Kentucky basketball has been through four conference games so far, and all of them have been all about what the SEC is, and that is physical and bruising. After

Georgia was simply too tough to tame on this night, handing Kentucky an 82-69 loss at Stegeman Coliseum. Brown: Kentucky basketball's Lamont Butler embodies toughness Mark Pope wants to play with Where are ex-Kentucky basketball head coaches, assistants?

Georgia was simply too tough to tame on this night, handing Kentucky an 82-69 loss at Stegeman Coliseum. Brown: Kentucky basketball's Lamont Butler embodies toughness Mark Pope wants to play ...

First-year coach Pat Kelsey has turned things around for the Cardinals. Plus, Miami is a mess, mid-major spotlight and this weekend’s games to watch.

Mark Pope says it’s a “fun” and “awesome” aspect of playing in the SEC, but it’s something that will be a challenge for the Cats on a game-to-game basis.

Before Mark Pope’s first visit to Memorial Gym as Kentucky’s coach, he strolled down memory lane to recall some funny moments from road games as a player.

Mark Pope will be the first to tell you he would not be coaching at all had he not transferred from Washington to become a Wildcat in 1994. He nearly didn’t anyway, enrolling in medical school at Columbia University as a Rhodes Scholar candidate before he quit to ‘fold laundry and hand out water’ as ‘the assistant to the operations guy’ under Mark

You could describe SEC basketball in a lot of ways this season. Gauntlet, roller coaster, torture chamber, bloodbath. I know you’re tired of hearing the phrase “historically strong” because I’m tired of typing it.

Although the league is stocked from top to bottom, the Kentucky coach said it’s “awesome” and “fun” to be part of a challenging conference. The No. 8 Wildcats host fourth-ranked Alabama Saturday in the team’s third straight home game against a Top 10 foe for the first time in school history.

Kentucky is cooking, having dealt Florida its first loss of the season two weeks ago before pulling off hard-nosed wins against ranked conference opponents in Mississippi State and Texas A&M. The Wildcats’ loss at Georgia on Jan. 7 was a bummer, but the response was electric — 16-of-32 shooting on treys and 95 total points in a frenzied Starkville.

Much has gone right for Kentucky in the early juncture of the Mark Pope coaching era ... Alabama and an 82-69 defeat at Georgia on Jan. 7, foes have been sent to the foul line a combined 63 ...

The Wildcats hired former BYU head coach Mark Pope to replace Calipari ... their five-game losing streak on Wednesday when they face Georgia. Tipoff is at 9 p.m. ET on SEC Network.