Kentucky basketball suffered its first loss of the season on Tuesday, a 70-66 upset at Clemson. Following the shocking defeat, Wildcats head coach Mark Pope gave his players a reality check about the hostile environments they’ll face the rest of this season.

The Wildcats won’t have much time to get back on their feet, as they have an even tougher matchup on deck. They will battle No. 8 Gonzaga in a neutral site on Saturday night, and they will need to clean their act up for that high-flying contest.

For the first time under Mark Pope’s direction, Kentucky basketball lost. Here’s what Pope said after the defeat.

In their first true road game of the season, coach Mark Pope's Kentucky Wildcats were unable to solve an experienced Clemson team Tuesday night.

Kentucky men’s basketball was back at full strength for the first true road game of the Mark Pope coaching era. Sophomore big man Brandon Garrison played for the Wildcats on Tuesday night in UK’s 70-66 upset loss at Clemson in the SEC/ACC Challenge.

Kentucky is undefeated and No. 8 in the country. How has first-year coach -- and former Cat -- Mark Pope shifted the program?

While the SEC/ACC Challenge tilted toward the SEC, Clemson delivered the ACC's lone victory, a 70-66 upset of No. 4 Kentucky on Tuesday in the Wildcats' first road test under new coach Mark Pope.

Mark Pope is passionate about analytics. But for the first-year Kentucky basketball coach, those numbers must be offset by pondering human emotion.