Kentucky basketball’s loss to Missouri left everyone in BBN feeling miserable on Wednesday, especially with the brutal way that their team lost that one. The Wildcats had an eight-point lead with 4:37 to go, only to crumble in the final minutes and allow Missouri to go on a 15-2 run to close things out. It was embarrassing to say the least.
Now, Kentucky sits at 9-6 on the season, including 2-6 against power conference teams. The Wildcats let a lead slip away on their home floor in brutal fashion, against what is now seen as a quad 2 loss. So, how is Mark Pope feeling two days after the loss? Here was his response when asked on Friday: “There’s no time for indulging and feeling. I spent a lot of time feeling like I’d like to curl up a bit and kill myself, but that’s actually not what we do. We raise up and we get to work and we find answers, and that’s actually where the great part of life comes from, is answering the bell.”
That may sound familiar. That’s because it is. Two years ago, Pope’s former coach, Rick Pitino, had a somewhat similar response after his St. John’s team lost to Creighton: “When we lose, I hate the f–king world. I feel like I want to kill myself, jumping into the cold and die of frostbite.” That seems to be where Pope got the very dark energy from, because his former coach at Kentucky has that type of attitude after losses. Although the comment is vulgar, it’s a way to describe how down you are about something, and Kentucky fans know that Pope gets down after losses. Now we know where that attitude after losses came from, his former coach Rick Pitino. There is no sugercoating things with those two coaches…