The phone lines at ESPN Louisville are ringing off the hook, and the callers aren’t happy. For Mark Pope and the Kentucky Wildcats, a new season’s optimism has curdled into primetime fan fury after just two SEC games.

After Kentucky lost at home to Missouri, which was not ranked, 73-68 on Wednesday, one Kentucky fan said on ESPN, “We can see the writing on the wall. The team sucks, and we paid a lot of money to get it.” This harsh review shows how impatient the fans are getting as the Wildcats fell to 0-2 in SEC play, which is the worst start for the program since 2005.

The numbers show that the anger is real. Kentucky has a record of 9-6, with only one win over a ranked team. Two good wins over Indiana and St. John’s won’t be enough to get you into the NCAA Tournament. Losing to an unranked Missouri is bad news for Kentucky’s chances in the tournament.

After the loss, Pope himself said that the team lacked chemistry, saying, “It’s a work in progress, and it is frustratingly slow.” He made this admission even though he had all of his players available for the first time this season. In every major conference game except a 31-31 tie with North Carolina, Kentucky was behind at halftime. This suggests that the team’s offensive problems were not due to injuries. The team couldn’t score in the last few minutes, which hurt them the most. Missouri outscored Kentucky 15-2 in the last 4:30 of regulation.

On Saturday, Mississippi State comes to town. The upcoming game is a critical test for Pope’s tenure. If he loses again, fans will want him to step down. If Kentucky wants to play basketball in March, it can’t lose again. Pope said there would be results. He needs to deliver results immediately to secure his position.

Mark Pope admits Kentucky fans have every right to be furious

The fall happened quickly and brutally. Kentucky lost 73-68 at home to Missouri on Wednesday, which was their worst start in the SEC in 20 years. The Wildcats hadn’t started conference play 0-2 since 2005-06, and this was their first loss at home in the conference since 2012-13. The fanbase’s patience had worn thin.

Mark Pope admitted that fans were angry after the loss and told reporters, “BBN has the right to do and say and act however they want. They’re the greatest fans in the world, and they should be. I’m sure they’re incredibly, incredibly frustrated and upset. So they get the right to do whatever they want.”

When you look at Kentucky’s investment, the sting hurts more. The program is said to have spent $22 million in the transfer portal this offseason, which is more than any other team in the US. The Wildcats were supposed to compete for a national championship with that much money, not just be doormats in their conference. Instead, Pope’s expensive roster has led to historic failure.

Now Mark Pope has to deal with the fact that both his coaching choices and the way he built his roster didn’t work out. There is no longer any room for mistakes.

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