Kentucky-Georgia Postgame Quotes
UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY MEN’S BASKETBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE
February 17, 2026
Lexington, Kentucky, USA
Coach Mark Pope
Press Conference
Kentucky – 78, Georgia – 86
MARK POPE: All right, guys. I will take questions, go ahead.
Q Mark, losing the points of turnover battle, 22 to 9. What were they doing? Was that you guys making mistakes or was that them forcing them?
MARK POPE: Well, they are the number one non-steal turnover forcing team in the conference, in conference play. And we did a really poor job managing the press. We weren’t in attack, we weren’t chasing it for nugget plays. Sometimes when you throw out a press, you just give it too much respect. And we just needed a couple of ball handlers to have enough motive to be on attack, and we just couldn’t do it. We just couldn’t do it. So it was very effective for them. And that’s what they do. And they did it well tonight.
Q Mark, they shot 14 to 31 from the three-point line. Where did you see defensively break down there tonight?
MARK POPE: We were not good defensively tonight. You know, in the second half they shoot 57% from the three-point line. They are the lowest assist per field goal made team in our league, and they were 20 and 7 tonight. That’s just a poor commentary on defensive effort. Inexplicably to start the second half, we just abandon defensive assignments and also Georgia made some good plays. So that was disappointing effort from us and it’s going to be hard to win when you let people shoot that well.
Q Mark, I’m not even sure how to ask this. It seems like late in the game when you knew you had a possession when you needed to get something. Didn’t see a lot of passing. We seen a lot of one dribbling and kind of a prayer at the basket. What were you trying to get out of those possessions?
MARK POPE: We had a lot of possessions at the end where we were trying to work some peel game and we ran a couple of underneath out of bound actions. And at that point, you know, you are trying to go as quick as you can and get some positive action. The plays were hit and miss a little bit.
Q Hey, coach. It seemed like till late in the game, most of the offense came from Oweh and Chandler. What was going on with the other guys getting in the offensive flow tonight?
MARK POPE: Yeah, the press was distracting for us for sure. You know, we ended up playing on our heels and it was actually hard for us to kind of establish anything other than early in the half court. Because, to be honest with you, our lead guards did a poor job going back and demanding the ball so we can get into a familiar space. We just did a poor job, I mean, we really did. And Georgia did a nice job of not allowing us to do that. So, we ended up not functioning as well as we do. You know, I thought they did a nice job coming out of the gate, just with incredible intensity and force. And they got us on our heels and it took us a long time to respond.
Q Coach, in the first half, you guys were up 9 at one point. And were trailing at the half. We also see that you are running a much tighter rotation than it seems in the second half as opposed to the first. Do you want to see what’s going on in the game and then adjust or what’s the difference in the two halves?
MARK POPE: Well, we don’t have many players, first of all. We’ve got to find a way to get our guys minutes down. Probably can’t have Otega at 38 and DA at 36. Just because our performance suffers as those guys get fatigued. In fact, really what we saw in the first half, we kind of had the game in hand and we’ve been really diligent in transition defense. Georgia is the fastest attacking team in our league. And then we fell apart, we had some poor offensive possessions where we bailed on and transition defensive assignments. I mean it’s just as simple as that. And you know, you cannot take plays off in this league. You can’t get distracted, especially when it’s the number one thing on the board that we have to accomplish, which is consistently every single possession being in transition defense. And so, we just allowed ourselves to get distracted. We actually started the game well. We were functioning well and then we just let Georgia get into a flow in transition. Which is what they do. And we never really fully recovered in the second half. We had some half-court miscues and some transition defensive miscues. Some that were generated by poor offensive decisions at the rim. It’s the number one shot blocking team in our league. And inexplicably, we still were really stubborn at times. The second 10 minutes in the first half and at times of the second half, about working hard to get to the rim and then take on the power play and make a play for a teammate. It’s incredibly frustrating. It’s a space where we are going to struggle. As much as we don’t do that, we are going to continue to struggle. We struggled that way tonight. It’s just, you know, it’s poor decision-making on our part.
Q Mark, Otega over 20 points for the sixth time in his last seven games. What to you has been kind of the key getting him unlocked in his consistency?
MARK POPE: Well, I think O was probably disappointed in his game tonight. You know, the breakdowns that mattered in the game were tough. And he’s carrying a lot of burden on our team. I know he wants to put a better performance out there on the floor. Thanks, guys.
KENTUCKY BASKETBALL POSTGAME QUOTES
KENTUCKY VS. GEORGIA
RUPP ARENA – LEXINGTON, KY.
FEBRUARY 18, 2026
UK Student Athletes
#1 Denzel Aberdeen, G
On handling the Georgia press
“We had some turnovers that we shouldn’t have had, but the press kind of slowed us up and then that led to bad offensive possessions. We just have to limit that and come back strong the next game.”
On the cause of turnovers…
“I think kind of both (ball security and decision making). We were sped up too much and made the wrong decisions. I just have to watch film and fix it for the next game.”
On struggling against physicality…
“I think we just have to be physical back. It was soft throughout the whole game, so we just have to take care of the ball and be physical back. Share the ball—that’s especially on me. I took some wild shots out there, made some turnovers, and missed free throws. I have to do better. Overall, I think we just have to take care of the ball and be physical back.”
#23, Mouhamed Dioubate, F
On how he feels physically and mentally after the game…
“We expected to beat them, but we have to move on. We play on Saturday, so, we have to just worry about the next game.”
On the defensive breakdown against three-point shots…
“We were trying to just limit the threes and make them drive more but they were just hitting tonight. I guess we could have done a lot better job of being there on the catch, making it harder for them once they started making those threes. It’s just something we need to learn from.”
On what was different tonight when coming back from a double-digit deficit…
“I think it was our turnovers. Our turnovers killed us a lot tonight. We had a couple opportunities where we could have scored, or we could have tied the game or took the lead but our turnovers killed us a lot tonight. I think our physicality could have been better. They had a lot of second chance opportunities. I think that was the issue right there”
#5, Collin Chandler, G
On what was different tonight when coming back from a double-digit deficit…
“Tonight, it kind of felt like we lost focus for a second and it really slipped away from us there in the second half. We were pretty focused for a good amount of the first half and so there’s a few possessions that I think we’d like to have back that led to that. We just weren’t able to get it done, to find a way to win, and so we need to do that and learn from that.”
On how much of the turnovers were caused by Georgia…
“I think a lot of credit should go to Georgia. They came in and really imposed their will early and they were very physical, which really is every team that we face. I think we dealt with it pretty well after the first two possessions of the game and I think, again, we let their physicality dictate what we were doing a little bit. I think credit to them. They did a good job.”
On what the play call was coming out of the final timeout…
“I’m not sure exactly where we were at that time. I think we were going for a peel action to hopefully get a three or to get downhill, because there’s still a lot of time left. I don’t remember exactly what happened to be honest.”
