On his radio show following Kentucky’s blowout road loss to Ole Miss, Mark Pope admitted to a caller that he and the team grew frustrated with the result at halftime, where Kentucky found themselves trailing 31-54.

The fan mentioned blood on Pope’s hand and sleeve as he came out of the locker room to a 23-point deficit.

“There may have been some completely destroyed furniture in the locker room,” he said candidly.

The Wildcats’ falling short to the Rebels on the road came directly on the heels of their gut-wrenching home loss to Arkansas. With injuries mounting and pressure from fans building, it’s easy to see how Pope and the team were heated.

Yet for Pope, it’s a much simpler dilemma.

The Big Blue Standard

“We have a really high standard at the University of Kentucky,” he said. “And we’re not playing to that standard.”

Even in a dry stretch, Mark Pope understands the assignment, and it’s clearly eating at him to fail that esteemed standard. Still, he emphasized not becoming “emotionally belligerent” in his anger, elaborating, “This game begs you to lash out at your players but that has limited short-term returns.”

Pope has become known for his mild mannerisms and a philosophy with the visible absence of anger, but the strain that the ‘Cats current losing streak has put on him and the team seems to be testing that mindset.

At 15-7 (4-5 in the SEC) Kentucky has slowly trickled down throughout both the conference and national standings. With two home matchups on deck next, Coach Pope and the team will have a good opportunity to get things back on track before March.

Injuries or not, home or away, the time to win is now, and Mark Pope simply expressing his understanding of that knowledge goes a long way. His next test comes in Rupp Arena on Saturday, Feb. 8, against the conference-worst South Carolina Gamecocks.

A must-win, if there ever was one.

What a horrible Tuesday night in Oxford.

After Kentucky’s deflating loss to Arkansas on Saturday, that “stink” followed them as they traveled on the road to Ole Miss. What was an opportunity to get back on the right track, quickly turned into another loss and another learning opportunity.

Trailing by as much as 27 points at one point, Kentucky made a run in the second half, making it a somewhat ‘respectable’ 14-point loss.

While they shot 50 percent from the field and over 47 percent from three, they had no answer for the Rebels on the defensive end. Giving up 98 points and forcing just one turnover is the short synopsis of just how bad Kentucky’s defense was.

Following the game, Mark Pope accepted the blame.

“I didn’t help the guys enough try to find answers,” he said. “We still shoot 50 percent from the field in the game, and are 21 (assists) and 8 (turnovers). Which is what we want. The biggest frustration is on the defensive end. I’m doing a poor job of finding answers to that right now.”

With the SEC and NCAA Tournaments just a over month out, those answers need to be found quickly.

For the third straight game, Lamont Butler has headlined Kentucky’s injury report as “OUT”. While Kentucky certainly misses him, especially defensively, they will have to adjust and try to get used to winning without him.

Following the loss to Arkansas, Mark Pope was asked about what has been a foggy (to say the least) scenario regarding Butler’s predicament. Unfortunately, his words paint a bleak picture.

“I just don’t know… we’re kind of just trying to navigate the space,” he said. “There’s a lot to it that I’m not going to share, because it’s his stuff, but we’re trying to figure out how to proceed right now.”

“I would tell you more but we just really, genuinely don’t know yet. We’ll figure out more in the next couple weeks, I assume at some point we’re gonna take another shot at this and see how it goes.”

Butler’s absence has overshadowed Kerr Kriisa’s absence as well, whose energy would be very beneficial. After Kentucky’s loss to Ole Miss, their fourth loss over the last five games, Pope provided an update, but a not-so-optimistic one.

“I don’t know,” Pope said of the status of Butler and Kriisa. “We have to figure this out with the guys we have. That’s what we are focused on. That’s the job.”

The prospect of even a few more weeks of basketball without Butler is daunting to say the least, especially considering the fact that we’re just a little more than a month out from March Madness.

Buying Time

Even so, with Andrew Carr trending positively and returning to the rotation and guys off the bench getting more comfortable with increased minutes, the Wildcats should have the facilities to put up a fight on a game-to-game basis until Butler can, hopefully, come back,

In spite of their recent struggles, injuries and otherwise, Kentucky is still a ranked team, but they have eight conference games remaining.

Point guard duties will once again fall on Jaxson Robinson and Travis Perry. Kentucky will need significant minutes from both until Butler or Kriisa return at full strength. Saturday’s game against South Carolina becomes a must-win.