A tough pill to swallow, but Kentucky must press on.
Saturday was one of the most emotional and anticipated nights in Rupp Arena history as John Calipari returned to Kentucky for the first time after 15 years as the head coach for the blue and white.
After all the introductions and side stories settled and the ball was tipped, this game did not go well for the Kentucky faithful. The Razorbacks were firing on all cylinders and took down the Cats by a score of 89-79.
Arkansas came into the game averaging five made 3’s a game and finished the night with 13 made 3-pointers. The Razorbacks also had five players in double figures and just seemed to fight all night.
Kentucky fans, players, and coaches all seemed to be taking this loss very hard after the game. Mark Pope said that his players were taking this loss extremely hard. This one may stick with the fans for a while, but Mark Pope’s team will have to bounce back quickly as they head on the road Tuesday night to face the Ole Miss Rebels.
Here’s a recap of what Pope and the Cats had to say after the game via UK Athletics.
MARK POPE: Congrats to Arkansas. I thought they played great basketball tonight. Played really tough, really hard. Our guys are pretty disappointed. Complicated stretch for us but I thought for most of the night we showed a ton of fight and we have a good group. I’ll take questions.
Q Mark, 13 threes for them, both that uncharacteristic and also hit at a high rate which was uncharacteristic. Just what did you see there? And a lot of those were obviously open shots too?
MARK POPE: I thought they shot them really well. I thought they did a nice job. They posed a bunch of difficult problems for us and they did a good job getting downhill, getting open. They made ball screen coverage with pick and pop complicated sometimes. I thought Davis did a nice job being really aggressive in two man game coming off floppies and they really did a terrific job making shots tonight.
Q Coach, you guys opened the game at an 18 to 12 run and made some subs and it didn’t seem to go right after that. How important is it to get back fully healthy and Andrew to be at full speed? Do you wish you would have done the subs a little different tonight or is it the pace of the game and the flow of the game?
MARK POPE: I thought Andrew made some steps forward tonight. I was proud of him. It’s the first time he ever had any contact in the game where you could feel his presence a little bit. And yeah, trying to figure out this guard rotation right now. Normally I’ve gone to sub one of these three guards out to start the rotation earlier. There was a little bit of high intensity to this game but it was a little bit slower pace wise. I thought we could withstand it. I probably needed to start that rotation a little bit earlier. It did feel like we ended up with three tired guys all at the same time, that’s hard.
Q Coach, I’m over here. Can you talk about the environment and what the fan base was like coming into this game? This was pretty big all around and do you just want to take a second to talk about the fans?
MARK POPE: There’s just nowhere like it. There’s just nowhere like it. It never ceases to amaze me. It was unbelievable. So much juice in the gym. It’s BBN and a place like no other.
Q Mark, right here. It seemed like to open up the game, our game plan was to let Arkansas shoot some threes, nine of 18, but only shot seven attempts in the second half. Was there any point you consider going zone maybe to slow them down from driving?
MARK POPE: You know, it’s a little complicated proposition. It’s almost a full 0.15 points per possession better against zone this year than they are against man. And then also with the feel they had making shots, that gets really complicated. If I could have run it back, I think I would have taken a more aggressive posture probably and taken some more risk defensively and maybe even rather gone zone. But that’s something that we are going to have to continually work on. We’re navigating some roster situations right now that had me feeling a little constricted and I probably need to be more bold regardless and take some more shots and be aggressive. If I could run it back I would probably take some more risks there. Even more than a zone.
Q Mark, over here. If I’m reaching, just shoot me down. All the attention on Cal coming back, that’s all you were asked about and that’s all people wrote about and talked about. Was there any concern at all with your guys forgetting that there was an actual game being played, to focus that way?
MARK POPE: I don’t think so. This is every game, right? That’s the beauty of Kentucky, right? It’s every night is the biggest game ever. If we go on the road, it’s the biggest game ever and we are really blessed to have the greatest fan base in the world and so every night here is the biggest game ever. I think our guys are pretty used to that.
Q Mark, back here. Turnovers have been a bit of a problem off and on. Do you think it’s more of what teams are doing to you or what your team is not doing?
MARK POPE: I think it’s us. ‘m trying to figure out how to navigate. We have a bunch of guys that are stretching right now to figure out how to play out of position and to make it work. Credit to our guys, man, they are really stretching. And we will get better at it. It’s almost like we started a new season. We are two games into a new season a little bit for our team and we are going to learn some new ways to attack this and we will get better at it. And I can help us get better at it. The turnovers were a little bit of an issue. Not just the 14 turnovers but the turnovers that led to fast break points were problematic for us tonight. We’re navigating the space, is not unique to us, it’s everybody. We are navigating this space trying to keep it super super simple so that we can stay aggressive with guys playing new roles. Where we can also be aggressive and adjust. Those two things sometimes fight against each other and I didn’t do the best job finding answers for that tonight and that’s going to be an ongoing process. Like I said 100 times, our guys are great at learning and we will continue to learn and we’ll figure this part out too.
Q Coach, this is probably John L Davis’s best game from Arkansas this year. What did you see from him and did it surprise you all and did he do anything different than what you saw on film?
MARK POPE: No. This was his best game for sure but I think he’s grown into it. He’s getting a chance now to be the ball dominant guy that he’s used to being. He’s three games in, right? To being able to be a ball dominant guy. I expect him to be more and more dangerous as the season goes on. I think that as he fills in the space. He’s a terrific player.
Q Mark, back in the center. Why didn’t Trent Noah play tonight? Anything, Mark?
MARK POPE: Trent is actually super interesting to me. With Drew coming back and Ansley playing so well. I wonder if there is some space for Trent, actually at the three and I think that something to explore. As we kind of reconfigure everything we are doing right now on the fly, he’s played well and there’s definitely space for him and it’s my job to find the right space.
Q Mark, with the way the lineup has been the last couple of weeks. How difficult is it to find any level of consistency with this group because it seems like it’s almost changing game to game?
MARK POPE: I don’t think that’s an anomaly. I think everybody in the league is dealing with stuff like that. And it’s a challenge for us, certainly, but it’s a challenge for everybody. Like I said, that’s somewhere we will continue to make progress.
Q Mark, here in the center. One point game at halftime. Arkansas ended up scoring 12 of the first 14 points in the second half and particularly that run right before the under 16 timeout. Obviously, that probably wasn’t the game plan you guys discussed at the half but what did you in terms of just them creating that separation created in the second half that they rode for the rest of the game?
MARK POPE: I was disappointed, as I reflect back, we’ve been an unbelievable team coming out of halftime. This was really our first poor run coming out of halftime. Something we talked about as a staff after we met. You always are evaluating energy, where energy sits. We are kind of reflecting on what we did at halftime. It might have had us come out, we came out not operating like we do after halftime. And sometimes it’s just an anomaly, sometimes you just have a game like that. That is concerning to me because that’s been a staple with us, we come out at halftime and we’re great. We were disappointing tonight and that’s a space where we’ve had great success and I think we’re pretty good about. I’m not sure the answer on that. You know, I think you reflect about everything. About the weight guys are carrying, about the energy and about the conversation, the adjustments at halftime, really truthfully it was maybe just poor adjustments on my part. Sometimes you make an adjustment that looks great schematically but somehow it’s an energy stealer from your team and we will consider all of those things. That was really disappointing and was an important part of the game for sure.
Q Mark, do you have a sense for Lamont’s status moving forward and is this going to be more of a long-term thing or short-term thing? Do you know?
MARK POPE: I just don’t know. I’m not sure. We are trying to just navigate the space. There’s a lot to it because I’m not going to share because it’s his stuff. We are trying to figure out how to proceed right now. We will see, I would tell you more, but we just really genuinely don’t know yet. We’ll figure out more in the next couple of weeks. I would assume at some point we are going to take another shot at this and see how it goes and we will kind of play it by ear.
Q Mark, you got a roster full of guys used to winning a lot of games. You are sitting at four and four. Any other year or any other league that might be seven and one. Do you have to talk to the guys about maybe four and four may be the new normal this year. I think you called it, predicted it was gonna be a bloodbath.
MARK POPE: Yeah. One of the things that’s beautiful about this league guys, listen, my guys were hurting, my guys were really hurting in the locker room. They know what this building means, they know what this jersey means. They see everything and hear everything and they know what matters. They’re getting a up hand, up close look at how much it means to the people they are playing for. I have a locker room that’s down tonight, not down, down is not the right word. Like, hurt, as we have all season long. We talked after the game just very briefly about this game and about our job, right, how it is very much, like we have to move to the next game, there can’t be carryover. This grieving process that we go through and for our guys they care so much, it really is a grieving process, a five-step process. It has to happen fast, it has to happen in the next 12 hours or 16 hours and we will have some time to spend tomorrow where we can help each other do it because we’re going on the road to another top 25 team. It’s the greatest thing in the world that that we get to do it, it’s the best thing in the world. It’s super painful right now. We can’t indulge in this for very long. It just makes it all complicated, you know, if there’s anything about tonight it was just kinda all kind of complicated, conflicting, upside down, twisted up feelings, with everybody in BBN. Certainly our guys had that come out of this game and we have to race to clarity and race to the next one. Because that’s what this league is for sure. We are a really good team. We are dealing with some roster changes right now that are complicated. We are really good team. We have guys that are really really competing. We’ve got some guys that are growing and actually in the process, because they need to step up and be better for us and have guys in the process doing that and we are all doing it all while playing great teams and having two or three successes and having some setbacks and it’s awesome. You know, this is a journey for us. This is not a coronation, this is a journey. And we’re going to earn our way through it and there’s going to be some pain on the way and certainly, for my guys tonight it was super painful. Thanks guys.
#2, Jaxson Robinson
On how hard is it to find consistency within an inconsistent lineup….
“Its tough. We’re asking a lot out of our freshman right now and guys are playing out of position. We are just doing what we can, but we aren’t using that as an excuse. We just have to figure out a way to move past it and put up some wins.”
On do you believe Arkansas win came from hitting tough shots or defensive issues…
“A little bit of both. However, whether they are hitting shots or not we cannot use that as an excuse. We needed to figure out a way to stop their runs and we didn’t do that tonight and it led to a loss.”
On what was Coach Popes overall message to you post game…
“Obviously everyone is upset so there wasn’t much to say. We know what we did wrong, and we have a game coming up soon, so we need to move on. With it being conference play, Tuesday we have another big top 25 game. We just need to focus on how to get better.”
#15, Ansley Almonor
On being surprised how Arkansas shot the ball…
“It caught us by surprise. The number shows that’s not what they do, but they’re still very good players and great individual players and they go out and hit shots.”
On what is the team feeling…
“It’s disappointing, we wanted to go out there and win and represent you guys, so it was tough that we couldn’t get the outcome that we wanted. Like you said it’s one game, we have to move on.”
On what the plan is to move on…
“Watch the film, learn from it and get better and focus on the next task at hand which is Ole Miss.”
#22, Amari Williams
On losing last 3 of 4…
“I don’t think there’s any issues with just the fact that we just got to keep playing, no matter who we’re playing, even if shots aren’t folding, we have be better defensively and kind of showed tonight.”
On why is this loss disappointing…
“Just because of where they are in the SEC table, I feel like respectively, we should have won regardless of who was on that team, and who was the coach, Its just this game, we should have won, and could have helped him (Pope) move forward. But, you know, we got to put that in the past and get ready for Ole Miss on Tuesday.”
On the playing strategy today…
“Just staying aggressive, staying consistent. I feel like me being aggressive helps me helps the team so just doing that, something I go to try be better at and just keep doing moving forward.”
Team Records and Series Notes
- Kentucky is now 15-6 overall, 4-4 in the Southeastern Conference. Arkansas is 13-8 overall, 2-6 in the league.
- Kentucky leads the series 36-15, including 16-6 in games played in Lexington.
- Mark Pope is 202-114 as head coach, including 15-6 at Kentucky.
- Next for Kentucky: the Wildcats will complete the first half of their Southeastern Conference schedule Tuesday at Ole Miss. Tipoff is 7 p.m. Eastern time (6 p.m. Central in Oxford) and it will be televised on ESPN.
Team Notes
- Kentucky had two players with at least 20 points for the second time this season, first time since the Jackson State game.
- Kentucky made 10 of 23 on 3-pointers. The Wildcats are 11-2 this season when making at least 10 long balls in a game.
- Kentucky won the rebounding 33-30. UK is 11-2 this season when winning the rebounding.
- Kentucky played without starting point guard Lamont Butler for the second consecutive game.
Player Notes
- Amari Williams assembled a season-high 22 points and 11 rebounds and three assists.
- It is his sixth double-double of the season, second double-double in a row and fourth in the last six games.
- In addition to a season high, the 22 points is one short of his career high.
- It is his 12th double-figure scoring game of the season and his 10th game with rebounding double digits.
- He is the first player this season to lead the team in scoring, rebounding and assists in the same game.
- Jaxson Robinson had 20 points, his sixth straight double-figure game, three of which have been at least 20 points.
- He was 4 of 6 from beyond the arc and now has made at least three triples in six straight games.
- He improved to 15.9 points per game in SEC games and is shooting 47.5 percent on 3-pointers.
- Ansley Almonor had 12 points, his fourth straight game in double figures and fifth in the last six games.
- He made 3 of 5 on 3-pointers and his hit multiple threes in four straight games.
- Otega Oweh scored 10 points. He is the only SEC player, and one of only 17 Division I players nationally, who has scored in double figures in every game this season.
- Koby Brea continued his streak of at least one 3-pointer in every game this season and 36 straight contests overall.
In the First Half
- Kentucky’s starters were Jaxson Robinson, Koby Brea, Otega Oweh, Ansley Almonor and Amari Williams for the second game in a row.
- Brandon Garrison was the first substitution at 14:23.
- Both teams came out firing, and after a 3-pointer by Robinson moved the score to 18-12, Arkansas called timeout at 14:23.
- Trailing 30-25, Arkansas reclaimed the lead with a 9-0 run.
- The teams battled evenly the rest of the half and a 3-pointer with 29 seconds left sent Arkansas to a 46-45 lead at intermission.
- UK is now 3-6 this season when trailing at halftime.
In the Second Half
- Kentucky began the second half with the starters.
- Arkansas started with a 9-2 run, giving the Razorbacks a 55-47 lead, and Kentucky called timeout at 16:39.
- Arkansas came out of the timeout with a 3-pointer, staking their then-largest lead at 58-47.
- Arkansas eventually stretched its lead to 12 points at 73-61 and 75-63.
- Kentucky closed within six points at 76-70 but got no closer.
- Arkansas took its largest lead of 14 points at 87-73.