Mark Pope on Alabama loss: ‘We can be so much better’

Mark Pope and Kentucky fell at home to Alabama 102-97 in quite the basketball game in the SEC. The No. 8 Wildcats brought a lot to the table but the No. 4 Crimson Tide were just a little bit better.

Pope threw that word out during the postgame presser though. He felt Kentucky wasn’t even close to their potential.

It was only their fourth loss of the season and there was no shame in losing to a top SEC team like Alabama. But Pope promised Kentucky would be better.

“We can be so much better,” Pope said postgame. “I think that’s the biggest thing. I mean, listen, Alabama’s terrific team. I mean, they’re a great team. And it’s not taking anything away from Alabama when I say that, but we just, we’ve left so much on the table. There’s so much room for us to grow. There’s so many spaces where we can get better. In particular, playing this style of game, and that’s going to be the nature of the season.”

Mark Pope, Kentucky promise to be better

“We played our first five games in league. (All of those games were) against teams that are in the top 25 right now,” Pope said. “It’s the nature of this league right now, and the most important thing for us is we can’t waste any energy or any time on non constructive things. It’s a race to see how fast we can get better. And that’s not easy. I’ll be a much better post game guy four hours from now, but, that’s kind of the speed we have to go at this.”

Otega Oweh led the way with 21 points, six rebounds and three assists in this game. Lamont Butler added 17 points, four rebounds and eight assists.

“We had some issues the first five minutes,” Pope added. “Transition was an issue, the rest of the game with the offensive glass was an issue. We gave up 15 offensive rebounds. That’s really, really tough. We let them shoot 39% of the three point line. That’s really tough. And we sent them to free throw line 40 times. When you do those things, it makes it a really tough package to get a win right. That’s like the trifecta right now, and so, you know, the answers are those three things.”

Pope and Kentucky will be back in action next Saturday on the road against Vanderbilt. It should be enough time to rectify their issues from the Alabama game and get back on the winning end of things.