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As Ole Miss shredded Kentucky’s defense and did about whatever it wanted in the first half Tuesday night, ESPN analyst Jimmy shared the obvious.
“It is hard to figure how much that loss to Arkansas (and John Calipari on Saturday) has carried over,” said Dykes.
Kentucky eventually lost 98-84 after trailing by 27 points at one time and despite still being ranked in the top 15 and having six wins over top 15 teams, the Cats are hitting a crisis point.
They have lost three of the last four games, no one knows when point guard Lamont Butler will be back or if he definitely will be back, and UK’s effort level was lacking at Ole Miss most of the game.
Consider these numbers/facts:
— Mississippi committed just one turnover, the lowest number by a UK opponent going back over 40 years according to bigbluehistory.net.
— Ansley Almonor played the most minutes (15) by a UK player over the last 20 years without a field goal attempt, free throw attempt, rebound, assist, steal, block or foul according to UK stat guru Corey Price.
— This was the most point ever scored by Mississippi against Kentucky — 95 was the previous high in 1971.
— UK lost despite leading Ole Miss in second chance points (6-2), bench points (20-18), points in the paint (38-30) and fast break points (13-8). Kentucky also shot 50 percent from the field and made 10 3’s but trailed the entire game.
“This is a tough spot right now as a team,” Kentucky coach Mark Pope said after the game. “We’re searching for answers. We’re going to find answers.”
Maybe. Maybe not.
Kentucky simply is not as athletic and physical as most SEC teams — one reason it is 4-5 in league play. Kentucky desperately misses Butler and backup point guard Kerr Kriisa. Kentucky cannot force turnovers or consistently get stops on defense. The Cats fought back in the second half but STILL GAVE UP 44 points in the second half.
“This is Kentucky. We don’t do moral victories,” Pope said.
True but the Cats have to get back on track soon to get any victories, especially based on what Dykes said early in the game.
“They were not the most focused team at the shoot around today and Mark Pope was not happy about it. They just did not come out of the game ready to play,” Dykes said.
Later he said Kentucky was having “fundamental basketball” breakdowns and UK continues to make the same mistake time after time.
Or what about this comment: “They are not running offense. They are running for their life. There is a big difference,” Dykes said about Ole Miss’ defensive pressure overwhelming UK in the first half.
Dykes believed UK’s confidence was “shook” after losing to Arkansas and that Pope’s biggest challenge is to restore his team’s confidence.
“They are still a team that is as good offensively as any team in the country but their defense is going the wrong direction and that is a huge, huge issue in this league,” Dykes said.
5 Responses
This team is in a tough spot and they are not a tough team which causes a big dilemma eventhough Pope had stated they turned the corner after Arkansas beat down. The coach needs to grow some stones and show some fire and take some fight (verbally) to the players and leave the furniture unmolested. Now Pope is saying he doesn’t have the solutions and that is a real confidence builder. Whatever happened to just learning and accepting BB fundamentals? We were told we had a all star coaching team and what do they do in these practices?
Unfortunately, I agree with the sentiment that "teams are a reflection of their coach"–i just believe that saying to be true in sports–and that fact is haunting us right now. If we are still talking about that haunting us NEXT YEAR, then I don’t really want to think about the state we will be in as a program. We definitely have to give him a so-called "mulligan" on this season–but the heat and the pressure starts turning up next year, and the year after. Year 2, 3, and 4 will tell us the MOST about what kind of a coach Pope is going to be, and we definitely have to give him the time to recruit and start building his own teams the way that he needs, and the way he sees fit. But he’s got a lot to figure out, man. He’s going to have to get it done in recruiting–this transfer portal thing is not a cure-all–and I’m not really understanding why the transfer portal doesn’t seem to be working out for KY in any way–either for the bball program OR the football program. U would think the opposite would be true for a program like KY. Maybe it will change in the future. But alot of these guys on this year’s team are NOT KY-caliber talent–theyre just not. As I have said from the start, I would like to see where our group would rank as one recruiting class based on where they were all ranked the years they came out of high school. I think If somebody was to figure that out that we would end up wishing we had never seen it. I think that would put into perspective what kind of a team we REALLY have. So like I say Pope is going to have to get on it. I’m really stoked about the fact that he was able to get Johnson for next year –that was a MUST-GET in my opinion–and Moreno is a good one–but I honestly thought Caleb Wilson was a MUST-GET for Pope too. It would have really helped him–maybe Wilson was only interested in what kind of payout he was getting, IDK, but I really believed, based on what I had read, that we were going to get him. Pope is going to have to start getting some guys like that, man–we have to have some DOGS, we have to have some ATHLETES, we have to have some TALENT. And I understand we aren’t going to get 4 of the top 10 players out of high school every year anymore–but we need to b in the running for as many out of the top 30 players every year that we can get. If we could get a couple who are in the top 10, that would be fantastic! This is really going to be a key off-season for Pope, and I hope that he can really learn alot from this first year that will help serve him well in these upcoming 2-3 years. Nobody is giving up on you, COACH—BUT—i think u need to take a long hard look at everything from this year, and think about it this upcoming off-season, and use it to help learn from and guide u for these years going fwd. All we can do is hope that the best is yet to come! Unfortunately, I do view this season now as pretty much over. All we can do in the short term is hope these guys don’t give up, and keep trying to get better. I guess of all the things that concern me, the lack of intensity among players on the court, the lack of fire, passion, and fight among, both players, but especially COACH, is the biggest. I didn’t really expect this particular thing to be an issue with Pope–when he first came in, I just assumed that that "nice side" of him was turned OFF for while he was "in-game" and like while in practice—i didn’t expect his "niceness" to b an issue with his coaching. I have always said that’s one thing about being a coach in any sport–it does take a certain type of a personality, and I think the best coaches are ones that are "a little crazy", for lack of a better term, but not in a negative light–there is a good kind of "crazy"—because it is not an easy job, and it takes a little bit of "crazy", and it takes ALOT OF TOUGHNESS! U have to have THICK SKIN. And I don’t have any doubt that Pope is a strong guy–i KNOW he is strong in his faith–but toughness and strength can be a little bit different. Being strong is one thing–being tough is another. Pope needs to bring TOUGHNESS back into KY and into his teams. Again, I know he is a strong guy, but the softness and goofiness isn’t going to cut it. There is a time and a place for that. I will never miss CAL, but I miss guys like Julius Randle, Karl Towns, Willie, Terrence Jones, MKG, Patrick Patterson, Chuck Hayes, Keith Bogans, Tayshaun Prince, Antoine Walker, Jamal Mashburn–one top guy who can put a team on his back if they’re struggling, and CARRY THEM across the finish line. That one guy that u know u can go to when the game is on the line and u need a basket or a defensive stop. I think this off-season Pope needs to try to find his one "DOG", or "go-to guy". Even if it’s just one. Sometimes one is all it takes. Just as an example, think about how much better this team would be if u just added Adou Thiero on to it. I always felt that he was the one who was closest to staying of all of our old players, and he was actually the only one from the previous regime that I would have liked to have seen come back, and was hoping WOULD come back. Because I knew that no matter who we ended up getting that Thiero would be a major piece to be able to start building a team with, and I knew that he could be the star on this team, and be that guy that could carry them. And I always liked Thiero too, as a player. Aside from him, I really wasn’t interested in anybody else staying–i felt it best that Pope start fresh at KY, and that it was best we not have anybody that was connected to CAL still here–i felt that was best in order for us to go fwd. Thiero was the one exception to that though. He would have been a great piece for this team, and he would have been that leader and that star–and im honestly beginning to wonder if we have anybody on this team who is even as good as Thiero.
Players have to want to be coached & have to want to accept responsibility,
This is not the same TEAM 1st players who initially bought in to the system & challenge which Coach Pope & his assistants developed to perfection. It airs 100% of the players in the game to be focused, energized & unselfish. The low assists prove there are SOME players who only want to shoot the ball and will not pass if they can avoid sharing the ball. This is the simple answer to what has happened & the win on the road at TN proves that IF players are focused & dedicated, then UK can win even is key players are missing.
Some folks have said earlier in the week that we would beat UT. I am not one of them. UT has gotten better since Knoxville and we haven’t. We one of the smaller number of teams that are getting worse as season progresses and injuries not the only reason. I don’t think Noah lost confidence bc didn’t play previous game, I think he was just pissed. Again, coaches have done a poor job building a bench since beginning.
Confidence comes when you play with energy and we didn’t have any in the first half of the Ole Miss game and they had a ton of it. As for the lack of energy, it seemed like we didn’t have the "want to" to get out there and scrap. When we take the floor, we are not going to a prom, we are going to battle. We had that mentality at Knoxville, but it disappear against Arkansas and Ole Miss. We did not come prepared to play.