Mark Pope addresses slow starts after disastrous Kentucky loss
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It’s no secret that Kentucky has not been a first-half team this season. The preseason national championship contenders have fallen behind by massive margins in the first half of countless games, including by as many as 22 points in their 80-55 loss to Vanderbilt.
“We were a disaster tonight, and it’ll never be acceptable,” head coach Mark Pope said. “We’ll respond in a great way.”
As mentioned, it’s not the first time Kentucky has faced a big deficit at halftime in 2025-26. The worry of a 20-minute showing like Tuesday night’s to open any game is pervasive through Big Blue Nation. Following the Commodores’ beatdown, Pope admitted the slow starts are a problem.
“It’s obviously an area of concern for us,” Pope said postgame. “We have to make some progress in the way we do things in practice… I felt like our guys had good juice. We just didn’t have the intensity to hit first. We got punched in the mouth pretty good, and we just didn’t respond at all in this game.”
Despite the regularity with which the Wildcats have been slow out of the gate, Pope is confident his team can answer the bell going forward.
“Getting ourselves to an emotional, heightened point, where we come to compete from the tip, where we want to be the instigators of confrontation rather than receivers, is really important,” he said. “You don’t get a lot of second chances in this league, especially on the road.”
The Wildcats’ next opportunity to find their footing early in a game comes on Saturday, when they battle John Calipari and Arkansas at Bud Walton Arena. The Razorbacks’ contest tips off at 6:30 p.m. E.T. (ESPN).
