Before the season started, Mark Pope said he saw the number 9 everywhere. He noted there were 27 Kentucky players on NBA rosters, and last year's team made the most 3’s in school history. 27 divided by 3 is 9. Kentucky was seeking its 9th title. Well, he got the number 9, but I don't think this was the 9 he was thinking of.
The historic low: A wednesday opener
Kentucky finished 10-8 in the SEC for the second year in a row under Mark Pope. Last year, a tiebreaker gave them a 6-seed. This season, the math failed them in another 3-way tie, and the Cats tumbled to the number 9 seed, finishing 19-12. This is a program low, the first time Kentucky has ever played on a Wednesday in the SEC Tournament, and Kentucky's 12th loss reveals a pattern Mark Pope must break.
The pattern of 10-loss seasons
Mark Pope has now lost at least 10 games in five straight seasons as a head coach. Looking at his 11-year career, he has only avoided double-digit losses twice:
The Utah Valley era (4 seasons)
- 2015-16: 12–18
- 2016-17: 17–17
- 2017-18: 23–11
- 2018-19: 25–10
The BYU era (5 seasons)
- 2019-20: 24–8
- 2020-21: 20–7 (NCAA Bid, COVID shortened)
- 2021-22: 24–11
- 2022-23: 19–15
- 2023-24: 23–11 (NCAA Bid)
The Kentucky Era (2 Seasons)
- 2024-25: 24–12 (NCAA Tourney)
- 2025-26: 19–12 (Current season, post-seasonpending)
A dark historical milestone
When you combine Pope's back-to-back 10-loss seasons with John Calipari’s final two years, the math gets even uglier. Kentucky now has four straight double-digit loss seasons. This has only happened one other time in the entire history of the program. It occurred during the transition from the end of the Tubby Smith era through the two years of Billy Gillispie.
The looming question
Is Mark Pope about to suffer the same fate as Billy Gillispie? He followed a national title-winning coach (John Calipari) whose performance had dipped, only to see the slide continue.
Mark Pope was hired to restore "The Standard," but right now, the only standard being met is a statistical trend we haven't seen since the darkest days of the late 2000s.