A panel of both SEC and national media members submitted ballots back in October that, when tallied, identified Kentucky as a top-two team in the SEC. Technically, that’s still on the table, if only because Kentucky, like every other SEC school, remains 0-0 in the conference.
But, boy oh boy, things are not looking good.
Did you see what happened Friday? Mark Pope’s Wildcats missed their first 10 shots, didn’t make a field goal until nearly nine minutes had elapsed from the game, and lost to Gonzaga 94-59 to fall to 5-4 on the season. Even if you didn’t see it, you might’ve at least heard the boos coming from the pro-Kentucky crowd inside Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena.
They were LOUD.
Take a look at the scene at halftime, when the Zags took a 43-20 lead into the break. “Ugly” seems like a reasonable way to describe it.
“All of the boos we heard tonight were incredibly well-deserved, mostly for me,” Pope said. “We have to fix it.”
And fast.
Thirty-three days into this season, there’s really no debate. Kentucky is college basketball’s most disappointing team — mostly because the Wildcats, after being ranked ninth in the Associated Press Top 25 preseason poll, have zero wins over programs ranked in the top 220 at BartTorvik.com and four losses coming by an average of 15.8 points, but also because the roster Pope and his staff assembled reportedly cost around $22 million.
Yes, each loss has come at the hands of a team included in Saturday morning’s updated CBS Sports Top 25 And 1 daily college basketball rankings, where Arizona remains No. 1 for the 17th consecutive day. Put another way, all four of UK losses fall in Quadrant 1. That’s good, I guess. But UK having no good wins and four losses through its first nine games is undeniably bad, and the result is the WIldcats being removed from Saturday morning’s Top 25 And 1.
Kentucky flunks latest test in blowout loss to Gonzaga as Mark Pope era approaches rock bottom
Cameron Salerno
Next up for Kentucky is Tuesday’s game with North Carolina Central. After that, the Wildcats will play back-to-back contests against formidable power-conference opponents — first next Saturday against Indiana at home inside Rupp Arena, then the following Saturday against St. John’s in the CBS Sports Classic at Atlanta’s State Farm Arena.
How will UK do in that stretch?
As always, we’ll see.
But anything less than a 2-1 record over the next three games, at minimum, will keep the criticisms coming loudly, as Mark Pope, the captain of Kentucky’s 1996 national championship team, is now deep into the biggest uncomfortable stretch of his still-young coaching career.
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