The Kentucky Wildcats secured a much-expected 103-67 win over the North Carolina Central Eagles tonight. But what caught everyone’s attention was Mark Pope’s not-so-composed outburst at junior forward Brandon Garrison during the game. The coach stormed onto the court after a lousy play.

Garrison put up five points on 1 of 2 shooting, made all three of his free throws, and added two assists and a steal. But what made him face Pope’s wrath was his two turnovers, one of which he lost and jogged back on defense, looking like a player who didn’t care enough…

Pope wasted no time. He didn’t wait for the whistle or some stoppage in play to make his point. He called a timeout himself and sent Garrison straight to the bench for the remainder of the game.

A fan clip captured the coach yelling, “Go sit down, go sit down!”

In the post-game interview, Pope didn’t hold back when discussing what he expects from his players in terms of effort.

“We just have a standard that we have to live up to, and we’re not,” Pope said. “We don’t really know what it means to compete yet, which is terrifying, but we will learn.”

Later in the press conference, a reporter reminded the coach of previous chatter about their competitive practices all summer. Was that an overlooked media narrative, or what is the real issue with the Wildcats?

“It hasn’t translated yet, but it will,” Mark Pope said of the current reality with his team. “We’re going to be so proud of this team. We’re not yet, but we will be. And that competitive spirit, man, I’ve done a poor job… We’re gonna find it. We’re gonna die trying, and so it’s there. We just gotta get it, and we gotta find a way to do it, and we gotta get guys outside of themselves. We gotta get guys living and dying for this team and this gym with this fan base and in a competitive game.”

Otega Oweh is the only Wildcats player who’s started all 46 games during Pope’s tenure. Even the team regular was shocked.

“No,” Oweh admitted when asked if he had witnessed this level of anger before today’s game. “But it was justified. It gets to a point where, as players, we gotta be sick and tired of the same thing over and over again. So, I mean, it’s what was right in the moment.”

Oweh even confirmed that the coach did break a clipboard over his knee.

But today, Garrison wasn’t the only player receiving a wake-up call.

Kam Williams and Jaland Lowe also didn’t touch the floor in the first half of the game. Lowe, who has been managing a shoulder issue, eventually played eight minutes, while Williams was on the court for 13. They both scored 2 points.

According to KSR’s Jack Pilgrim, “Both players had to run stairs in practice on Monday.”

Mark Pope has always held the standards at Kentucky sky high. Even NBA star Amari Williams, who used to play for Pope, recently recalled the head coach’s mantra of ‘standards over comfort.’

During his tenure as a Wildcat, he faced one of the most brutal practice punishments the program has seen, all because a teammate wasn’t five minutes early to practice.

So, coach Pope made the entire team run “17s,” a drill where players sprint sideline to sideline 17 times at full speed. But instead of one 17, Pope ordered seventeen of these sets in a row. That’s nearly 300 sprints, over five miles of all-out running. The coach eventually cut the drill short because he needed to be somewhere else. The punishment ultimately became infamously known as “Seventeen 17s.”

With Pope’s message delivered and his intentions clear to get his players in line, many will be keeping an eye on the team to see whether their attitude changes.

The reality of the situation surrounding Mark Pope and the Wildcats

While the Wildcats (6-4) were ranked No. 18 last week, their loss against the Gonzaga Bulldogs led fans to call for coach Pope’s removal. They finished the game shooting under 27% from the field and 7-34 from three. It kicked them out of this week’s AP Top 25 Men’s College Basketball Poll.

The team is currently led by senior guard Otega Oweh, who is the top scorer (13.7) and has the most steals (1.3) per game. However, in their game against the Eagles, it was freshman Jasper Johnson who led the team, going 6-10 from the field and scoring 22 points.

With fresh talent the coach can count on, the Wildcats will play their next game against the Indiana Hoosiers on December 13 at Rupp Arena, where, per ESPN, the home side is favored at 62.3%. Following this, the team will play:

• Against the No. 22-ranked St. John’s Red Storm on December 20.
• Against the Bellarmine Knights on December 23.
• Against the No. 12-ranked Alabama Crimson Tide on January 3.

With the Hoosiers up next and two ranked matchups on the horizon, Pope and his troops now enter the part of their schedule where the very standards the coach has set for his team need to translate.

Injury-wise, top freshman Jayden Quaintance continues to recover from a torn ACL, while Mo Dioubate is day-to-day.