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.

“Well, it's Kentucky, you know? It's everyone's Super Bowl,” Pope told reporters. “So it's our guys' first experience here [at Clemson], and it won't ever get easier. And so this is why you come here, this is why you put on this jersey. You knew that. You knew it would be everybody's Super Bowl. And that's an honor, but it also requires us to be great, and tonight we weren't quite great enough.”

While Kentucky entered the matchup as the No. 4 team in the nation, its players are still acclimating to the expectations of playing for one of college basketball's premiere programs.

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Kentucky forward Brandon Garrison (10) blocks a shot by Clemson guard Dillon Hunter (2) near Kentucky guard Jaxson Robinson (2) during the second half at Littlejohn Coliseum.
Ken Ruinard/USA TODAY Network via Imagn Images

Following John Calipari's departure this summer, Kentucky has fielded an entirely new roster in its first season under Pope. All nine players who saw time during the Clemson loss played at a different school last season.

The Clemson matchup presented Kentucky's first road matchup of the season and second against a power five opponent. Pope's squad secured a signature victory over No. 6 Duke earlier in the year, although the game was played at a neutral location, State Farm Arena in Atlanta.

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Kentucky played catchup for most of the Clemson loss, trailing 37-30 at halftime before making a run to take the lead with ten minutes remaining. However, the Tigers responded with a 19-14 run to close the game and secure the upset victory.

Oklahoma transfer Otegah Oweh led Kentucky with 17 points on 5-of-13 shooting from the field and 6-of-8 from the free-throw line.

San Diego State transfer Lamont Butler, the team's second-leading scorer to start the season, played only 19 minutes due to foul trouble and an ankle injury. He finished with 16 points and five assists on 6-of-9 shooting and was a team-best +17.

Following the loss, Pope said he wished he played Butler more, alluding to the guard's absence when explaining how Clemson dictated the game's pace.

“Dealing with foul issues with Lamont was tricky in the first half, and then the injury was tricky in the second half, so there were a lot of different things, both [with the] circumstances of the game and what Clemson does, that made it more difficult to kind of play with the pace that we traditionally want to,” the coach said. “One of the things that every coach struggles with is that you never want to foul your own guy out. And I probably did that with Andrew [Carr] a little bit tonight. I probably needed to play him with two fouls in the first half, and I probably could have done a little bit more with Lamont.”