NEW YORK — On the 25th floor of the team hotel Tuesday morning, Kentucky players went through their customary day-of film session. A short hype video was played at the end of a 10-minute scouting review through Michigan State’s roster. Kentucky’s coaches knew Michigan State wanted to start a fight. Mark Fox, an associate coach at Kentucky, met with the scout to give him a few words of advice.Fox instructed the team to “pack your switchblades”. “There’s going be a fight on the street.”Nobody checked the cargo before getting on the bus. Kentucky forgot their weapons and showed up with lemons to a knife fight.Michigan State — a team that entered the day shooting 21.7% from deep, ranking 352 out of 365 teams — sliced UK in a most shocking way, sinking 11 of its 22 3-pointers and rollicking to an 83-66 Champions Classic win.
Tom Izzo, MSU’s coach, asked: “Did you make more 3s today?,” It’s not funny.Michigan State’s treatment of Kentucky and its reported roster worth over $20 million was no laughing matter. The Spartans out-hustled and out-scheduled the 12th-ranked Wildcats. Mark Pope had only a handful of head-scratching defeats in 41 games as the program’s coach. Tuesday’s loss was shocking, and the worst in Pope’s short tenure. Pope was coaching his first team against Tom Izzo, and boy, did it show.
“The No. Pope told CBS Sports that the No. Experience to attach those words to, they mean something very different.” These words were prophetic because Kentucky was out of sorts, and Pope took all the blame for his message not being received. More than a week remains until Thanksgiving. Kentucky has more time than enough to make things right. It is the most disappointed team in college football through the first two-and-a-half weeks of the year.
Pope stated, “We’re a long way from being the team that we want to be. And we can’t afford to waste time in trying to become that.” We’re discouraged, and we are completely discombobulated.All that hopefulness in the preseason, all those top-10 predictions and visions for improvement after a fantastic Year 1? All of that fell apart Tuesday night. This kind of crisis is the exact reason why Kentucky and John Calipari had to split 18 months ago — making way for Pope to restore unbridled optimism at his alma mater. Kentucky is only 3-2 after five games, with a 0-2 record against high-majors, including a shot to the face last week from hated rival Louisville.
“I’ve failed in my life… until today.” Pope said that we will not fail in this season. “I am doing it.” [the job] poorly. I won’t continue to do this poorly.It doesn’t help at all that Kentucky’s best defensive player, Jayden Quaintance, and its starting point guard Jaland Lowe are both injured. This team has more problems than just not having two key players. It paid millions upon millions of dollars for the depth it needed to overcome injuries. Kentucky’s offseason portal championship was of no consequence.Izzo said to CBS Sports that “their talent is evident” after the win. “We watched the Arkansas video and I told my team, we have the Lakers coming.” “These guys looked like Lakers Plus.”
Izzo and Michigan State clearly saw the opportunity to exploit Kentucky’s defense, despite their praise. Sparty’s 1.17 points per possession on Tuesday night exposed its weaknesses. MSU point-guard Jeremy Fears recorded a record-breaking 13 assists. This highlights a major weakness for Kentucky, as they do not have Lowe on the court to balance Fears’ excellent floor-generaling skills. Jax Kohler had 20 points while Kerr Tang scored 15 points. Izzo’s team played together. It played like they trusted and knew eachother. Kentucky looked to be a talented team that didn’t even know the full names of each other.
Is retention important in 2025 to have a chance to be good?”How about 100%?” Izzo said. Izzo said. People that are concerned about their location and the players they are with. … The transfer portal is almost as important as winning games. Michigan State is not one of them.Izzo did not mean to insult Kentucky. His opinion about the portal, and the transactional aspect of college basketball are well-documented. On Tuesday night, his philosophy won out again — definitively.
You know what is worse than having a high profile team that performs poorly? The worst thing about being a high profile team that performs poorly is being the most expensive roster. If it doesn’t work out, spending a lot on players can create a bad reputation. It can become a team’s identity. Right now, this is the identity of Kentucky. Nothing on the floor will be able to counteract that.
Pope said, “My messages are not resonating at the moment with the boys. That is my responsibility.” I’ve never witnessed Pope in such a way as I did on Tuesday night, at the postgame dais. He waited almost 50 minutes after the game ended to show up at the press conference. He was quiet but determined. He answered legitimate questions with respect but in a short manner. He looked, frankly, a little worn out. It’s like this is an inflection for the season. The UK staff knew that this was a game of great learning, but no one expected it to be this bad. Michigan State wanted to have a boxing bout and Kentucky refused.Jaxon Köhler, a senior, said, “We knew that it would be a football match on the hardwood, as Coach Izzo described it.”
Pope knew that his team was in a vulnerable position, no matter how shell-shocked he appeared to be after the game. I asked him to identify one major area for improvement before the game on Tuesday. He said that Kentucky has a lot of room to grow as a team. They can be a tough, competitive team who knows how to compete and push themselves to their limits. “These guys are physically strong, but how can you make them embrace that?” Pope said. “You just have to sell it everyday. Just have the exact same conversation every day. Then you progress by one degree. We might have to endure some hellish experiences before we can become the group that this group is capable of becoming. “I know we can solve it.” Pope still had no answers eight hours after the incident, but he remained confident. He assured that this season would be successful. Kentucky will keep its promise. Pope never shied away when faced with the challenges of the job. He was always ready to face the criticisms and the pressure that would come if his team failed to achieve their goals. That moment has arrived.Now he gets his first true test to find out how to fix a problem that is entirely of his making — and an expensive problem at that. It will not only define Kentucky’s next four months but also tell a story about how he will handle the toughest position in college basketball.
2025-11-19 04:36:52
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