Kentucky fans, media blast Mark Pope for disappointing performance vs. Michigan State
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Kentucky fans and media didn’t hold back on Tuesday night during and after the Wildcats suffered a beatdown against No. 17 Michigan State on national TV in the Champions Classic.
The 12th-ranked Wildcats lost, 83-66, but it was the way they went down in the ESPN spotlight game at Madison Square Garden. Kentucky fell to 3-2 on the young season, but this was the Wildcats’ second defeat in a showdown situation, with UK also suffering a 96-88 road loss to rival Louisville exactly a week earlier.
It was obvious to everyone watching that Kentucky wasn’t ready from the tip on Tuesday night, with the Wildcats falling behind big in the first half. When halftime mercifully came, Michigan State held a commanding 44-27 lead, and the dazed Wildcats were forced to play from way behind for the rest of the night.
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That didn’t go well either for head coach Mark Pope and company, and Michigan State improved to 4-0 while Kentucky and its passionate fan base were left to wonder what happened — again. There will be a lot of bad fallout for Pope in the next few days until Kentucky plays again on Friday night at home against Loyola of Maryland.
On Tuesday night though, things got really ugly for Kentucky and specifically for Pope. Here is just a sampling of the criticism from the UK basketball community and college basketball media at-large:
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
