Kentucky’s worst performance of the Mark Pope era leads to an ugly loss to Georgetown
There is no way to beat around the bush. The Kentucky Wildcats were dominated in every possible way against the Georgetown Hoyas in Rupp Arena on Thursday night. Kentucky was coming off the highest of highs, beating the #1 Purdue Boilermakers, and fans didn’t want to see this team play with a big win hangover against Georgetown, but that is exactly what happened.
What was crazier than anything was the fact that Georgetown was better in every facet of the game tonight. It was evident early that the Wildcats weren’t having their best defensive game, leading to a lot of easy looks and easy baskets for the Hoyas.
On offense, the Wildcats weren’t able to get anything going. The offense seemed stagnant, which led to a lot of isolation basketball and a lot of forced jump shots.
Kentucky only shot 33.3% from the field and 23.3% from three in this basketball game, which is one of the ugliest shooting nights we have seen in the Pope era. The Wildcats turned the ball over 15 times, including five from Collin Chandler, who got the start at point guard.
Obviously, Kentucky was without three starters in Denzel Aberdeen, Jaland Lowe, and Jayden Quaintance, but this is not an excuse for the way this team played.
One thing that hasn’t happened much, if ever, during the Pope era is the Wildcats not looking like they want it more than the other team. The Hoyas made it very clear that they wanted this basketball game more than the Wildcats did.
A bad night on offense is going to happen. Kentucky shot the ball, and it looked like there was a lid on the rim. That’s not what’s frustrating about the offense. The frustrating part about this game is the fact that the offense didn’t seem to get anything going at all. Georgetown was cutting off all of the lanes where the Wildcats were cutting, adding to this turnover number.
Obviously, the Wildcats struggled on defense as well, but what was frustrating was how much the Hoyas dominated Kentucky physically. This happened on both sides of the ball.
There are a ton of negatives to take away from this basketball game, but Coach Pope knows that, and he is going to get these issues fixed. There is no doubt that this was ugly, but Pope is going to figure out the issues and have this team ready for the first game of the season on Tuesday.
