Kentucky’s loss to Gonzaga is program’s most lopsided in nearly 20 years
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- Kentucky basketball lost by 35 points to Gonzaga at Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena.
- The 35-point loss was UK’s most lopsided loss in nearly 20 seasons.
- Kentucky lost by 41 points at Vanderbilt in February 2008.
Kentucky basketball’s humiliating 35-point loss to Gonzaga at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville on Friday night will go down in history.
It ranks as the Wildcats’ worst defeat in nearly 20 seasons.
Mark Pope’s program suffered its heaviest loss since February 2008 on Friday when Gonzaga topped the Cats by a 94-59 score.
That 35-point margin was UK’s biggest loss since a 41-point road loss at Vanderbilt during Billy Gillispie’s first season in charge. This means the two worst Kentucky basketball outcomes of the past 17-plus years have both come in Nashville.
“It is disappointing because we care about BBN... We’re going to do a better job showing up for them, playing for them,” UK sophomore guard Collin Chandler said postgame.
“We feel the responsibility we have to this university and this fanbase,” Pope said.
Furthermore, those defeats at Vanderbilt in 2008 and to Gonzaga on Friday represent the two worst losses ever suffered by UK in Nashville, which is considered friendly territory thanks to a large alumni base and proximity to the commonwealth.
According to Big Blue History — an unofficial record book for anything you could possibly want to know about the Cats on the hardwood — UK has played 130 all-time games in the Nashville area. The Wildcats have a 91-39 (70%) record in those contests.
Kentucky basketball suffers another blowout loss in Nashville
Gillispie’s 41-point loss at Vanderbilt saw four different Commodores score in double figures, led by 20 points from Shan Foster. UK got 21 points from Ramel Bradley and not much else.
That contest was played on Vanderbilt’s campus inside the venerable Memorial Gymnasium.
Friday’s loss is Kentucky’s largest-ever defeat at Bridgestone Arena, the downtown venue which is home to the NHL’s Nashville Predators. It also regularly serves as the site of the SEC Tournament.
All-time, UK is 14-7 (66.7%) inside Bridgestone. But Kentucky’s pst two games at the arena have been ones to forget.
Pope’s program crashed out of the SEC Tournament quarterfinals last season with a humbling 99-70 loss to Alabama. Before Friday’s debacle, that had been Kentucky’s largest margin of defeat with Pope at the helm.
Pope’s record in charge of the Wildcats is now 29-16 (64.4%) overall in 45 games; 10 of his 16 losses have come by double-digit margins, including this season’s setbacks to Michigan State and Gonzaga.
It took Pope’s predecessor, John Calipari, 191 games and more than four seasons in charge to lose 10 games by double-figure margins.
