Mark Pope says Kentucky's story is still being written — with good and bad chapters to come

There hasn’t been much to complain about since Mark Pope took over at Kentucky back in April. He’s been a PR gold mine since day one while stacking up roster, staff and recruiting wins in the months since, then picked up statement on-court victories vs. Duke, Gonzaga and Louisville in the non-conference schedule before the turn of the new year. If you were to give him a grade on his early coaching report card, anything besides a big ‘A’ would be crazy.

The Clemson loss was his first misstep, but you could find positives there, specifically with the team’s second-half run to even the rebounding battle — and nearly the game overall, the Wildcats cutting it to two in the final seconds. Then came the real black eye: Kentucky folding like a lawn chair in New York City, falling to Ohio State by 20 points in a game the Buckeyes controlled from what felt like the opening tip.

Pope said it was a performance that would force him to ‘lose a lot of sleep’ in the coming days, promising to ‘find answers’ and ‘learn how to function at a better level when were under this particular type of duress.’ How is he feeling about his group after returning to Lexington ahead of the holidays after some time off?

He’s excited, but frustrated. Or is he frustrated, but excited? Either way, those are the emotions he’s feeling after laying an egg in the Big Apple.

“I’m really excited. What a bad night, just devastating. It was just the worst, the worst ever,” he said during his call-in radio show. “To do it in that venue wearing this jersey, it’s devastating. … There’s nothing you can do with it but help dig in and help it make you better, right? And in long conversations with our guys and our staff and digging into the numbers, the nuts and bolts, it’s also exciting to grow and get better, and to move forward.”

When you stumble in that fashion, an opportunity to regroup presents itself, learning from mistakes in a way you wouldn’t have felt without getting punched in the mouth. Even the best teams hit those walls over the course of a great season.

He hopes that’s the case with this one.

“There are always moments where there are just galvanizing moments, right? The championship teams have those moments, for sure, whether they show up in practice or in a game, or wherever they show up because you overcame something exceptional in a moment — or you failed to do it,” Pope said. “There’s just a series of galvanizing moments, and what championship teams do is whatever they have as they go along, the story is still being written, right? That’s what you do throughout the course of the season.”

It’s their season loss on the year, and almost certainly won’t be their last. It’s an all-time SEC schedule ahead with as many as 13 teams on pace to make the NCAA Tournament. The league is going to eat itself alive going into postseason play.

How will the Wildcats respond? That’s all that matters right now — and down the road when those moments come.

“You keep writing and keep writing and keep writing,” he said. “This won’t be our last difficult moment that we have this season, for sure. The question is where does it take us.”