Mark Pope has suffered his worst loss at Kentucky thus far. Pope’s No. 12-ranked Wildcats fell 89-79 at home to Arkansas Saturday afternoon — and it wasn’t an ordinary upset defeat. The contest marked Pope’s first meeting with former Kentucky head coach John Calipari, whom Pope replaced after Calipari left for Arkansas last April.

The Kentucky Wildcats have played eight SEC games and currently sit with a 4-4 record in conference play. If the Wildcats want to have a winning record in SEC play, they have to find a way to finish 6-4 or better in SEC play and to do that;

The Wildcats have now given up more than 1.2 points per possession in 5 of their last 9 power-conference games. Since that streak began on Dec. 21, UK has gone 4-5 in such games and has a schedule-adjusted defensive rating that ranks 162nd nationally, per BartTorvik. Can this issue be fixed?