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The SEC schedule has not been kind to Mark Pope and his Kentucky Wildcats.
Ole Miss responded to Saturday’s loss against top-ranked Auburn in a major way, upsetting Kentucky 98-84 on Tuesday night in a game they led by as many as 27 points.
Matthew Murrell led the way for the Rebels with 24 points, while Dre Davis added 17 points and Jaylen Murray chipped in with 15 points and 10 assists.
Otega Oweh (24 points, six rebounds), Jaxson Robinson (18 points) and Amari Williams (12 points, 11 rebounds, 10 assists) led the way for Kentucky, which has now dropped five of its last eight games in SEC play.
That had fans riled up on Tuesday, with much of the ire directed toward Pope:
Suttid48 @Suttid48
Mark Pope’s style of not yelling at his players and not demanding more out of them is going to be a downfall for this team. Get in their ass!!!!!!#BBN
Gavin Downard @GavinDownard
Mark Pope is absolutely nothing like Rick Pitino and that’s partly why this team is mind numbingly soft. https://t.co/ZUWIVuhewv
It’s been a rough few days for Kentucky fans. On Saturday, the Wildcats lost to a mediocre Arkansas team, 89-79, which is of course coached by former Kentucky head honcho John Calipari. That one stung.
Then came Tuesday’s effort, as Kentucky continued to struggle on the defensive end. Ole Miss deserves some credit for playing fantastic team offense—the Rebels finished with 24 assists to just one turnover and shot 13-of-30 from three (43.3 percent)—but Kentucky didn’t exactly make life difficult for the Rebs.
The Wildcats will have a very winnable matchup against South Carolina (10-12) on Saturday before a rough stretch starting next week that includes matchups against Tennessee, Texas, Vanderbilt, Alabama, Oklahoma, Auburn and Missouri.
The Wildcats better figure out how to stop the bleeding, and fast, or the rest of the SEC schedule is going to chew them up.
