Mark Pope says Kentucky struggled in 10 different categories vs. Ole Miss: 'We weren't actually good at anything.'

Mark Pope doesn’t need the Big Blue Nation’s online thoughts to know what everyone is already saying: Kentucky was flat-out embarrassed on the road against Ole Miss Tuesday night.

“Right now, in this moment, in this game tonight, we weren’t actually good at anything,” Pope told Tom Leach during his postgame radio segment.

It’s hard to make an argument against those words. Kentucky gave up 98 points to Ole Miss in Oxford, the first time since 1971 the Rebels have topped 90 points against UK. The first half was especially horrendous as Ole Miss scored 54 points without a single turnover. Despite a much better offensive stretch in the second half, a comeback attempt was far too late for the ‘Cats.

Kentucky’s defense now ranks outside the KenPom Top 100, sitting at 111th in the country (the offense is up to second). But that was not the only issue against Ole Miss. Overall effort and physicality were lacking in the first half. Ansley Almonor and Trent Noah posted zero stats in 28 combined minutes. Missing Lamont Butler and Kerr Kriisa — Pope’s two most reliable ball handlers — certainly isn’t helping, either.

“We’re hemorrhaging a little bit in like 10 different categories,” Pope said. “We probably didn’t really actually perform any of our fundamental defensive concepts. Sometimes it’s hard to know why that is. But it’s something we’re going to fix. But it’s really painful right now, for sure.

With the loss to Ole Miss, Kentucky has now dropped four of its last five games. South Carolina at home this weekend is the perfect bounce-back opportunity, but at this point, nothing feels even close to certain. Whatever goes right is immediately countered with three things going wrong — self-inflicted or not.

“We’re in a tough spot right now,” Pope added. “This happens sometimes in seasons and it’s not acceptable, but it’s where we are.”

How and when Kentucky gets out of it will define how this season is viewed in the history books.