Recapping everything Mark Pope said after Kentucky's major upset vs Vanderbilt

The Kentucky Wildcats succumbed to the Vanderbilt Commodores, 74-69, on Saturday, Jan. 25, as they see their SEC record fall to .500, 3-3. This is the second straight five-point loss for the Mark Pope-coached squad as in his first year of mentoring the squad, he has helped them to a 14-5 overall standing thus far.

During the post-game press conference, Pope detailed on a number of things that led to the disheartening defeat on the road. As a former Wildcat himself, Pope is hoping to improve on their recent string of performances in conference play, with him being tapped as the successor to now Arkansas Razorbacks tactician John Calipari.

He first addressed the 17 total turnovers his team had on Saturday, as opposed to Vanderbilt just commiting five.

"They did a good job getting us on our heels, super disappointing. This is a style of play that we love for teams to play and it's a part of the game that it's like when we're at our best offensively. For a bunch of reasons that I know and I don't, we were just heavy on our heels and credit to Vanderbilt. It's a tough lesson for us but yes, it was due to their pressure," Pope said. (0:25)

Soaking in his first campaign at the helm of the Kentucky coaching duties, Pope also shared how it's been now that he's had six games in coaching a powerhouse program in a tough conference such as the SEC.

"Everybody's good defensively. That's the great thing about this league. It's such a fun, beautiful league. Every night is going to be the biggest challenge of your season. It's nice because you don't actually have to convince your guys that. It just is every single game," he expressed. (2:30)

The 52-year-old then went to speak about how his Wildcats have fared through the conference wildfire, and how things are shaping up for them.

"We're not far away. We have some real issues that we have to find some creative answers to but, we're not far away. We did some really positive things tonight, some things I was really proud of our guys. We took some calculated guesses," Pope shared.

Despite the struggles, Mark Pope asserts that he'll take the SEC for what it is every time

From being a player to now coaching the same team he donned the team jersey for, Mark Pope is adamant to reach the top of the SEC with the Kentucky Wildcats. This is just his first season of being a head coach of his alma mater, but he said during the press conference that he'll always take the division for what it is.

"I would choose this league the way it is every single year. I think it can rip you to pieces for sure. But, our job is to keep finding a way to get better. I have a really good locker room of guys that are going to keep focused on getting better. We're not gonna lose our confidence, question each other, (and) doubt what we're doing," Pope stated. (6:25)

"We're just going to use all these experiences to get better and there's really specific things that we talk about to our guys all the time," he then added.

Moving on from two consecutive tough defeats, Pope and the Wildcats now look forward to traveling to the Thompson-Boling Arena on Tuesday, Jan. 28, to battle against the sixth-ranked Tennessee Volunteers on the road.