"Are you baiting me into an answer here?": Mark Pope gets triggered at Otega Oweh question during Alabama vs Kentucky

Coach Mark Pope and the Kentucky Wildcats lost their marquee matchup against the Alabama Crimson Tide 96-83 on Saturday evening despite holding a healthy 30-18 lead midway through the first half. The Crimson Tide shut down the Wildcats' offensive weapons, including star Otega Oweh.

The guard is averaging 15.7 points, 4.7 rebounds and 1.6 assists this season but he was effectively nullified against Alabama, as he recorded just 2 points, 6 rebounds and 2 assists in the game.

His performance put an end to a 26-game streak where he had scored in double figures. To add insult to injury, Kentucky's top scorer fouled out in the fourth quarter. Before the game, he was the only Southeastern Conference (SEC) player to have registered 10 or more points in every game this season.

During his postgame news conference, Mark Pope was triggered when a reporter asked how coach Nate Oats' team nullified the threat posed by Oweh.

“You baiting me into an answer here,” Pope said. “I think Alabama is a terrific defensive team. Really disappointing outcome. 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 them down enough for long enough to win the game."

"The game got a little helter-skelter," Pope said. "We got a little fatigued. We had some protection issues. We had some defensive coverage issues."

Mark Pope under pressure at Kentucky

The Kentucky Wildcats have lost six of their last ten games under Mark Pope. The loss that pushed some fans over the edge was the 89-79 defeat to former Wildcats coach John Calipari at the Rupp Arena.

Pope's team is under pressurem facing two ranked opponents in their final five games, including the No. 1 Auburn. This season, the Wildcats have lost eight of their 15 Quad 1 games, jeopardizing their chances of securing a favorable March Madness ranking.

During Thursday's segment of "Locked on College Basketball," analyst Isaac Schade predicted that the Wildcats would miss out on a top-four seeding.

"For me it’s Kentucky and the reason why is, their closing schedule is very very difficult, they have still got to host Vandy (Vanderbilt), they got to go to Alabama, they got to go to Oklahoma, they host Auburn they got to go to Missou (Missouri) and really their only game that’s like yeah you are definitely gonna win is hosting LSU," Schade said.

Mark Pope arrived in Kentucky to much fanfare last summer following the departure of former coach John Calipari. However, with an 18-9 record and a challenging schedule ahead of March Madness, the tides have turned against the former Wildcats captain.