Mark Pope takes responsibility for Kentucky's lack of energy vs. Auburn: "I failed to lead our team today"

Auburn is the No. 1 team in the country and today, we learned the hard way that it’s with good reason. The Tigers dominated the No. 17 Kentucky Wildcats 94-78, leading for 39:21 of the 40 minutes to get their first victory in Rupp since 1988. Kentucky was a 5.5-point underdog coming in, but I think most fans expected the Cats to at least put up a fight. At times they did, but there’s no denying that Auburn was the better squad today, the aggressor from start to finish.

Afterward, Mark Pope took full responsibility for the loss, particularly the lackluster energy from his team.

“I would love to make excuses on that,” Pope said in his postgame press conference. “That ultimately falls on my shoulders. Credit goes to Auburn also. They’ve done this, you know they’re a good team. They made really hard shots tonight and their switching was a deenergizer for us and we did not respond to it well at all.”

Kentucky made just four three-pointers on 17 attempts today, well below its season average of 9.7 made threes and Pope’s goal of 30-35 attempts. Pope attributed that to his team being unable to control the pace of the game, which could be due to the lineups they’re having to run without Jaxson Robinson, whom Pope announced is done for the season.

“First, the most important thing was the only time we had any flow to the game was when we had some pace and we just gave up on a pace game. We gave up on it full-court. I can’t tell you how many times we grabbed a rebound and we are frozen there. That’s the exact opposite of the team that we are, that we built. Clearly, we are dealing with some complicated rotation changes.

“But that’s where our life is and that’s where we’re great and that’s why we have been one of the top offensive teams in the country. We failed to actually push that, you know, we just, I don’t know, actually is the answer.”

Subscribe to the KSR YouTube Channel for press conferences, interviews, original shows, fan features, and exclusive content.

Kentucky had “a whole cocktail” of problems

Pope said a lot of things led to the Cats’ weird energy today: rotation changes, a quick turnaround from Wednesday’s game at Oklahoma, all the fouls and monitor reviews (my words, not his). I’m sure the news about Robinson being out for the season was also an emotional blow for the squad; however, Pope said that ultimately, the fault lies at his feet for not having his team ready to go.

“At the end of the day, that’s just what you deal with as a basketball player. I failed to lead our team today to have the energy that is required for us to come out and be great. It’s not a lack of desire. It was a whole cocktail of some energy miscues, some being sped-up miscues, some terrific shot-making from Auburn, all put together resulting in a really, really terrible day for us.”

One thing is for certain: Auburn is good. While Kentucky has beaten some of the best teams in the country this season, today proved that the Tigers may be a notch above the rest — and, the Cats could have some potentially fatal flaws.

“Right now, they are the best team in the country,” Pope said of Auburn. “They punished us tonight, for sure. It’s a real credit to their guys, to their players, and a real credit to Coach Pearl and their staff because they do a lot of switching on the fly. There is a lot of communication on the fly. There were only small moments in the game where we were able to take advantage of that.”

Pope was so bothered by the loss that he said he was going straight home to burn the suit he wore during the game. Normally, I’d think that’s a joke, but when it comes to Pope, you never know. If you see smoke coming from Pope’s chimney or firepit tonight, you know why.