Jaland Lowe had to force this potential game-tying shot over the Missouri defense. (Vicky Graff Photo)
Okay, it is officially panic time in the Bluegrass for Kentucky basketball fans.
No, Kentucky didn’t lose by double digits, something it has done often the last 1 1/2 years. No, Kentucky did not trail by 20 or more points during the game, something it has often done over the last 1 1/2 years.
Yet Wednesday’s 73-68 loss to Missouri at Rupp Arena might have been even more disappointing than some of those horrendous losses coach Mark Pope’s team has had way too often in the last year.
Kentucky had a 66-58 lead with 4 minutes, 36 seconds left to play and got outscored 15-2 the rest of the way.
Just look at what happened after the UK had the 66-58 lead.
— Point guard Jaland Lowe had his 15-foot shot in the lane blocked by two Missouri defenders, which led to a Missouri score.
— Malachi Moreno had a turnover that led to a Missouri 3-pointer.
— Malachi Moreno threw a bad pass on an inbounds play that led to Otega Oweh kicking the ball out of bounds and Missouri scoring the go-ahead goal at 69-68 with 36 seconds to play.
— Brandon Garrison threw an errant pass for a turnover with 28 seconds to play and UK down 69-68.
— Collin Chandler made a miraculous steal and save that led to a driving layup on the left side for Otega Oweh that he missed with 17 seconds left.
— Kentucky failed to block out on a missed Missouri free throw that led to an offensive board by the Tigers and two free throws to take a 71-68 lead.
“That last possession, you know, they had that offensive rebound. I should have done better on that. That was supposed to be my rebound. I’m going to take full accountability for that one,” Moreno said.
— Kentucky called a timeout with 9.8 seconds to play to set up a potential game-tying 3-point shot. The result Lowe had to force up a 3 over a much taller defender who was wide right of the basket, and it bounced off the backboard, touching off a chorus of boos from disappointed UK fans.
“We drew up a little play call. Try to figure out what the best option was, and their defense kind of did something different than we were prepared for, so we just had to kind of hoist up a shot,” UK guard Kam Williams, who was 2-for-7 from 3-point range, said.
Givens noted the biggest issue was that UK got back out of sync after it finally looked like Pope’s team was back to playing team ball.
“Kentucky just kind of fell apart,” UK Radio Network analyst Jack Given said after the loss. “You are in a position to win this game … Kentucky is running their stuff, and it was what Mark Pope’s offense was supposed to look like. One pass leads to another, and you are scoring and playing the way Mark’s offense is designed.”
The problem is that it did not last nearly long enough, and Kentucky went back into disarray. Not only did Kentucky just have two points in the final 4 1/2 minutes and none in the last 2:17, but it also allowed Missouri to make five of its last seven shots.
“Late it became the one-on-one show … I get it. Even the last shot, and I know Mark well enough that that was not the shot he drew up. Decision making just was not good,” Givens said. “Kentucky had every opportunity to win this game. Kentucky missed some good shots (late), and they were the ones Missouri made.
“The way they got the lead was penetration, kicking out, and finding shots. Then all of a sudden it turned into a one-on-one show, and individuals tried to do things they had not done all game and were taking bad shots and making bad decisions.”
Oweh led Kentucky with 20 points on 6-for-11 shooting from the field, including 3-for-4 from 3. He also had five rebounds, four assists, and four steals in his 35 minutes and made only one turnover. Givens understood why he took the drive, hoping to put UK ahead.
“You have to take that shot. I was thinking maybe a timeout, but when he had that advantage, that thought left my mind, but he didn’t finish it,” Givens said. “You have to make everybody in the building, including the officials, know you are going to dunk that ball, and then the officials have to blow the whistle (to call a foul). I would love to see guys go aggressively and dunk the ball.”
Missouri had a 17-11 edge in points off turnovers and a 40-28 margin in points in the paint. Kentucky had one more 3-pointer and four more made free throws, but still could not win.
Once again, ESPN analysts blistered Kentucky … but who could blame them?
“I am not sure Mark Pope knows who to play,” analyst Seth Greenberg said early in the game. “I just am not certain he knows the lineups he wants to play against certain teams.”
Me either, and that has put UK in a deep, deep hole with an 0-2 SEC start.
“You can’t afford to lose home games when you get everybody’s best shot on the road,” Givens said. “The (Rupp Arena) crowd tried its best to pull them through. They will get better. I just don’t want to be in a deep hole late and not have the opportunity to pull out big wins later in the season.”
The problem is that Kentucky is already in that “deep hole,” and today, not even the most optimistic UK fan expects Pope’s team to climb out of that spot this season.
19 Responses
Interactions between team members on the bench and on the floor depict serious problems to me.
Forget the NCAA, I’m not sure the NIT is even in play.
Really wish Pope could work out, but it looks like he’s in WAY over his head.
Dysfunctional GROUP (not a team) because of a few LOSERS destroyed the ONE GAME with chemistry vs Purdue. Get rid of the playera who stayed out late carousing in NYC before a game and the night before the Zags chewed up the GROUP & spit them out, AND the sleep-partner squabblers!
What makes no sense is Noah Chandler and Jelavic? Maybe three of the best offensive weapons on the team. Jasper Johnson didn't play either. That's 4 guys who usually all play more than 10 mins a game not playing? We need scoring and shooting. Our scorers and shooters aren't playing? It makes 0 sense. If I was Noah I would take a injury and get a medical redshirt for this year. He's played in less than 13 games so he can still redshirt if he plays his role like everyone in college sports. I wouldnt waste a year to watch us lose. If I was Chandler I would transfer to Utah or BYU. If I'm Jelavic I'm transferring at the end of the season to Illinois. Why does Pope not play any of our good offensive players? Hawthorne and Potter are both better than average shooters. Hawthorne is supposed to be the 4th best shooter on the team. Potter is the 5th best shooter. They are only trailing. Noah Chandler and Williams. Williams doesn't play enough. Aberdeen gets all of his minutes. Garrison and Moreno get all of Potters minutes. We aren't good enough to Redshirt the water boys this year. You have to play your full roster at this point and see what happens. Pope isn't good at making changes. Pope has whittled down the roster to 8 guys. Lowe Oweh Mo-D JQ Moreno Aberdeen Williams and Chandler are the only guys playing with Chandler and Williams getting under 10 mins. It's like he will win or lose with these players? Why play Noah and Jelavic and Chandler so much to start the year and nothing as of late? Isn't that bad for the chemistry. Pope needs to hit the road. I think Mark Fox would do a better job finishing out yhe year.
Where did the team that beat Purdue go? We have the same kids and even JQ now. We have the same coach. It is clear that the disintegration that has developed in this team has come from within. Quaintance should have never taken the floor; his performances have taken him from being a top 10 pick in the NBA to a late second round pick…maybe. Pope has lost control of this team and can't get it back now. All of the Rah Rahs can bad mouth all of the realists all they want, but this team is toast! I am not sure that even a coaching change could make a difference now. Pope's coaching career is over. You can't be a head coach and be everyone's buddy…the Kumbyah approach just doesn't work.
Fire Pope and his staff at the end of the season and start evaluating replacements now. Forget about getting a big name…no established coach in their right mind would take this job. Forget about hiring an assistant from a blueblood program…we are radioactive. We may very well have become the NEXT Indiana.
My hope is Chandler, Noah, and Jelavic will stay after everyone else leaves. Maybe Potter and Hawthorne will stay too. My guess is Moreno and Johnson might could be talked into another year. Those 7 could make a decent team. They would never win No.9 but they would be fun to watch. Add a couple of support players and change the pre-conference scheduling to a lower level of competition and that group could form into a middle of the pack SEC team next season. That would be better than where this team is going to finish.
The team that beat Purdue was the product of Coach Pope & his assistants molding a group of misfits into a potential Title Contender, who ppllaued TRAM FIRST BB – but it only lasted ONE Exhibition game!! Then the selfish self-appointed stars decided to be THE star and ditched the idea of TEAM FIRST with all their focus on SELF!
The same thing happened last season. Coach Pope & staff built a chemistry oriented TEAM FIRST genuine TEAM that lasted thru exhibition & about 7 games into the season, at which point individualism rose to destroy the chemistry. After about 11 games, the chemistry was snuffed out and the GROUP of players then went about 12-11 the rest of the way.
This season the sleeping arrangement for some loose women (or woman) caused major conflict between playera and at the same time a couple of plcyars carouses the night before a game in NYC followed by a couple carousing the night before the Zags chewed up & spit out the broken GROUP of playera who looked like rabbits that ran out of energy.
Losers – too many BIG TIME LOSERS are wearing UK on their jersey. Need to start over after kicking the carousers & sleep partner problems out the door.
I think the two leading scorers are the problem they clearly dont like each other. Aberdeen and Oweh. I wouldn't play them together and Aberdeen would have to honestly hit the road. I would release him or bench him.
Chandler probably my biggest disappointment YTD with Garrison in close pursuit. You can tell that Chandler has lost his confidence and Garrison only plays when the mood or urgency hits him. Think we were oversold on Noah and Jelavic has been relegated to the bench without being given much of a chance. I think Potter should be given a chance and maybe Hawthorn also. They certainly can't be any worse than product currently put on floor. We are well on our way to a 15 loss season if not more. Our Purdue showing was fools Gold and JQ is more limited offensively than he showed in first game back.
Did anyone flip over and watch Vandy take down Alabama? I doubt if Ky can win a game in the SEC even against 8-7 Ole Miss. The Cats Will Not Make The NCAA Tournament! Look at the team Pope left. BYU is 14-1 with their only loss coming at UCONN by 2 pts. They also have the #1player in the country. It doesn't matter who the players are sleeping with. Their college kids and that goes on with every player on every team in the nation. As far as breaking curfew, that 100% falls on Pope for letting it happen. If the kids are selfish, that is 100% on Pope for letting it continue. Pope is the definition of insanity. Trying the same thing over and over expecting a different outcome. What's going on with Noah and Jelavic? Did they do something wrong? Johnson is getting no playing time. The "Fraud" is sitting at 12-3 (2-0) laughing his ass off at the one's that thought the Cats would be better off without him. Ky basketball has been set back years and may never recover. Old timers like me will never see #9. Ky may never win #9.
Seems to me that even when the players lose they still win. They still get there millions win or lose. This is why I stopped watching Pro sports in the late 90s. These Kentucky players are to pampered making millions to play a kids game. It seems like fans are the biggest losers in this mess. We are the ones who waste our time and money to watch a bunch of rich pampered punks. Let's just be honest. We live in a soft world that can't handle the truth. Pope is to soft to be the coach of Kentucky. The way he acts after a loss is like when you take a kids favorite toy away from him. His players act just like him. Mo-D threw a terrible late pass to Moreno. Instead of saying my bad he acted like it was Morenos fault. That is what's wrong with this team in a nutshell. NO ACCOUNTABILITY. NO IDENTITY.
This team doesn't know how to win. They fell apart at the end. I would have called a timeout after every turnover we call a timeout to set up a play. Lowe does some circus shot and the game is over. It almost looked like they gave the game away. Maybe they all better on Missouri?
I don't think Pope is not at all at fault of what's happening its more of the players than any thing else. Just need clean some of players that's causing lot of poisoning at season end and rebuild.
Pope is equally at fault in this debacle. We went from a team that beat Purdue to a team that can't beat anyone who is any good at all. It happened under his watch. I was Pope's biggest fan when the hire was made but he has failed to live up to the expectations of Kentucky basketball as a coach. This was his hand picked team and Lowe and JQ have not made a difference…we have become worse as was evidenced in the Mizzou game. He doesn't have a clue of how to correct this…if he did, he would have already done it. We are so close to becoming the NEXT Indiana that it scares me…it should scare all of BBN. We are back in Billy Clyde Gillespie territory now.
Barry, things has changed since that Purdue game because all of the fiasco that has happened since before the Louisville game. You can tell by the body language of the players and even the assistant coaches were at it..Pope has tried cover that up since then and yes he is partially blame as well. But it just dont warrent for his removal that's some are saying.
I think Bruce Pearl would look pretty good standing in Rupp shirtless, alone, chest painted Blue, and UK insignia emblazoned on it. That was my call prior and still is.
Me too Mike, but I dont think that's going to happen.
Pearl is done. The only name coach I can think of that might take this job as it stands now would be Chris Beard of Ole Miss. Pope might as well go back to medical school. He would make a good family practice guy.
You want a coach that has his team 8-7 at the moment? Might as well ride it out with Pope.
We made the wrong hire with Pope. Last year having a team with so much experience as super seniors who all played college basketball for 5-6 years made Pope look better than he really is and let me tell you why. Rewatch some games from last year. We won alot of close games. 8 games to be exact by 4 or fewer points. If that was this years team we would have lost all 8 of those games. If we even split those games last year and go 4-4 our record at the start of the tournament would have been 18-14. Remember last year Almoner would come in and hit a couple 3s then not play for a couple games. Pope doesn't know how to substitute. He also isn't good at motivating the players. I do believe we won't make the tournament this year. We need to boot someone off the team. I would start with Aberdeen. It was a mistake bringing him here. Mo-D was also overated being on a great team at Alabama. Neither one of the started for Florida or Alabama but they come here and are supposed to be stars at Kentucky? They got paid like all conference players. That's what happens when you get paid millions to be mediocre. You get worse not better. You no longer have to work for it.
When Pope finalized his roster I was certain that with the combination of the players coming back for a 2nd year jump and the new guys it was a title contender. I even made my first ever sports bet for them to win it all ($100 at 1,800-1 odds). Now I feel like a fool. I was at the introductory press conference and was 100% behind him but it seems maybe he’s not a good fit for THIS level. He seems to be treating basketball teaching like medical school and overcomplicating things. I also think this is turning off top recruits. Most don’t want to learn chess and philosophize. I actually have a 2 degrees of separation connection to one of the players. His girlfriend is my daughter’s best friend. What I’m hearing is not good about team chemistry. If this continues I expect a mass exodus from the roster (including a couple of the KY kids). Would of course love to be wrong and for them to turn it around.
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