Mark Pope is a naturally jovial man. He likes to look on the bright side of life, constantly reminding fans and media that good things are 'just around the corner' if you keep working. He is putting in all the work in Lexington, but let's be honest: the good things have yet to come around that corner. In fact, they seem to be getting further away with every passing week, and the fanbase is starting to lose patience.
After last season saw Kentucky break records as an offense but struggle mightily on defense, Pope seemingly overcorrected. He recruited a completely different style of player. Gone was the Koby Brea deep shooting threat or the Andrew Carr spacing forward. Enter Mo Dioubate, Denzel Aberdeen, and Kam Williams. He wanted athletes who could stand up to physical play. He wanted a defense-first team. But that pivot has left this team completely lost.
The identity that Pope was brought to Kentucky for is gone
After Louisville torched the Cats, Pope didn't sound optimistic about the defense anymore. 'Our defense is not designed to be a high-octane turnover defense. It’s just not…it’s not the space we live in right now,' he admitted. This is a stark contrast to his earlier comments where he claimed guarding was 'inspiring' and 'fun.'
Now, Pope, who arrived at UK last year with a reputation for innovative, up-tempo, high-scoring offense, is trying to flip the script in real-time. Earlier this year after Nicholls State, Pope said 'We had so much frustration in the first half offensively... But every single timeout, it's a conversation like, Guys, this is unbelievable. We should be gathering energy from our defensive success.'
He has never coached that way, it was all about the offense. Sure, they played defense, but they were based on outscoring the other team and getting just enough stops. This team is built on just enough shooting and shutting teams down. But they aren't shutting teams down.
Here is the main problem: He built this team without shooters because he wanted to shift to a defensive identity. It was better against North Carolina. But that "fun" offense went 13 minutes without scoring against North Carolina in one of the ugliest offensive performances in a decade. Losing 67-64 to UNC at home stinks, but losing when you have no idea who you are is a crisis.
There is no shot this team magically becomes a great shooting team. Probably not even a good one. If Pope can't complete this identity shift, this crisis will go on all season long. You cannot have a roster this expensive playing this badly. Friday in Nashville against Gonzaga, they literally cannot afford to miss.