Mark Pope says Kentucky faced internal frustration against Alabama

The Kentucky basketball team expressed frustrations with each other against Alabama in the first half.

Kentucky Wildcats' Denzel Aberdeen (1) dribbles past Alabama Crimson Tide's Labaron Philon (0) during game. Mandatory Credit: David Leong-Imagn Images | David Leong-Imagn Images

The Kentucky Wildcats were all out of sorts in their 15-point loss to Alabama. It's become a nasty trend under Mark Pope, but Kentucky fell behind quickly on Saturday, and according to Mark Pope, his team was pretty frustrated with each other.

The Wildcats were down double-digits for the first time in Saturday's game around the 8-minute mark of the first half. From there, things got worse, and Pope's team was down by as much as 21 points, where they then took a 16-point deficit into halftime. Kentucky fans know that frustration will come when you're down, but their team expressed internal frustration and even got chippy with each other. Pope detailed the hardship that his team faced, where one guy calmed things at halftime. Even though it really was a chippy scene, the Kentucky head coach was encouraged to see his team express themselves. Here is what he had to say on what happened late in the first half during his call-in radio show Monday night:

"Our guys got pretty chippy towards the end of the first half, which was, which was a very welcomed response with the film from me. They got really chippy with each other, and the frustration was overflowing a little bit, and they got really vocal, and it was everything going wrong. That was the most comforting thing that happened towards the end of the first half. ...As we were dealing with all the frustration that we brought on ourselves in the first half, Otega was the guy that kind of gathered the guys together as they were interpreting each other and just ushered them into the locker room. When the story is written on this team, it'll be moments like that that we look back and be like, you know, those are key pivotal moments and we just need to keep persevering and growing."

When a team is down by as much as Kentucky was from the eight minute mark and on in the first half alone, coaches want to see their team respond. For Mark Pope, he didn't want his team to respond like they did at the beginning of December, where they would have folded in terms of effort. Even though Kentucky never regained the lead in the game from the 16:16 mark in the first half and on, they never just quit. This one was purely on very bad execution on both ends of the floor, not really any other way to put Saturday's embarrassing loss for Kentucky.

The Wildcats have November problems in January. That's the simplest way to categorize Kentucky's issues, and right now, they are not executing well with each other, and that mainly boils down to a lack of on-court identity and chemistry, but it's also on coaching to get the rotations right and help prevent his team to continue falling behind quickly in these marquee games. Pope and the Wildcats have a lot of things to work through as their backs are already against the wall just two games into SEC play.