WATCH: Mark Pope, Kentucky players recap loss to Alabama

Mark Pope, Andrew Carr, and Koby Brea sat down with reporters to recap Kentucky’s 96-83 loss to Alabama, the Crimson Tide’s first sweep of the Wildcats since 2021. Kentucky got off to a hot start (leading 30-18 midway through the first half), but ran out of gas against a good Alabama team, hungry for a win after back-to-back losses.

“Really disappointing outcome,” Pope said. “Congratulations to Alabama. They’re a terrific team. They play really hard. They responded well to their last two setbacks, and we just couldn’t quite slow him down enough for long enough to win the game.”

“They play really fast,” Koby Brea, who finished with a team-high 20 points, said. “They have a lot of skilled guys, and I feel like everybody there knows their role. They play as a team. They guard pretty well, and offensively, you know, they’re getting it out and they’re running. They help each other play to their to their own skills. So I think when you have a group like that, it’s kind of hard to slow something down because you have guys coming off the bench that are able to do the same thing.”

Pope said he was proud of his team’s effort on the road, but ultimately, the Cats made too many mistakes. Kentucky turned the ball over 13 times, leading to 24 Alabama points. The Crimson Tide had 23 fastbreak points to the Cats’ six.

“We’re game three in [to a new season] and playing against a really good team on the road and clearly, we have to get way better,” Pope said. “And so I’m proud of our young guys’ effort. They are getting better, and we’ve got to keep getting better faster, and then, we have to really focus on, we’ve got to play some perfect basketball in terms of only making our mistakes, not making mistakes that aren’t us. We have to make mistakes the way we play and there were too many tonight where it was mistakes that weren’t the way we play.”

See it all below, including comments from Andrew Carr on his best SEC performance yet.

Subscribe to the KSR YouTube Channel for press conferences, interviews, original shows, fan features, and exclusive content.

More Kentucky News and Views on the KSR YouTube Channel

Kentucky Sports Radio has expanded its coverage of the Wildcats in the most ridiculous manner possible on our YouTube Channel. Here you will be able to find interviews with coaches and players, as well as commentary from the KSR crew. From Rapid Reactions following big events to our lengthy lineup of live shows, subscribe to the KSR YouTube Channel to stay up to date on everything happening around the Big Blue Nation.