On Thursday, UK head coach Mark Pope met with the media. He is focused on the distracted effort that his team showed on Tuesday, something he explained further on Thursday.
“I’m going to keep going back to this concept of distracted, because that’s what I’m sitting on right now,” Pope said. “That’s kind of where I am trying to understand why we were out of character in so many ways.”
What were the specific things that Pope saw from his team that proved that there was a distraction?
“When you think about the disappointing things for us, just us flagging the ball in transition,” Pope said. “It’s so wildly out of character for our teams. We’ve been really, really disciplined. We’ve been a really good transition defensive team overall. Now, credit to Louisville, because they put a ton of pressure on you with the pace of play.”
Moving forward, Pope knows that he and his team need to turn Tuesday’s loss into something productive.
“The only thing we can do about that is be better tomorrow,” Pope said. “That’s the only way we can approach it. It’s either going to be a setback forever or you’re going to turn it into the pivotal moment in your growth.”
Kentucky’s next opportunity to grow comes against the Ohio Valley Conference’s Eastern Illinois Panthers on Friday night. Pope knows that EIU will challenge the Cats.
“They’re really incredibly disciplined team they run their actions, they screen and cut and move and it makes sense,” Pope said. “They gave Notre Dame everything they wanted.”
After suffering their first loss of the season on Tuesday, the Cats are ready to get back on the floor. Pope hopes his team learned from Tuesday’s loss and can limit distractions moving forward.