “I do feel like we left a lot on the table in terms of making plays for teammates. We will shoot the ball well… It was more just the dysfunctionality of us… we just didn’t manage it the way that we do.”
That dysfunction was evident all night. The offense, missing its top two point guards, devolved into stagnant one-on-one play. The Wildcats finished with 15 turnovers compared to only 14 assists, and just 20 made shots. The ball movement that defined the Purdue win was simply non-existent.
A failure to adjust
Georgetown employed a specific defensive strategy that Pope said his team had prepared for but failed to solve in real-time.
“They were in an Aggie switch, defensively which we had talked through, but we hadn't really done it,” Pope explained. “We never were very good about working a second side... We were hesitant on making that first cut.”
The Aggie switch defense is where the defense guides the ball handler into a "low man" who then slides across the lane to take a charge above the blocks. The primary goal is to force opponents into low-percentage shots from the perimeter. And that happened tonight.
That can't happen during the regular season, and that is why this game matters even if it doesn't count.
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