Kentucky basketball gets no time to feel sorry for itself.
Just a week after a 96-88 loss to Louisville, a game where the defense completely collapsed. Mark Pope's "distracted" team has to fly to New York for another massive test: the Champions Classic against Michigan State.
This is no longer a "measuring stick" game; it’s a "stop-the-bleeding" game. The Cats just failed their first big test in bad fashion, getting down 20 before fighting back. Now, in front of a national audience at Madison Square Garden, they have to prove it was a fluke and not the start of a trend.