Mark Pope on losing in SEC Tournament: 'This is not okay for us'

Mark Pope didn’t take Kentucky’s loss to Alabama in the SEC quarterfinals lightly. After edging out Oklahoma in the second round, the Crimson Tide took it to the Wildcats.

With a chance to put a stamp on their NCAA Tournament resume and advance to the semifinals, Kentucky flopped. Alabama won the game 99-70 and will play in Saturday’s final four, of the SEC.

Pope was asked how hard it was to flush this game away. Safe to say, the head coach embraced the difficulty.

“I hope it’s really hard ’cause this is not okay for us,” Pope said postgame. “I hope it’s really hard. But we’re here to do hard things. Like, that’s why we’re here. That’s what we’re chasing, is hard things. I hope it’s really hard and I hope we do it.”

Kentucky only tailed 45-38 at halftime but the final 20 minutes were brutal for the Wildcats. Alabama outscored them 54-32.

“We talked with it since the beginning,” Pope said of the competition in the SEC. “It’s either going to tear you to shreds or it’s going to make you better. I think either team is going to decide which is going to be their path. If you had the fortitude and togetherness to make it, it can make you better. So that’s the challenge.”

A big part of the struggles for Pope’s crew came from beyond the arc. Kentucky shot five-of-15 on three pointers.

“Yeah, again, we’ve talked about it all year long,” Pope said. “Our capacity to earn shots for each other. It would have taken a Herculean focus on that tonight. We just didn’t have it.

“I thought we competed. I thought we had a good competitive spirit in the first half. I thought it was really challenging for us in the second half.”

Pope echoed those sentiments throughout the postgame press conference. Short answers told the entire story.

“Congratulations to Alabama, they played a great game tonight,” Pope said. “(They) were aggressive tonight. Played well. Had a good pace. We were frustrated with our performance tonight.”

In the latest ESPN bracketology predictions, going into Saturday at least, Joe Lunardi had Pope and Kentucky as a No. 3 seed in the West Region. The top two seeds were Florida and Michigan State.

So now, Pope and the Wildcats will wait for Selection Sunday and look for redemption in March Madness.