Mark Pope has never beaten Nate Oats. In 4 tries, the Tide are averaging 96.5 points with Kentucky sitting at a cool 81 per game. After the game, Pope sounded even more defeated, "...First two or three minutes we were good, then we hit a wall." Only one of the matchups was even close, and that was the first one in Lexington when Alabama knocked off the Cats 102-97; the rest have been brutal:
- February in Tuscaloosa 96-83
- SEC Tournament 99-79
- Saturday afternoon 89-74
That is bad, and made worse when Mark Pope built this team to beat Alabama. He built a roster full of guys who should be good defensive players, guys who will talk and communicate and play together. Absolutely none of that is happening so far.
Kentucky falls to 1-5 against ranked teams, and in nearly every one of the games, they have been down double digits.
Mark Pope speaks on brutal loss to Alabama
In his interview with Tom Leach, Pope complimented Alabama and spoke on the disappointment he felt watching Kentucky get out-rebounded against a Tide team that lost its starting center near the end of the first half. "First off, Alabama is a good team… We had some breakdowns…we’re really inconsistent. I was really frustrated with our physicality… We got out-rebounded in the post even with their starting 5 on the bench… We have to come respond." Kentucky lost the board battle 41-37, and it only got close late when Alabama started missing more shots as they wasted clock.
"I think our group is frustrated right now for sure… Coaching is putting it inside them so they can come and perform, and we didn’t tonight." Frustration is not helping; this is Kentucky's 3rd loss by at least 15 points. Kentucky has only played 16 games, and in nearly 1/4 of them, they were not competitive.
That can't happen.