Taking the podium for his postgame press conference, Mark Pope was visibly upset.

Pope had made it clear prior that he hates to lose and, less than an hour before he found himself in front of the media, his Cats fell just short in a shootout against No. 4 Alabama 102-97. The result had the head coach in a less than chipper mood.

“It’s a race to see how fast we can get better,” he said. “That’s not easy. I’ll be a much better postgame guy four hours from now, but that’s kind of the speed we have to go at this.”

The loss was significant as it broke UK’s undefeated streak against opponents ranked within the top 15 of the AP Top 25 poll, but, likely more importantly to Coach Pope, it also marked the first loss of this Kentucky team inside Rupp Arena. In fact, despite having played two full seasons at Kentucky during his collegiate tenure, the loss marked only the third time ever that Pope had tasted defeat within the confines of the venue.

As a player, Pope went a combined 62-7, clinching two SEC regular season titles, the 1995 SEC Tournament championship and, most notably, the 1996 National Championship. During those seven losses, only one, against Mississippi State in 1995, took place in Rupp Arena. Pope also suffered defeat in the venue in 2019 as head coach at Utah Valley.

Prior to taking the court against the Crimson Tide, Kentucky boasted an 11-0 home record with multiple ranked wins, but, on Saturday, a win was not in the cards as Alabama shot 44% from the field and 38% from deep on 34 attempts, being propelled by a combined 49 points from Grant Nelson and Mark Sears.

Kentucky had struggled in multiple facets of the game and, when discussing game plan and what in particular worked for his Tide, Alabama Head Coach Nate Oats made it no secret that part of his plan was to isolate certain players on Kentucky’s roster and try to crack some of the togetherness the team had displayed that made it so dangerous.

“I kind of stole the term ‘seal’ from Joe Mazzulla, I’ve spent some time up there in Boston (with the Celtics) and they attack seals,” Oats said. “Killer whales, they eat seals for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and they always attack in schools. We’re going to try to attack mismatches with five guys and I think we had a pretty good awareness of who the mismatches were.”

This, in particular, was notable as it has been a core piece of Pope’s philosophy since taking the job at UK that ‘togetherness’ and ‘unity’ are the strengths of this Kentucky roster composed of and rebuilt entirely in the offseason with mostly veteran transfers, many of which came from vastly smaller schools.

Targeting “mismatches” on both ends of the floor, Alabama sought to create cracks in the Kentucky lineup and force Cats to play more as individuals instead of the strong cohesive unit they are known to be.

While it was enough to get the win for the Tide, questions still linger as to how strongly this strategy actually worked at its core goal as the Cats refused to crumble, logging 20 assists as a team and scoring 97 points despite injuries to Lamont Butler and Andrew Carr.

It was this idea, though, that prompted a question to be pitched to Pope asking whether or not he believed, late in the game, that individuals on the team began playing, again, as individuals as opposed to the team-first force they were known to be.

While pitched as simply a question, Kentucky’s head coach seemed to take exception to the notion, passionately pushing back on the idea and shutting down any implications of cracks within his squad.

“No, I didn’t feel that. I didn’t feel that at all,” Pope said. “I don’t think it was selfish play at all, I felt like it was exactly the opposite. I felt like we needed to be a little hungrier.”

Pope acknowledged Alabama’s ability to create mismatches within the confines of basketball strategy, but said that it did not cause his players to lose their team cohesion psychologically.

“It wasn’t a matter of guys being selfish, going one on one,” he said. “It was guys actually not earning plays for themselves enough. That’s how you attack a defense like they showed.”

If one wasn’t sure Pope took exception to the question based just on what he had said prior, he finished his analysis — and ultimately press conference entirely — by seeming to push back on the question being asked in the first place.

“I got beautiful guys, my guys are fighting for each other,” he said. “I know you’re not trying to push that narrative, but there’s zero part of my guys that are in this for themselves. That doesn’t exist at all, these guys are fighting for each other.”

In fact, Pope barely took a breath from his last line before thanking those in attendance for the interview and departing the podium for his postgame radio show. While never dropping his polite demeanor or saying anything unfiltered, it was perhaps the most flustered Pope has appeared after any question following any loss UK has taken this season.

Now looking to put Alabama in the past for the time being, Pope and his team will have a chance to rest during the midweek before returning to action on Saturday, Jan. 25, on the road against the Vanderbilt Commodores.

Tipoff against Vanderbilt inside Memorial Gymnasium in Nashville is scheduled for 2:30 p.m. ET and will air live on ESPN.