Collin Chandler had only one field goal against Vanderbilt's defense on Tuesday. (Vicky Graff Photo)
Kentucky has made it a habit of falling behind early and rallying late. Another comeback wasn’t an option for the Wildcats after falling behind from the opening tipoff in Nashville on Tuesday night.
The Wildcats had a five-game winning streak snapped in an 80-55 loss at No. 18 Vanderbilt. Kentucky (14-7, 5-3 Southeastern Conference) missed its first nine field goals and failed to find a rhythm in Music City. The final outcome was Kentucky’s lowest-scoring output of the season.
We just got punched in the face early, and we never responded,” Kentucky coach Mark Pope said on his postgame radio show.
In four of their previous five contests, the Wildcats used second-half comebacks to overcome LSU, Mississippi State, Tennessee and Texas, a stretch that included road victories in Baton Rouge and Knoxville. The SEC loss was the first for Kentucky since dropping its first two conference encounters to Alabama and Missouri during the first week of January.
In Kentucky’s previous appearance in Nashville, the Wildcats dropped a 94-59 lloss to No. 6 Gonzaga at Bridgestone Arena.
This time, however, the Wildcats trailed from start to finish against the Commodores and failed to get within single digits after falling behind 26-10 only 12 minutes into the contest.
Kentucky missed its first nine field goals and shot just 28 percent (9-of-32) in the opening half and finished 19-for-59 for 32 percent. Kentucky made just six 3-pointers on 24 attempts.
While making shots was an issue, the Wildcats failed to match Vanderbilt’s intensity on the glass and were out-rebounded 43-37. Kentucky managed just 13 offensive rebounds and committed 15 turnovers. The hosts turned those miscues into 28 points.
“They hurt us in transition (and) their pace was so much better than ours,” Pope said. “Our offense was so dysfunctional that we were getting really flat on the baseline. We got hurt in transition, early and then throughout the game, we got hurt that way. We were pretty dysfunctional the whole night, all.”
Otega Oweh led the Wildcats with 20 points, followed by Denzel Aberdeen with 15. Oweh has scored double figures in all 21 games this season.
Pope was disappointed in his team’s overall fight against the Commodores.
“That’s been a space where we’ve been fighting a difficult battle all year long to get our guys to kind of embrace this idea of being incredibly physical and forceful to earn possessions for teammates,” he said. “We didn’t do that at all. They’re switching hurt us, their physicality hurt us …”
Tyler Tanner led the Commodores with 19 points as Vandy increased its winning streak to two games after dropping three straight. The Commodores (18-3, 5-3) were without second leading scorer Duke Miles. Vandy is off to its best start since the 1973-74 season.
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Gametracker: Kentucky at Arkansas, 6:30 p.m., Saturday. TV/Radio: ESPN, UK Radio Network.
16 Responses
Luck will get you so far and then it will expose you for what you really are. We should have lost the LSU and Tennessee games and honestly the Ole Miss game. We played hero ball in all three of those games. We played more like a team against Miss St. and Texas. We have a Jekyl and Hyde mindset. I wonder which one will show up in Fayetteville?
Wow! That was a embarrassing ass whooping. The Cats got another one coming at the hands of the "fraud" Saturday in Arkansas.
It's not looking good for Pope if we lose to Arkansas. Your supposed to outperform the guy who's job you took. I thought we got rid of Calapari to improve? I would rather have Calapari than Pope. Pope is in over his head. If Cal beats Pope again and falls to 0-2 against Arkansas wouldn't you say that Barnhart made the wrong call to bring Pope to Kentucky when he had absolutely nothing good on his resume. That's like me a hall of famer with almost 900 wins and I get fired for someone who's never been to a sweet 16. Never won more than 27 games In a season. You replace a hall of famer with someone who won't even smell the hall of fame. Yes I wanted Cal gone too but not for Mark Pope. When we got Mark Pope I said Barnhart made a huge mistake. Now if Pope would have led BYU to a final 4 run and had a couple of outstanding years I would say maybe he deserves a chance. He just don't know how to rally the troops. We look lost at the start of the game until halftime. Then we usually make a run and that's how every game goes. If he knows we start bad every game why not shake the lineup up? Why not start other guys? I'm just going to say this now we suck. When you put guys like Trent Noah in the game he has one job and that's to make some shots. He already sucks on defense and at switching on defense he's a step to slow. Mo Diobate has the most disgusting body language I've ever seen. Oweh also gets on my nerves with his negative emotions. They are hurting Kentucky more than helping. I wouldn't play Mo I wouldnt play Noah either. It's hard because you kinda have no choice. BG wouldnt play either. I would make both BG and Mo transfer at the end of the year because I wouldnt play neither of them. We basically have 6 guys that you can play at this point. Aberdeen ( had a bad game) Oweh also had a bad game nevermind how many points he scored. When he walked out of bounds with the ball even a 9-10 year old knows you can't do that. How did he not see Moreno throw him in the ball. Then what does Oweh do? Blame Moreno. Mo-D throws the worst pass I've ever seen in the post. Who does he blame? Moreno!? Whos fault was it? Mo-Ds fault. Moreno started getting pissed for being the scapegoat for the other players to make mistakes and blame it on Moreno. Moreno also had a terrible game for his standards. It's like this team can't grab the basketball. It looks like a greased pig in there hands. Moreno BG Oweh and Mo have terrible hands. Chandler also played one of his worst games in a Kentucky jersey. There is no heart on this team. No hustle. If Hawthorne is healthy enough I'm burning the redshirt. He might be the spark we need. I doubt he's here for 5 years so play him and let's see how good he really is. He might not want to play at this point either. Pope should have burned his redshirt back in early December. It's almost to late now with one month left of basketball. Pope just does dumb shit. Josiah Johnson is the #59 high school recruit and the #6 PG. We don't have any PGs on the team and hes fast as a rocket. If he was a couple of inches taller he would be a top 30 recruit. We need him to be the backup next year,then take over the following year. He plays just like the PG for Vanderbilt. We probably wont even offer him a scholarship. We will probably get two injury prone PGs and watch them both be hurt before January next season. I would get Johnson and then the best PG I can get in the portal. There's two PGs for next year. We also have Lowe who will have two years of eligibility left after a medical redshirt this year. We need 3 PGs on the team. A starter a backup and then a emergency PG. I would make Lowe prove that he can play through contact.
Mitch may have made a mistake with Pope, but he was the only
person who wanted the job. No present CBB coach is even
interested. If Pope resigns, or is fired, a replacement will be
almost impossible. And probably worse than Pope.
This is a situation no program wants to be in.
Very very true. That is something most are not talking about. UK has not been a destination for coaches since Joe B left. E S was not our 1st choice. Big Pimpin was not our 1st choice. Tubby was not our 1st choice. The coach who's name I refuse to speak because he NEVER should have been hired was not our 1st choice and neither was Cal or Pope. The desire by named coaches to coach the our program passed a long time ago. I agree losing Pope would be tough but if this continues we will have no choice. But if Vandy and Fla(I was not familiar with there coach) can do it then it is possible.
This feel like a be careful what you which for moment. I have known for a long while it's tough to get a well established coach to come here. It's why I was not excited to see Cal leave. And you are correct Larry. We are in a situation no program wants to be in and no established coach wants to be in either. That's why we have Pope.
Our offense is a offense that is designed to shoot a bunch of 3s. We literally have no 3 point shooters. Did you see how effortlessly Vanderbilt scored on us? How is it possible to suck on defense and offense? Where there right now. There PG could get anywhere he wanted on the floor and would blow by our bigger players. That's what we are missing on this team. A guy who can make plays for others. Everyone tries to make plays for themselves. There is no team concept. Oweh played terrible. No team effort. Aberdeen also had a bad game so did Chandler. If those 3 can't score at least 45-50 ppg we are done. They are the only 3 scorers on the team. When they can't score it's Game Over.
Vandy's coach is just another example of an expanding list of quality SEC coaches that take him behind the shed and make him look like he doesn't need to be coaching any team at this high level of play. Put me down as wanting Pitino to return and finish his legacy at the school that he performed well at and has regretted leaving.
How much longer will we have to endure this national embarrassing carnage masquerading as the highest paid team in college BB? Why is it that most teams are able to start a game with efficiency, urgency, and be able to defend, pass the ball well, make high % of shots, and we can't do any of that with consistency? Does Pope really have a clue or a pulse? He really never shows much emotion during the game or after. He needs to ride out on the Stoop's train realizing this stage too big for him. We are back to where we were about 3 weeks ago. Our bigs really suck, both individually and collectively. We have a coach that is obsessed with incoherent substitutions.
Afraid this season is going to destroy High School recruiting.
Also afraid many of the players on this team will be in the
transfer portal. Not looking forward to seeing what next years
team looks like.
Maybe next year Pope won't call the team a Farrari and put a target on them.
Other coaches are laughing at him.
Larry that ship sailed a long time ago. All we have to offer is money. That's all. Not a championship caliber team. Not a coach with a solid NCAA resume. Not a coach with true name recognition or a history of developing players.
All we have to offer currently is the name on the front of the jersey. Which has lost a bit of its luster.
Have to completely agree with you.
Think Cal's one-and-done program was a waste.
All those high school stars and only ONE championship.
If not for Anthony Davis there would have been exactly none.
Of course one title is a lot better than none
Let's not forget that Vandy was predicted to last in SEC. Yes, a coach can make a difference. Byington strength is "More With Less"…opposite of Pope.
If Johnson, Chandler, Noah, Jelavic, and Moreno come back next year, that is a decent starting 5. It's likely that Williams will return. Potter and Hawthorne will join the team. If Pope can find a sophomore big man and a point guard who are willing to play reserve roles, that would be a team that would play team ball and would be competitive. They wouldn't win Number 9, but they would be respectable.
Well folks the tools are there. Go into the portal and get known quantity, hungry players. Recruit and few high school development players but you can't afford to develop 10 highschoolers for the future. The pressure to win is NOW. Go with known quantity players, pay them to perform and start working on the following year. As long as the portal is the "wild west", that's your only option as a coach.
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