If anyone knows what it’s like to play at Kentucky, it’s Mark Pope, and he’s attempting to impart that on his guys.
Pope, after all, spent three seasons in Lexington and captained the Wildcats’ 1996 national championship team, which went 34-2, featured nine future pros, and is widely regarded as one of the best college basketball teams of all time.
Now, the new UK head coach is attempting to instill some of that in his players.
During a recent appearance on former Kentucky player John Wall’s Point Game Podcast with CJ Toledano, Pope claims he takes every prospect who visits school to Rupp Arena so they can feel the gravity of what it means to don the blue and white and play for the Wildcats.
“Rupp Arena is a sacred building to me, so one of the things I’ve done with every, single recruit, is we’ll walk into Upper Street into Rupp Arena, and I’ll take the guys and sit with them in the upper deck,” Pope said. “We go about 10 rows from the top. It’s steep up there, whew! But I’m telling you, it’s something really special to go sit there in the quiet of that gym and just take in what it looks like from 10 rows down from the top. And so we’ll spend some time, and we’ll look at the jerseys up on the wall, and talk about the history of guys who have gone through there. It’s actually super special. I love it. I could do it every day for the rest of my life. I love it so much being in that building and looking at those banners up on the wall.”
And it’s not just the veneration of the structure itself, which functions as one of college basketball’s most impressive cathedrals. It’s the people who fill it.
“The other thing we talk about is the people that come and sit in those seats,” the Holy Father added. “It’s probably people who have spent their entire lives cheering for Kentucky, and this is the first time they’ve ever gotten to sit in those seats, and when our guys get to think about that and understand that, that’s the beginning of them kind of understanding what BBN is.” It is unusual in the sports scene because we have the opportunity to compete for these people.
Since being officially named to replace John Calipari on April 12 and gathering over 20,000 people to his first press conference at Rupp Arena, Pope has had an incredible first offseason in Lexington.
Pope has hired associate head coach Alvin Brooks III from Baylor, former USC assistant Jason Hart of the G League Ignite, former BYU assistant Cody Fueger, former Nevada and Georgia head coach Mark Fox, and former Lamar assistant Mikhail McLean.
Pope also appointed BYU assistant Nick Robinson as his director of basketball operations.
After losing all 13 scholarship players from last season’s roster to graduation, the NBA Draft or the transfer portal, Pope’s inaugural 9-man transfer class is currently ranked No. 4 nationally by 247Sports and features No. 23 Brandon Garrison (Oklahoma State), No. 34 Otega Oweh (Oklahoma), No. 36 Jaxson Robinson, No. 48 Lamont Butler (San Diego State), No. 71 Andrew Carr (Wake Forest), No. 88 Amari Williams (Drexel), No. 91 Koby Brea (Dayton), No. 126 Kerr Kriisa (West Virginia), and No. 319 Ansley Almonor (Fairleigh Dickinson).
In addition, Pope has signed former BYU signee Collin Chandler, who is returning from a two-year Mormon mission, Kentucky Mr. Basketball, the state’s all-time leading scorer and 4-star guard Travis Perry from state champion Lyon County, and Harlan County 4-star and former South Carolina signee Trent Noah to bring the Wildcats’ total number of scholarship players to 12.
Leave a Reply