Mark Pope says Vanderbilt 'made us pay' with their ability to force turnovers

Kentucky was upset by Vanderbilt on the road Saturday in a game where they just let it slip right out of their hands. Coming back from a 14-point hole at halftime, the Wildcats eventually took the lead thanks to a run, but it was then cut short thanks to the story of the game for Kentucky, which was turnovers.

A big reason Kentucky was down 14 points at half was because of turnovers. Kentucky had 10 miscues in the first half, including 8 of those within the final 10 minutes of the half, which led Vandy to a 13-2 run to close out the opening half. Then, the Wildcats took much better care of the ball, climbing back and taking the lead with around 10 minutes to play in the game. Then, the turnovers struck again, with Vanderbilt taking advantage of Kentucky sloppy and lazy play down the stretch. From there, turnovers led to a Commodore run that Kentucky was unable to ever regain the lead after.

Mark Pope spoke to media after the loss, where he said Vanderbilt really made them pay with their ability to create turnovers. That was an emphasis for the Wildcats coming in, but that exact thing ended up costing them in big ways throughout the game, and sealed the win for Vanderbilt.

"They exerted a ton of pressure on us all game long, which is what they do. They turned us over 17 times, which is one of the things they do best. ...The biggest challenge tonight for us was just, we gave them the ball. We just kept giving them the ball. Which, [we're] one of the top ball protection teams in the country. There's some spaces in the game where you feel like you have some confidence where you've kind of proven yourselves. But, when you start leaking there the game gets super hard. But I was really proud of our guys for adjusting some other things, and Vanderbilt made us pay, for our dedication to try and keep this team off the (free-throw) line and handle them in transition and handle their penetration. You're going to give up some things, and they answered the bell by going to those things and those guys delivered in big moments."

Kentucky was just out-hustled in the turnover battle on Saturday, and it turned out to be a key factor throughout the game, leading to an upset win for Vanderbilt. They'll need to tighten the ball-security against an aggressive Tennessee defense on Tuesday in Knoxville.