Mark Pope will always be the upbeat, positive, fun-loving coach, but that doesn't mean he can't be frustrated, disappointed, or even critical. He was all of those in the post-game press conference after losing to Ohio State by 20 points, 85-65. While he would never be critical of his players as people, he will dog their cohesion or effort. This was the most scathing review in a post-game press conference that Mark Pope had had all season.
He was clearly disappointed in being outplayed and out-coached by Ohio State. He credited the Buckeyes but knew it was a game they could have won if they played better. "A ton of credit to Ohio State. They beat us in every facet of the game, and they deserve a lot of credit, so congratulations to them." He was complimentary of Buckeyes star guard Bruce Thorton and said, "Bruce Thornton was too good for us today." His tone conveyed respect for the Buckeyes but also made sure he was realistic about the poor play of Kentucky.
"There's a lot of ways we can get a lot better. We can execute better; I felt like our guys were trying to find some juice, find some energy, find some fight, and we just fell really short." Pope says, "We could never find the pace of the game. Thorton controlled the game in about every single facet...they were comfortable holding the ball, and it was hard for us to manage that."
He was clearly frustrated, but he could articulate well what had gone wrong. He pointed to so many different things that were problems for Kentucky, and he knows how they will improve. When asked how things fell apart offensively, he said, "They rejected us a ton. It was really hard for us. This is surprising because we have been pretty solid in that space...We got rejected over and over again... I've been fighting to push our bigs up to the point of the screen, thinking we can manage it, so when you point your bigs up to the point of the screen, and you get rejected, the lane is wide open. It's an issue that I have got to fix."
“We’re gonna lose a lot of sleep over this. It’s hard to go into a break with a loss like this. We gotta find a way to do better when we are under duress like this. This is going to be one of the lynchpin moments in season that is going to change us for the better” — Mark Pope
— Matt Jones (@KySportsRadio) December 22, 2024
It was tough, but he knew that it was a winnable game and the season isn't going to collapse from one bad game. "We have the guys on this team to win this game. We just didn’t.” The Wildcats must clean up their default settings, "Our default is not us. Our default is bad habits."
Going forward, Pope says they will get it right, "I know exactly how these guys are going to respond ... they'll come, and it's not just going to be empty emotion. It's we're going to get better."