The Kentucky Wildcats’ defeat to the Georgia Bulldogs felt all too familiar, as the same problems that surfaced in losses to Ohio State and Clemson reappeared.

The Wildcats struggled against physicality, committed too many turnovers, and failed to generate sufficient scoring opportunities. While Tuesday’s game may have reinforced a clear strategy for opponents to exploit, head coach Mark Pope remains confident that these challenges can be addressed and resolved quickly.

“It’s not triage where we have a bad team,” Pope said during Thursday’s meeting with local media. “We have a really good team. We didn’t play particularly well, so there were a lot of things that were a little bit anomalous where we just didn’t play great. And certainly, Georgia had some contribution to that.”

As Kentucky prepares to face No. 14 Mississippi State, a team even more physical and skilled than Georgia, Pope has identified two key areas for improvement: rebounding and ball security.

On Tuesday, Georgia dominated the boards, outrebounding the Wildcats 41-34, marking the fourth consecutive game Kentucky has struggled in that department. Saturday’s matchup won’t be any easier, with Mississippi State boasting an offensive rebounding rate just shy of the top 30 nationally at 35.9%.

“We’re continuing to work on the glass right now. That’s been something interesting because we had been one of the top defensive rebounding percentage teams in the country, and that’s kind of bit us, a little bit,” said Pope.

“So we’re rethinking some approaches there that hopefully will see immediate progress on, because we’ve been really good, right? We’ve just got to be good in this league right now, with the physicality and the way this is being played.”

Pope further delved into Kentucky needing to get more physical to survive SEC play.

“The game always gets more and more physical in the league, and so our guys understanding, and there’s also a part of understanding where you can be really, really physical and where you can’t,” said Pope.

“And that’s part of our determinations. There are a lot of facets to that. One is just the physics aspect of it, of having a low center of gravity and kind of being the hit-first guy and a first hit and second, there’s all the schematics and the skill of it. And then there’s also the mentality of it and the IQ of it. The mentality of it is kind of this aggression side of it where you’re always thinking about contact, contact, contact.

“And then the IQ of it is understanding when and where it’s appropriate and where it can be utilized and where it’s important.”

If nothing else, you have to appreciate how detailed Pope is with Kentucky’s struggles and how to potentially fix them.