Vicky Graff Photo
Kentucky coach Mark Pope doesn’t like losing, especially at home. The Wildcats’ coach also likes overcoming adversity and sees his team’s recent struggles as an opportunity to improve.
“I love when the story gets murky,” Pope said earlier this week. “I love when you start to doubt. Those are my favorite times. That’s when special things happen. I love winning and we’d like to get back to that as soon as possible.”
Coming off back-to-back losses and four setbacks in the past five games, No. 14 Kentucky (15-7, 4-5 Southeastern Conference) takes on struggling South Carolina and will look to reverse the recent trend today at noon. The Gamecocks (10-12, 1-5) have lost their nine conference games, including five by a margin of five points or less.
Despite South Carolina’s struggles, Pope isn’t taking the Gamecocks lightly and has taken note of the team’s five close losses in the league.
“There’s some teams that really struggle, and then all of a sudden they’re winning and some teams that are winning, all of a sudden they struggle,” Pope said. “It’s close, because there’s a lot of good teams in this league and they’re certainly one of them.
“They have superstar talent. They’re well-coached. They’ve got toughness and discipline. They’ve had every good team in this league on the ropes. They had Auburn on the ropes and had Florida on the ropes. They’ve everybody on the ropes. They’re a good team, well-coached, just like every single team in this league.”
The Gamecocks had a seven-day layoff following a 76-72 loss to Texas A&M last Saturday. South Carolina has defeated the Wildcats during the last two years, including a 71-66 triumph two years ago at Rupp Arena.
TEAM TIES
Kentucky freshman Trent Noah committed and signed with the Gamecocks, but changed his mind after Pope was hired last spring. Noah signed with the Wildcats and has given the Wildcats a lift off of the bench lately.
Pope said the former Harlan County standout is adjusting to the collegiate level and has a promising future ahead of him.
“He’s like a sponge (and) he just learns so fast,” Pope said. “He really takes in information and he’ll execute after one conversation, which is a tremendous skill. He’s going to be a great player.”
Austin Herro, brother of former Kentucky standout and current Miami Heat guard, is a redshirt freshman at South Carolina and has appeared in five games.
3 Responses
A last place SEC team is still dangerous. We need to come out fast and hard and take the fight out of the Gamecocks early. Quick, crisp passes until someone gets an open shot. EVERYBODY hits the board for defensive rebounding. Fast breaks don’t happen until you get the ball back. This will cut down on second chance scoring too. EVERYBODY commits to stopping their man from getting a wide open shot or an open drive to the basket. We can live with a few fouls if that chokes down their offense. Go win this one CATS!!!!
Oh, please spend some time at the foul line during the shoot around. Get dialed in there and focus!
Now they are saying that Jax is questionable because of duress. Are you kidding me. I have felt and stated that this team was very fragile, but this takes it to another level. I can’t believe this coaching staff seems to have very little control over this team and if we lose today Pope will be under a even heavier cloud of doubt.