After Louisville handed Kentucky a 96-88 loss that wasn't even as close as the final score indicates, Mark Pope was blunt. This wasn't a fluke. This was a problem.
When asked about his team's execution, Pope didn't mince words and delivered a brutal, 6-word confession that should worry Big Blue Nation.
“We are not a great basketball team right now,” Pope said on the radio after the game. “We have a long way to go... We have a really high ceiling… it was a terrible night for us.”
That "terrible night" was a 20-point deficit in the second half, where Kentucky looked completely overmatched. The stats tell the entire story of a team that wasn't just beaten, but confused.
Kentucky finished with an abysmal 14 assists to 14 turnovers. Louisville, by contrast, had 20 assists and only 6 turnovers. That was not what this roster was supposed to be, and yet it was.
What went wrong in the Louisville beatdown
The Cardinals got 19 points off those 14 turnovers, and their 11 steals were a direct result of the pace and pressure that Pope admitted his team couldn't handle.
“We just, the pace and transition hurt us… it got us spread out and we never recovered,” Pope said about his defense. And worse it wasn't always a direct break, it was just Louisville rushing up the court and getting Kentucky into scramble mode and that lead to easy shots.
He was clear this wasn't just a case of Kentucky making unforced errors, as they did against Georgetown in the earlier exhibition loss. This was different.
“Louisville was forced, they earned it… it was a place we struggled,” Pope said. “Just so disappointing... A lot of that was credit to Louisville.”
Louisville was simply better, but more disappointing than that, Louisville wanted it more, and they won it.
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