by LARRY VAUGHT
What’s been wrong with the Kentucky basketball team? That’s a question most Kentucky basketball fans have been asking and coach Mark Pope really has not been able to answer.
Many fans believe it has been a lack of effort by the players. Pope has acknowledged the same.
“I don’t think we lack a willingness to give 100 percent effort,” freshman Jasper Johnson, who had a career-high 22 points against North Carolina Central, said. “I feel like we come out every game and try to compete to the best of our abilities every night. It’s the game of basketball, you never know what can happen to impact the outcome of the game, but I always feel like our effort’s there as a team.
“I feel like we’re just trying to focus on getting better right now, both mentally and physically. Do whatever we can to come out and get wins.”
Johnson said the main problem is that UK has lost games.
“But I don’t feel like things are wrong (on the team),” Johnson said. “I just feel like we’re learning as we’re going. We don’t want to be playing our best basketball right now. We want to compete at a high level and win games, for sure, but I feel like it’s just a learning experience so far.”
Kentucky did respond to adversity last week against Indiana when it overcame a halftime deficit and won 72-60 despite going only 3-for-15 from 3-point range. Pope went with a shorter rotation in the second half when he found five players that were clicking together.
“We will be relentless and we will will ourselves into playing some great basketball. And we just willed ourselves into a win tonight,” Pope said after the Indiana game. That is what we had to do, that’s what we have to do right now. If we do that enough, then all of a sudden we are going to have some belief that we can win this way and things are going to loosen up a little bit.
“That is just a process. It’s not rocket science. If you’ve been around sports, you know it’s the process. That’s where we are right now. We have the guys to do it.”
