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Kentucky coach Mark Pope is confident the Wildcats will respond following a disappointing 85-65 loss to Ohio State last Saturday.
“I know exactly how these guys will respond,” he said after the loss. “They’re going to really, really try as hard as they can to not let this destroy their couple days off. Their job is to get really fresh right now when we get back together on the 26th.
The loss dropped the Wildcats (10-2) six spots in the Associated Press Top 25 poll released on Monday. Kentucky is ranked No. 10, while the Southeastern Conference features five teams in the Top 10. Tennessee (11-0) is No. 1, followed by second-ranked Auburn (11-1). Alabama (10-2) is fifth, while Florida (12-0) is sixth.
Kentucky is in the midst of a 10-day break before ending the non-conference schedule against Brown on New Year’s Eve. The Wildcats began preparing for their next opponent and the upcoming Southeastern Conference schedule today after a short Christmas break.
“I know these guys — they’ll come in and it’s not going to be just empty emotion,” he said. “It’s going to be like, ‘we’re going to get better, and these guys will get better, and we’ve just got to keep trusting what we do.”
Pope added the Wildcats struggled to find the right answers on the defensive end against the Buckeyes, which spilled onto the offensive side of the court.
“We had some defensive struggles tonight and then we just fell to pieces offensively, and we just went to our default, and our default is not right yet,” Pope said. “Our default is still bad habits. It’s not bad habits coming from a bad place in guys’ hearts. It’s coming from a great place. It’s coming from a desperation to help our team. But we don’t do that by ourselves.
“We do it disciplined, and we do it the way we do it, and we do it by making plays for each other, and that’s still not our default. That’s just a trust-building process.”
The default, Pope said, came from the team’s inability to match Ohio State’s intensity level from start to finish.
“We just never could kind of find the pace of the game and we had a tough time finding the pace of the game,” he said. “Bruce Thornton (30 points) really controlled the entire game the entire time in every single facet of the game. They were comfortable holding the ball, and it was hard for us to manage that, hard for us to guard in space. I have beautiful players on this team and people and terrific basketball players. We just couldn’t find any way to put any energy into this game.”
Kentucky guard Otega Oweh agreed.
“We just have to find ways to just have high energy at all times, even when the ball is not going in. On the defensive end I feel like we could have sparked some energy there, maybe get some easy baskets by creating turnovers. Unfortunately we didn’t, but that’s okay, we’ll learn and get better.”
NEXT GAME: Brown at Kentucky, 2 p.m., Dec. 31. TV/Radio: ESPNU, UK Radio Network
2 Responses
Oweh and Carr need to take this team over. Oweh is going to score regardless if we are hitting 3s or not and the same can be said for Carr. Pope wants Carr to be more aggressive at the 3 point line. I think he needs to put up more shots near the basket. He needs to shoot at least 5-7 more shots a game. Oweh needs to shoot more as well. Robinson Butler and Brea are very streaky. You almost know what your going to get out of them the first 10 minutes of the game. If they are not hitting then they are probably off that day and need to feed the post more to Carr Williams and Garrison. They need to combine together and shoot around 10 more shots a game between them. We have the muscle down low. All 3 of our post guys have some meat on them. I don’t understand why we don’t work it to the post more and if they get double teamed in the post them someone will be open. I would definitely play Almonor and Garrison a little more. They both seem to be sparks off the bench. Maybe sub out Williams and Carr for Alomonor and Garrison a little more as well. Brea Robinson Butler if any of the 3 are on fire then they need to shoot the ball alot more but if they are off they need to facilitate better. I can see not having Kriisa is hurting us much more than I thought it would. He’s the best facilitater on the team and we are missing his 5-7 assist per game. He makes a difference by getting everyone involved.
If they don’t get back to playing Pope ball, look for another double digit loss season. It all starts with Butler.
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