Andrew Carr admitted UK did not pay with maximum energy. (UK Athletics Photo)
Mark Pope didn’t try to make excuses for what happened to his team in an 82-69 loss at Georgia in Kentucky’s first Southeastern Conference road game.
He didn’t talk specifically about Georgia shooting 38 free throws to 19 for his team. He didn’t complain about Otega Oweh and Amari Williams both having two fouls before the midpoint of the first half.
“They played well and we did not,” said Pope on his postgame radio show with Tom Leach. “The glass was a huge factor (Georgia out-rebounded UK 43-34). We did not play the way we play with decisiveness and patience to attack the next side. We are now talking about why we were that way. There was just a boatload of things.
“That is the second game in a row we have given up 15 offensive rebounds. That is a massive issue. We are physically capable of doing what we are supposed to do but you cannot get distracted by the minute.
“Some call it toughness, fight, emotion but real toughness is the ability to do your job. We have to do a great job of that and we didn’t.”
Andrew Carr, who had six points and five rebounds, admitted UK didn’t put maximum “energy and effort into every single play” against Georgia.
“Just playing harder and with a chip on your shoulder is how you bring the nasty on both sides,” Carr said.
Carr said the Cats have to rebound better and stop straight line drives to avoid fouling.
“It is about trusting what we talked about all summer,” Carr said.
Kentucky will be at Mississippi State Saturday night and Pope said his team just has to respond.
“Ton of credit to Georgia but a lot was self imposed. We have to be a little less distracted, especially the road,” Pope said. “We are going to face challenges every game. We are going to be exposed and answering those challenges is the whole deal.
“It is the same for every team. We have to respond. Man it hurts, It is incredibly disappointing.”
5 Responses
I’m not making excuses, we do have issues that needs cleaning up. But I thought the refs pretty much let Georgia got by being physical with us, but they wouldn’t let the cats match it.
Welcome back Mark Fox. At least these Cats were consistently never in the game which was only sign of consistency all night. We have players that can’t play and execute for 2 halves. Our players have all this experience but yet we really show no focus, leadership, or maturity with this experience. Robinson’s body language is terrible and visible too many times season to date. Coach talks about lack of toughness and distractions being factors in our play. Our bigs want to dribble, pass, and show finesse instead of engaging in physical play. Williams is more of a liability in close offensively. I still am not sure I have ever seen a team that misses more shots at or near the rim than us. We don’t have anyone that can consistently hit a jump shot in the paint. I apologize for all the rambling here but am still pissed with the product on the floor last night. I like coach Pope very much for his energy, passion, and ability to communicate with all but do wish he would show a little more coaching toughness on his part and a little less cheerleading.
Just look at the photo for this article. Shots at the basket are going to be contested, often by double teams. Carr has more confidence in making that kind of shot than he does in his 3 point shot and that has to be addressed. The way you avoid that is by making 3 and sometimes 4 passes. The defense can keep up with a dribble, but it will always lag behind a 3rd or 4th pass…especially if we are screening and cutting. We want to stand around until we get the ball and then show the NBA scouts what we can do with it. That is not Pope ball. Pope needs to get control of this team, evening if that means benching some guys and losing some games…we are going to lose some of those games anyway. Robinson’s pouting would be first on my list. Carr’s lack of confidence in shooting 3s would be second. Butler’s NBA aspirations would be third. Brea’s laziness would be fourth and Williams malcontentness would be fifth. I would like to see Pope start Perry, Chandler, Noah, Almonor, and Garrison at Miss. State to send a message to his starters. That is the only way this team will buy into playing Pope ball by knowing if they don’t, they sit.
The Cats got killed on the boards again and will the rest of the year. The shooting is very suspect. I don’t understand how nobody can hit all at the same time. There are no true "dogs" on this team at this time. If you’re not one before 23, you’re not going to be one. I hope Pope can recruit some in the future. He had no choice this year, but I hope he learned that the portal is NOT the way to build a team.
Miss State is not that good, but neither was Georgia, Ohio State, or Clemson. This is a hard team to figure. We are more likely to beat Tennessee, Alabama, and Auburn but lose to Miss. St., A&M, Oklahoma, and Missouri. We get up for the better teams and then get punked by the chumps. It could be worse…we could be Arkansas.