Vicky Graff Photo
Jack Givens knew Kentucky was in trouble before Friday’s game in Nashville ever started.
The Wildcats fell behind 19-2 and lost by 35 points against the Zags to continue UK’s losing streak against ranked teams this season.
“I just don’t know where to start on this one. There is a lot of stuff that goes into how good a team is,” said Givens on the UK Radio Network postgame show after the Gonzaga loss. “Gonzaga came into the game with an attitude to prove to the whole country that the game we lost to Michigan (by 40 points) was a fluke.”
Kentucky was coming off a disappointing loss to North Carolina where it went over 10 minutes in the second half without a field goal. The Cats also suffered significant losses to Louisville and Michigan State earlier this season.
“I looked down on the Kentucky end of the floor and I saw a team that just didn’t have the energy in warmups,” Givens said after the Gonzaga loss. “ I don’t want to say focus because that is overused but they didn’t approach the game like Gonzaga did.
“Gonzaga was older and bigger but the only way to battle a team like that is to play harder than they do and take everything you have and go right at them and Kentucky was about as far away from that as you can get.
“Gonzaga played great but the Wildcats are not going to beat anybody playing like they did in the first half.”
Kentucky hosts North Carolina Central Tuesday night before playing Indiana and St. John’s in its next two games. After playing Bellarmine, UK will then play Alabama. That’s three big-time games in the next five for a team now 5-4.
“There is such a thing as having too much talent. Everybody gets a role but do you accept it and master it? What happens is that guys 6-10 (on the depth chart) feel they should be starting or playing more minutes or if it keeps happening I am going to transfer,” TNT analyst Jalen Rose said. “Guys want to win national championships and want to go to the league. If I am not playing a lot of minutes, I am not going to the league.”
Former Auburn coach Bruce Pearl, also a TNT analyst, said UK might need a team meeting to emphasize “the name off the front (of the jersey) has to mean something and mean more than the (individual) name on the back.”
5 Responses
Jalen Rose hit the nail on the head! This team is all about ME and how do I get in the NBA. Everybody wants to play 30+ minutes and be the star. Pope needs to identify his best 5 man team and play them 30+ minutes. The kids who bitch about not being a starter should be dismissed from the team. That might mean bringing Potter and Hawthorne back to the roster but Pope only has this year to make chicken salad out of chicken shit. He has to get in the Big Dance and make the Elite 8 or he is history. Frankly, I don't think he has the stones to declare marshall law with this bunch. It may be time to look for a new coach. I would talk to Chris Beard at Ole Miss.
Barry and the next thing you want Stein go when he' lose a game next fall.
79, that just shows how F'ed up you are.
I’m much more concerned about the lack of game energy. Despite what Pope has said, this team doesn’t have much high-level talent. There isn’t a player who’s playing right now who’s going to be drafted next year. With the way Oweh is playing and with JQ coming off knee surgery, UK may not even have a player who’s All-Conference.
When you lack talent and lack energy, you get a result like Friday night’s. Kentucky’s only chance to beat a good team is to have more energy and more focus, because the other team probably is going to have players who are more talented than anyone playing for the Cats.
I’m not ready to give up on Pope yet, but this team creates real doubt about whether he can do the job. He didn’t recruit well, missing out on several high-level recruits, both coming out of high school and in the portal. He also is struggling with getting his team to give maximum effort at all times.
It’s too late for Pope to do anything about the talent level of this team, but it’s not too late for him to do something about the energy level, such as benching players as soon as they give anything but maximum effort and sticking with the players who are.
He has to stop being Mr. Nice Guy and get tougher on his players and his coaches, particularly the ones involved with recruiting. If he doesn’t, his time at UK will be over after three seasons.
These guys honestly do play as if they BELIEVE they are ALL-WORLD, ALL-EVERYTHING, unbeatable, undeniable, like they believe that all along their supposed "talent level" was going to just carry them through the entire season, and win a bunch of games for them on its own–and I wonder if this sentiment wasn't fully bought into by all of them after that opening exhibition-game win over Purdue. I'll be honest with u: all the Cat fans that I know personally in my own circle were acting like we just won the national championship that night after we beat Purdue. And while I was happy and impressed with that start, I did find all of that jubilation a bit premature–personally I never have thought that Purdue is all that good this year anyway–definitely not #1–and I thought they looked like shit against us for one thing. And it was also only a 13-pt win with a mild score–i mean, it was an impressive beginning, but it was also the first exhibition game and it wasn't even NOV yet. Then the second exhibition game commenced, and that was the end of all of that. But I really do think that our players were feeling the same way about themselves that our fans were feeling after the Purdue win, and I think that showed up right away in the Georgetown loss. And I was worried right away after laying eyes on that–I knew we had big problems at that point–and I don't think this group has ever recovered from all of that since. And whatever happened with the LOU debacle has definitely carried over, and lingered on–and I have a hard time believing that the actual pure, raw talent of these guys isn't better than last year's group of CATS–but you wouldn't know it right now with what we have seen thus far and comparing it to last year. But I do think that, bottom-line, the talent level is better–but everything else, like team attitude, chemistry, roster construction, system, team morale, heart, effort, coaching, defense, etc, are NOT. And while there is definitely still time, I am not convinced that they DO get better.
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