Mark Pope is loving the SEC grind: "How fun is this?"

You could describe SEC basketball in a lot of ways this season. Gauntlet, roller coaster, torture chamber, bloodbath. I know you’re tired of hearing the phrase “historically strong” because I’m tired of typing it. With nine teams in the AP Top 25 and potentially 13 making the NCAA Tournament, the SEC is better than ever, making it easier than ever to say that “it just means more.”

Mark Pope being Mark Pope, he had a much different way of describing SEC play in his weekly press conference. Kentucky is 3-1 in SEC games so far, the loss to Georgia being the most unexpected result of the four. No. 4 Alabama comes to town on Saturday, one of 10 Quad 1 games remaining on the schedule.

“It’s so awesome,” Pope said of SEC play. “Like, this is so fun. We’ve played four league games now. I mean, how fun is this, right?”

The loss in Athens is obviously the lowlight so far, but Pope even found positives in that, telling reporters that the lessons they took from the defeat are already paying dividends.

“You think about, like, even the Georgia disaster, right? It was fun and learning, and it actually has made us a better team. The Georgia disaster helped us prepare for Mississippi State and for Texas A&M. And Florida, as our first game, those guys coming in here undefeated, and that epic, one of the most fun games we’ve ever got to play and witness together. They’re all so different, right? And, so they test you in different ways, and they expose you in different ways, and you get to learn so much. And I love every second of it.”

The SEC is so strong it feels like there’s an eyebrow-raising result each night (something Kentucky has already learned the hard way). On Tuesday, it was Missouri’s win over No. 5 Florida, which beat then-No. 1 Tennessee by 30 the week prior. On the same night, No. 21 Ole Miss knocked off No. 4 Alabama by ten in Tuscaloosa.

“I don’t know if anybody’s surprised,” Pope said of the upsets so far. “It seems like everybody’s ranked in the top 25 so it’s just a matter of who happens to win that night. Ole Miss obviously had a huge win this week against Alabama, right? So that was a big win. Missouri is — you know, I love that coaching staff and they had a really tough year last year, and so it’s fun to see them infusing just a massive amount of life into the program right now, but I think everybody in the league is really good. I think nobody’s surprised about that.”

Saturday’s game vs. No. 4 Alabama marks the first time in program history Kentucky has hosted three straight AP top-15 teams. Going by the current AP Poll, the Cats have five more games against ranked opponents after that. Mark Pope wouldn’t have it any other way.

“I’ve said this a bunch, but I feel bad for everybody that’s not in the SEC. And there are other great leagues, please don’t take that wrong, but it’s just like, you know, we’re battered and bruised right now, and we’re only four games into the league, and we’re getting stretched like crazy right now, and we’re only four games in, and we’re learning so much about ourselves and about how to attack this game in different ways. And that’s what you want. I mean, it’s pretty great.”

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