Kentucky knew they were heading for a rough game against Tom Izzo’s Michigan State. “Pack your switchblades,” Associate Coach Mark Fox told the team. “It’s gonna be a street fight.” And it certainly was. Izzo’s side completely blanked Kentucky’s $22 million roster, walking away with an 83-66 win. “Disappointed, discouraged, and completely discombobulated right now,” Pope said following the game. “We just have work to do.” Michigan State alum Magic Johnson has congratulated his former side for the thumping win while pointing out Mark Pope’s central issues.

Tom Izzo and Michigan State continued their dream start as they improved to 4-0.  Jaxon Kohler set the tone with 20 points, 5 boards, and 2 dimes, while Trey Fort’s 13 and Kur Teng’s 15 off the bench rounded out a ruthlessly balanced top three, but the guy who really caught Johnson’s eye was Jeremy Fears. The legend also pointed out a key statistic in which Kentucky lagged compared to MSU.

“Michigan State’s victory over Kentucky last night was impressive because they dominated the boards! Defensively, MSU was more physical than the Wildcats, and they shared the basketball offensively. Last but not least, MSU’s point guard Jeremy Fears Jr. did a great job of controlling the tempo of the game in the 83-66 win!”Johnson wrote.

Mark Pope’s team had outrebounded all of their last 4 opponents, winning the battle on the glass by an average of 15 a game. However, Michigan State flipped the script and dominated, outrebounding the Wildcats 42-29. They also outscored Kentucky in the paint 30-24. Michigan State was just more physical and more intentional than Kentucky. Otega Oweh still maintained that Kentucky can go toe to toe physically in the future. “I feel like this group has the capabilities to be that physically imposing team, playing for each other, just playing our hearts out, but we haven’t shown that yet,” Oweh said. “We all know our identity. It’s just a matter of it translating.”

Kentucky wanted to play fast, but Michigan State, led by Jeremy Fears’ 13 assists, controlled the tempo. Kentucky tried to block the paint, assuming Michigan State was not the best three-point shooting team. However, MSU scored 52% of its threes Tuesday night after shooting 21.7% in the first three games. The improvement was also due to better ball movement motivated by Fears’ passing. After the game, Mark Pope couldn’t believe his side had lost without much fight.

Mark Pope Faces Critical Test After ‘Surprising’ Meltdown

The Kentucky Wildcats are 3-2 after this loss. The only two ranked opponents they have faced have been disappointing losses. Last week, it was Louisville, and now it was MSU. It’s not just about that they lost, but also how. In that 96-88 loss, turnovers were a central issue as their 14 led to 19 Louisville points. It was Louisville’s best point total against Kentucky since 1988.

In this one, new issues cropped up for Mark Pope. “I know there’s one team that’s really, really well coached and one team that was really poorly coached. My message isn’t resonating with the guys right now. That’s my responsibility,” He said after the game. Currently, the team is struggling to find an identity, and it was a wake-up call for Pope. 

In an interview with Jeff Goodman, he revealed that these thumping losses weren’t expected of him as a coach. “I thought I had a better pulse. I thought I was doing a better job coaching than I’m doing right now. So it’s been eye-opening for me a little bit. I’m a little bit surprised,” He said. 

Last year, very few things were expected from Mark Pope. he came into an empty side and rebuilt the team from scratch within weeks. All 13 scholarship players from the 2023-24 season were gone, leaving him empty-handed. The only real building blocks in place were freshmen Travis Perry, who stayed committed, and Collin Chandler, who followed Pope from BYU. 

After aggressively hitting the portal, he built a decent squad that got Kentucky back to the second weekend of the NCAA tournament. He largely proved he could move with the big dogs in the SEC. This season, he has expectations on him. The heavy spending, coupled with a year of experience at the program under his belt. The coach is being tested and will need to act on the issue, Magic Johnson observed, coupled with his locker room issues.