When 18,507 fans filed into Bridgestone Arena, they expected a tight contest between No. 11 Gonzaga and No. 18 Kentucky. Instead, they watched a rout. Gonzaga’s Braden Huff and Graham Ike combined for 48 points, outscoring Kentucky’s entire starting lineup. With challenging games ahead against Indiana, St. John’s, and Alabama, pressure is mounting on Mark Pope. Yet in the middle of the scrutiny, he has gained an unexpected supporter in Bruce Pearl.

While on the TNT Sports Show, the former Auburn head coach instead pointed fingers at the subordinates of Pope. “Mark Pope is a brilliant offensive coach… He’s a great man. He’s a great leader. I point to the assistant coaches right now,” the former coach said.

“Those are the guys who have relationships with the players. It’s time to have someone-on-one meetings with those players about who they’re playing for. That name on the front of the jersey, Kentucky, has got to mean something, and it’s got to mean more than the names on the back,” Pearl added.

While the former Auburn head coach may be defending Pope, the stats of this game do require the Wildcats to reflect.

They ended the night with 27 percent, 16 of 60 shooting. Their beyond-the-arc numbers were worse, downing only 7 of 34 shots for 21 percent 3PT shooting. The Gonzaga offense was way better.

They scored nine of eighteen 3-pointers for 50 percent shooting. The Bulldogs ended the night with 57 percent shooting from 36 to 63, a stark difference from their opponents. This game was a disaster for Kentucky. Their fans were leaving the court before the game even ended. Those who remained booed their team.

Following the 35-point loss, Mark Pope said, “We feel the responsibility that we have to this university and this fan base, and all the boos that we heard tonight were incredibly well deserved, mostly for me.” So, one positive takeaway from this game is that Pope is not sugarcoating the loss.

Mark Pope is in crisis control mode following the fourth loss to a ranked team

Kentucky has now moved through nine games this season, and while they’ve managed to collect five victories, the bigger issue lies in who those wins came against. Every success has been against an unranked opponent, offering little comfort as the Wildcats continue to falter when the competition stiffens. They’ve faced four Top-20 programs so far, and all four have handed them losses.

Gonzaga, meanwhile, has looked far more polished and battle-tested. The Bulldogs have played nine times as well, emerging with eight wins despite going up against high-level opponents such as No. 8 Alabama. Their lone setback came against seventh-ranked Michigan, but they immediately rebounded by convincingly steamrolling Kentucky.

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From the opening tip, Gonzaga took full control, jumping out to a 7-0 lead while Kentucky went scoreless for the first seven minutes. By halftime, the Wildcats were buried 43-20, and the hole only got deeper from there. The one encouraging sign, if any, is Mark Pope refusing to gloss over what happened.

“I gotta lead ’em. I have to get a better product,” Pope said after the game. “This is beyond unacceptable… There is zero universes where this is acceptable. We came out and we were paralyzed offensively. The question is why. We will try to dig in and find why.”

This statement from Pope aligns with what Pearl is asking Kentucky staff to do. Kentucky needs answers from its $22 million roster, and they need it soon, as they have multiple top-ranked teams lined up to battle them. What changes Mark Pope makes in subsequent games will be an interesting thing to witness.