Kentucky won the battle, but Mark Pope is still losing the war with John Calipari

Kentucky fans are still basking in the glow of one of the best March moments in recent memory, as Otega Oweh's half-court heave at the buzzer capped off a frantic finish and helped the Wildcats force overtime against Santa Clara.

(Whether that shot should ever have happened — both because Santa Clara coach Herb Sendek called timeout after the made 3 and because the clock failed to start immediately upon Oweh touching the ball — is another question for another story.)

UK slowly but surely took control in the extra session, escaping with an 89-84 win — Mark Pope's third NCAA Tournament victory in two seasons in Lexington. And yet, when the March adrenaline fades, Big Blue Nation is likely to be left with some uneasy questions. Like, for example: Why exactly did it take a miraculous (and controversial) finish just to force overtime against a WCC school?

There are no easy answers to that one, not after the maddeningly up-and-down year Kentucky has been through. And not with old flame John Calipari heading what seems to be a Final Four dark horse on the other side of the bracket.

Kentucky's narrow escape against Santa Clara does nothing to quite doubts about Mark Pope

I don't mean to overreact to one game. You never have to apologize for a win in March (well, unless you're Duke), and Santa Clara is better than you probably think: No. 38 overall in KenPom, playing Gonzaga tough three times and finishing 26-9 on the season. The Broncos bring a legit offense with legit, power-conference size, and that's a dangerous combination that plenty of teams would have trouble with.

But is that really where the bar is at for Kentucky, of all places? To grit out a win in which you were never able to really impose your will on either end? Pope's team made some strides forward on defense this year after some dismal performances on that end of the court in 2024-25, but old habits returned at the worst possible time on Friday. It's simply not coming together for this program in the way that fans rightfully expect, and at a certain point that falls on the coach.

And more broadly, at what point is this just who Pope is? He lost double-digit games in each of his last three seasons at BYU, never advancing past the first round of the tournament. In a vacuum, ignoring the less-than-ideal circumstances around his arrival back home at his alma mater, that's not the sort of resume — a totally different area of the country, in different recruiting waters, with good but certainly not great results — that would earn you one of the most coveted jobs in the sport.

And so far, Kentucky is getting what it paid for: good, but not great, a No. 7 seed that barely survives to see the second round. Maybe that wouldn't sting so much, maybe certain segments of this fan base would be willing to cut Pope a bit more slack, if the ceiling he and his program appear to be so acutely lacking weren't so evident down in Fayetteville, where Calipari has brought a ton of premier talent to Arkansas.

Should Kentucky have regrets amid John Calipari's resurgence at Arkansas?

Of course, the Razorbacks are hardly a perfect team either; they're a No. 4 seed in this tournament, after all. But they're also among the hottest teams in the country, winning three in a row in Nashville to claim the SEC Tournament crown before pasting Hawaii in a first-round matchup that was never remotely close. Five-star freshman guard Darius Acuff is one of the best offensive players in the country, bar none, and he's surrounded by an armada of terrorizing wings who love to get to the rim. At this point, it wouldn't surprise anybody if the Hogs put a real scare into No. 1 seed Arizona and maybe even got all the way to the Final Four.

Which, if nothing else, is still vindication of Calipari's style. Say what you will about him schematically, but he still knows how to assemble extremely talented, athletic rosters, the sort of difference-makers who truly separate you at this time of year. And he shows no signs of slowing down, with Arkansas assembling a top-10 recruiting class for next season that features three five-star prospects. Kentucky, on the other hand, has yet to sign a single prospect.

Pope has yet to prove that he can bring title-winning talent to Lexington; if anything, his handling of the Yaxel Lendeborg saga shows that he's uncomfortable swimming in these waters. That would be fine if he made up for it by doing more with less, but two years in, that doesn't appear to be the case. Kentucky fans spent years understandably bemoaning Coach Cal's shortcomings, especially after being upset by underdogs in March. It turns out that betting on talent is usually a pretty smart idea, though, and the grass isn't always greener on the other side.