Kentucky’s Mark Pope takes blame after Gonzaga loss: ‘I’m pissed at the coach, too’

Boos rained down on No. 18 Kentucky as its players walked off the floor at halftime Friday night, the Wildcats already buried in what would become a 94-59 loss to No. 11 Gonzaga. The reaction from the largely pro-Kentucky crowd at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville was loud, pointed and unmistakable. 

Mark Pope didn’t deflect it.

“All the boos we heard tonight were incredibly well-deserved, mostly for me,” the Kentucky coach said postgame. “We have to fix it.”

The 35-point defeat — Kentucky’s fourth straight loss to a ranked opponent — sent the No. 18 Wildcats to 5-4 overall through the first month of the season and intensified frustration around a program expected to contend immediately after a high-priced offseason reload. 

Kentucky opened the night by missing its first 10 shots and finished just 16 of 60 from the field. Gonzaga’s Graham Ike scored 28 points and made more 2-point field goals (10) by himself than the Wildcats (9) did as a team.

As the performance unraveled, former Kentucky standout DeMarcus Cousins, one of the program’s most recognizable modern stars, added fuel to the criticism, posting on social media that the team “has no heart.”

Pope didn’t push back on that either.

“As a former player, I’m pissed at the coach, too, and that’s just all deserved,” Pope said. “There’s nothing inappropriate about what he said at all.”

Pope repeatedly placed the responsibility on himself, pointing to indecision on offense, poor shooting and a lack of cohesion as issues that begin with him.

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Kentucky’s struggles have been compounded by injuries. Jaland Lowe returned Friday after missing five games with a shoulder issue, while Mouhamed Dioubate sat out again with a sprained ankle. Top freshman Jayden Quaintance is still recovering from a torn ACL. Even so, Pope acknowledged that the program’s standards don’t allow for excuses — especially not lopsided defeats.

“We’ve kind of diminished into a bad spot right now and we have to dig ourselves out of it,” Pope said. “It’s going to be an internal group thing and we feel the responsibility we have to this university and this fanbase.”

Kentucky has now dropped games to Louisville, Michigan State, North Carolina and Gonzaga, and with Indiana and St. John’s looming before SEC play, the pressure is rising for the Wildcats to stabilize.