Mark Pope's team was "distracted" from the jump. Their body language was "underwater." They were "out of character."
Why?
It's the biggest question looming over the loss, and in his press conference, Mark Pope teased a bizarre, unknown incident that happened before the game that may have contributed to the team's emotional state.
“I actually think we did a... you know I'm not ready to tell the story yet but at some point we'll talk in detail about our pregame experience at Louisville and it was out of character for us,” Pope said. “Um and that's young and new and so... you know I actually don't want to... keep our emotions in check... I want to keep them focused and I want to keep them intentional.”
Was it the jawing that was occurring as Kentucky players were warming up and Louisville fans were giving them the business and they responded? Was it a pre-game fight? Was it that they wanted to be super amped up but Mark Pope wants everything to be calm?
What 'out of character' thing happened?
That is a massive cliffhanger. What "pregame experience" was so "out of character" that the coach felt the need to bring it up days after a loss?
This wasn't a throwaway line. It was a direct attempt to explain why his team came out so unfocused. Pope's core philosophy is about managing emotion. He went on to say he doesn't want to "dumb down" his team's emotion, but that he wants them to "be able to focus their emotion" so it's not "controlling you."
This quote, paired with his "pregame experience" tease, strongly implies that something got the team emotionally hijacked before they even stepped on the court for tip-off. And sometimes you need that emotion, you need to be amped up and over the top. Watching a Pope pre-game team talk is like watching a college professor speak on algebraic equations. It's smart, it's analytical, and completely dry. Maybe the team was just really rowdy?
Was it a pregame scuffle? An issue in the locker room? A problem with the arena?
We don't know. But Pope just created a mystery that all of Big Blue Nation will be waiting to have solved. This story is definitely not over, and if he wasn't ready to talk about it, then maybe don't bring it up?
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