NEW YORK — Tuesday morning on the 25th floor of the team hotel. Kentucky the players went through their usual film screening. At the end of the 10-minute Michigan State roster scouting report, a short promotional video was played. The words “FIGHT NIGHT AT THE GARDEN” accompanied the highlights of Kentucky basketball, interspersed with boxing fights for the top spot at Madison Square Garden.
The Kentucky coaching staff knew Michigan State was going to come looking for a fight. Assistant coach Mark Fox brought the scout in and offered some quick advice.
“Pack up your knives,” Fox told the team. “It's going to be a street fight.”
No one checked the cargo on the way to the bus. Kentucky forgot their guns and showed up to the knife fight with lemons.
Michigan State, a team that entered the day shooting 21.7 percent from deep and ranked 352nd out of 365 teams, crushed UK in shocking fashion, hitting 11 of 22 3-pointers to cruise to an 83-66 victory in the Champions Classic.
“Did we make more 3-pointers today than we have all year,” MSU coach Tom Izzo said. “It's not supposed to be funny.”
What Michigan State did to Kentucky and its $20 million-plus roster was no joke. The 12th-ranked Wildcats were outmatched, outsmarted, outmaneuvered and outplayed by the 17th-ranked Spartans. Mark Pope suffered only a handful of mind-boggling losses in 41 games on the program. Tuesday night's defeat was alarmingly difficult, the worst of his youth.
It was also Pope's first time coaching Tom Izzo's team, and boy did it look like it.
“The No. 1 communication failure is assuming you did it,” Pope told CBS Sports before Tuesday's loss, later adding, “words mean different things to all of us. If you apply experience to these words, they mean something.” Very another.”
These words would prove prophetic because Kentucky is in a bad mood and Pope takes all the blame because his messages are clearly not getting through. Thanksgiving is still over a week away. Kentucky has more than enough time to get its act together.
But this is the most disappointing team in college basketball through the first two and a half weeks of the season.
“We're nowhere near the team we want to be and we can't waste another second trying to be that,” Pope said. “We are disappointed and discouraged and everything is completely confused right now.”
All that preseason hope, top 10 hype and hopes of improvement after a stunning first year? It all came crashing down on Tuesday night. This kind of crisis is the exact reason why Kentucky and John Calipari had to part ways 18 months ago, giving Pope the opportunity to restore unbridled optimism to his alma mater. Through five games this season, Kentucky is 3-2 with a 0-2 record against top-ranked opponents, including a blow to the jaw last week against a hated rival. Louisville.
Michigan State, on the other hand, is 4-0 with a pair of wins over SEC opponents; the Spartans fought back Arkansas 69–66, November 8.
“I've obviously failed… until today. But we're not going to lose this season,” Pope said. “I do [the job] Badly. I won’t do it bad anymore.”
It doesn't help that Kentucky's starting point guard (Jaland Low) and his best defender (Jayden Quintans) both cannot play due to injury. But this team has deeper problems than missing two key pieces. He was paid millions and millions and millions to be able to overcome his injuries. That depth didn't matter to Michigan State.
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“Their talent is obvious,” Izzo told CBS Sports after the win. “We watched the Arkansas tape, and I told my staff that the Lakers were coming to us. Back then, with these guys, it looked like Lakers Plus.
Despite the praise, Izzo and Michigan State apparently saw an opportunity to exploit Kentucky on defense. His weaknesses were obvious and exposed Tuesday night as Sparty scored 1.17 points per possession. MSU point guard Jeremy Fiers had a career-high 13 assists, highlighting the huge deficit as Kentucky didn't have Lowe to offset Fiers' prowess on the field. Besides this, Jackson Kohler scored 20 points and role player Kerr Tan scored a career-high 15 points for Michigan State.
Izzo's team played together. They played as if they knew each other, trusted each other.
Kentucky looked like a team of talented players who still didn't know each other's full names.
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“What about 100 damn percent?” Izzo said. “People play for their jersey. People who care about where they are and the players they play with. … Recruiting in the transfer portal is almost more important than winning games. Not in Michigan.”
Izzo was by no means going to take a dig at Kentucky, but his views on the portal and the transactional nature of college basketball are well documented at this point. On Tuesday night, his philosophy won again – and finally.
“Their commitment to me should be my commitment to them, and that still matters,” Izzo said.
You know what's worse than being a high-quality team that performs poorly? Being a high-quality team that underperforms but is considered the most expensive roster in the sport. The problem with spending a lot of money on players is that if it goes wrong, it can become stigmatizing. This could become the team's calling card. This may be what most people talk about when they talk about your team.
Now it is a symbol of Kentucky. Because nothing on the floor can counteract it.
“My messages are not resonating with the guys right now, that’s my responsibility,” Pope said.
I've never seen Pope like I did Tuesday night in the stands after the game. It took him almost 50 minutes before the end of the game to appear at the press conference. He looked quietly angry, but stubbornly determined. He had respectful but brief answers to legitimate questions. To be honest, he looked a little broken. Five games have passed, and this is already a turning point in the season. The UK staff knew this game would be a key learning opportunity, just nobody I saw that the insertion of this level was approaching.
Michigan State wanted to host a boxing match, but Kentucky refused to participate.
“We knew that, as Coach Izzo put it, it was going to be a football game on the hardwood,” senior Jackson Kohler said.
As shocked as Pope seemed afterwards, he knew his team was vulnerable. Before Tuesday's game, I asked him what big area he needed to improve in. He pointed to the enormous opportunity for growth for Kentucky because they are a strong team, a team that knows how to give it their all and find how to push their limits against the best competition.
“These guys can be physical, but how do you get them to accept it?” – said Pope. “You just have to sell it every day. You just have to have the same conversation every single day. And then you move up one level at a time… We might have to go through some real hell before we really evolve into what this band can be. I know we can figure it out.”
About eight hours later, Pope had few answers, but he maintained faith that he would find them. He promised that this season would not be a failure. A similar promise will be fulfilled in Kentucky. Pope knew the job would be challenging and never shied away from the pressure and criticism that awaited the moment the team failed to achieve success.
The moment has arrived.
Now he's taking his first real test to figure out how to solve a problem that was entirely of his own making—and an expensive one at that. How he does it will not only define Kentucky for the next four months, but it will also be the telling story of how he handles the toughest job in college basketball.
