"Posed a bunch of difficult problems for us" - Mark Pope gets candid on struggles after Kentucky losses to John Calipari's Arkansas

The Kentucky Wildcats under coach Mark Pope were beaten 89-79 at the Rupp Arena by the Arkansas Razorbacks on Saturday evening for their second consecutive home loss. The loss was made more impactful since it came against former Wildcats coach John Calipari who resigned from the job last April.

The Razorbacks had only scored 70-plus points in one SEC game this season but dropped 89 on the Wildcats at the Rupp Arena making 13 3-pointers, which was almost double their season average of 7.3 3-pointers per game.

During his postgame news conference, Pope broke down the Razorbacks' superior shooting during the game, saying:

"I thought they shot them really well. I thought they did a nice job,' Mark Pope said. They posed a bunch of difficult problems for us and they did a good job getting downhill, getting open. They made ball screen coverage with pick and pop complicated sometimes. I thought Davis did a nice job being really aggressive in two-man game coming off floppies and they really did a terrific job making shots tonight."

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Mark Pope detailed the Wildcats' low morale after humiliating loss

The Kentucky Wildcats were huge favorites for the game against the Arkansas Razorbacks who only had one win in the Southeastern Conference this season (1-6).

During his postgame news conference, Mark Pope detailed the team's low morale after the devastating loss and the next steps for his team.

"It's super painful right now, but we can't indulge in this for very long," Mark Pope said. "It's a race to clarity and race to the next one, because that's what this league is. This is a journey for us. It's not a coronation," Pope said. "This is a journey and we're going to earn our way through it, and there's going to be some real pain on the way."

Pope and the Wildcats were booed by the Big Blue Nation inside the Rupp Arena at the end of the game with the fans turning their attention to their players and the coach after creating a hostile reception for coach John Calipari and his hastily assembled team all night.

During his postgame news conference, Calipari, Pope's predecessor who shockingly resigned in April to take the Arkansas job, backed his successor passionately.

“What Kentucky is doing and how they’re doing it — Mark Pope is doing a great job. Not a good job, a great job,” John Calipari said. “What they did today? You know what, we got ’em today. Move on, next game. It’s one game. If anybody takes it more than that, you’re crazy. It’s one game. If I take it any different with my team, I’m crazy. We just needed to win, folks. Whether it was Kentucky or anybody, we just needed to win.”

Mark Pope is facing the pressure of being the coach of a team that courts attention from all corners, a situation that his predecessor, John Calipari, was intimately familiar with.