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Why did Arkansas beat Kentucky 89-79 on Saturday?
You could pick a variety of reasons but the Razorbacks opened the second half with a 14-2 run that established a double-digit lead and Kentucky never really threatened to take the lead the rest of the way.
Kentucky coach Mark Pope naturally was “disappointed” with the second-half start.
“As I reflect back, we’ve been an unbelievable team coming out of halftime. This was really our first poor run coming out of halftime. Something we talked about as a staff after we met. You always are evaluating energy, where energy sits,” Pope said.
“We are kind of reflecting on what we did at halftime. It might have had us come out, we came out not operating like we do after halftime. And sometimes it’s just an anomaly, sometimes you just have a game like that.”
Still, the second half woes that enabled Arkansas to create separation is worrisome.
“That is concerning to me because that’s been a staple with us, we come out at halftime and we’re great,” Pope said. “We were disappointed tonight and that’s a space where we’ve had great success and I think we’re pretty good about. I’m not sure what the answer is.
“I think you reflect about everything. About the weight guys are carrying, about the energy and about the conversation, the adjustments at halftime, really truthfully it was maybe just poor adjustments on my part.
“Sometimes you make an adjustment that looks great schematically but somehow it’s an energy stealer from your team and we will consider all of those things. That was really disappointing and was an important part of the game for sure.”
10 Responses
In the postgame press conference, Kentucky head coach Mark Pope was asked about his decision to not play Noah.
Trent is actually super interesting to me. With Drew coming back and Ansley playing so well. I wonder if there is some space for Trent, actually, at the three, and I think that is something to explore.
DUH!
Freshman Collin Chandler picture of Wagner flying past and then standing outside dribbling the ball while Pope’s Ass is getting beat by double digits on Rupps Floor!
The new slogan for the Cats – Pope is A Dope!
I can see Pope as a Doctor having a patient with a ten foot metal rod inpaled through his head! “This is super interesting to me “I’ll have to explore why the patient is having head aches” ….Good Grief!
Pope wants to be too nice to everyone and be one of the boys. Positivity only gets you so far and you need to grow some stones and kick up the accountability for wearing the jersey. Some of the guys continue to talk it but don’t want to walk it.
Aside from a lack of defense, Kentucky’s problem is nearly all the players are one dimensional. They either shoot the 3 or don’t shoot. Carr, Oweh, and Butler are the only players that even sometimes look to go inside and outside. Williams and Garrison are pretty much limited to 5 feet from the basket. No one on this team regularly looks to get in the paint and take the 10-12 foot shot. This means that teams only have to worry about players outside the 3 line or inside 5 feet. 3/4 of UK’s end of the court does not have to be guarded because no one is taking the mid range shots. Good teams take what the other team gives them. Pope has decided to live and die by the 3, and 99% of teams that do that, end up dying in tournaments, because every team will have bad shooting nights. I like the 3 and it is much better in transition, but you cannot just ignore the mid range shots and expect to beat teams that are having a good shooting night.
I’m a Pope fan… 100% !!
Players who are not energized when playing at home in a game which means so much to UK for many reasons – SECT seeding, NCAA seeding, and of course the lead hog needed to lose in Rupp Arena.
Some of the UK players don’t show much interest in SOME games. They are not focused, not caring whether it’s a W or L. The UK jersey does not really mean much to them. Only those who stay for years &/or are Kentucky born really have the DEEP appreciation for UK as a legendary program.
Ever notice the A:TO ratio in the losses – it is a snapshot of not playing TEAM1st ball. Even those who may score a lot of pinpoints are not sharing the ball. They need to watch the awesome guard on the Women’s UK BB team and learn how to share the ball even when scoring a lot.
I had complaints at times about some of the decisions made by 3 of the 4 greatest UK coaches – Rupp, Hall & Pitino. Pope is the other one – one of the 4 greatest coaches to lead UK BB to prominence. He had very limited time and very limited options when getting a group of players to fill every slot. Carr, Butler & Williams have been hard working and usually successful in games. Those 3 and Almonar as well as the 3 FR all want to play TEAM 1st ball all the time and also work hard every possession. The Far may make mistakes but give it their all.
Noah absolutely should have been in the game for 15 to 20 minutes. A big mistake. Perry would have done better than Brea. Brea did not handle the ball well and was horrendous shooting – he even shot a ball from downtown Lexington instead of passim to a big man underneath in position to score. Instead he clanked one that bounced over the backboard and let ARK get the ball without any need for defense.
Injuries really hurt, but UK beat TN.. AT TN!!!
Some of the guys just did not care about the ARK gwme.
There are some idiots out there that think Noah should have stayed at South Carolina.
Wildwest, If Noah isn’t getting in the games why would he want to sit on the bench especially when he sure helped beat Tennessee. A sure fire motivation killer is watching another freshman play several minutes and do nothing. You sound like a guy I know who’s boy was getting to play every game for a school but his Father moved him to a school that won the state championship but the kid never played a minute. Who wants to sit on the bench and just be a cheerleader?
He definitely helped beat Tennessee.
He should have played against Arkansas and should play in every game for the rest of the year.
He don’t give a rats a$% about playing for South Carolina or anywhere else.
They blamed him for the Arkansas loss and he didn’t even get in the game!
Not playing Noah was a mistake. I am not sure Carr was ready to play. He did make a 3 but passed up others. We did a bad job of guarding the 3, had too many turnovers, too many missed free throws, and not enough 3s taken. I look for Padula to have a big game against us tomorrow night.