KSR’s five best moments of Mark Pope’s call-in radio show
Mark Pope sounded giddy on his call-in radio show Monday night — and deservedly so! He got his first Battle of the Bluegrass win as head coach, Kentucky defeating Louisville 93-85 to move to 10-1 on the year and 1-0 in the head-to-head vs. Pat Kelsey.
What did the victory mean to Pope and how did it come together for the Cats? He shared his thoughts with Tom Leach while also previewing what’s ahead: finals week, followed by the team’s trip to New York City for the CBS Sports Classic.
Check out KSR’s five best moments from this week’s edition of the UK HealthCare Mark Pope Show below.
Mark Pope didn’t want to play against Lamont Butler anymore, so he recruited him to Kentucky
How did Pope single out Lamont Butler as a must-have addition out of the transfer portal this past cycle? He was sick and tired of playing him at San Diego State, BYU scheduling a home-and-home with the Aztecs dating back to the start of Butler’s time in college — four individual matchups since 2020.
When the 6-2 guard out of Moreno Valley, CA became available this spring, Pope knew he had to get him and unleash that beast on everyone else in college basketball for a change.
“Every time we played San Diego State, we spent the first 48 hours trying to figure out how we were going to let him not take our ball on every single possession. And literally, I lost so much sleep on that and then competing against him,” he said.
Now, he’s Kentucky’s most valuable player, dropping 33 points in the team’s bitter rivalry matchup.
“If you get to put your name solidly in the all-time history books at the University of Kentucky. I mean, that’s hard to do,” Pope said. “And certainly, Lamont did it for sure in a magical way on Saturday.”
Earning a permanent spot in the historic rivalry
Leading up to the Louisville game, former Kentucky players hand-wrote letters to the current team telling them what the rivalry matchup means both now and forever. They felt it in real time, and now, they still feel the gravity of those battles even decades removed.
Winning that one on Saturday put them in that elite, historic group, too. Their time will come to write letters to the next generation of Wildcats set to take on the Cardinals down the road.
“For our guys to be able to actually wear the jersey and be in the game with BBN going insane in a Rupp Arena, and then to finish the game and recognize that a year from now, or five years now, or 10 or 15 or 20 years from now, they’re going to get to write their really heartfelt and emotional letters to the to the next generation of players,” Pope said. “All of a sudden, in one moment, you’re linked to something that is so much bigger than just yourself.”
Butler is the headliner, obviously, but the fraternity extends to everyone who participates and comes out on top.
Alternate uniforms to come?
Wondering if the Cats will debut special uniforms at some point this season? We’ve seen throwback jerseys and alternate colorways in recent years, but that was under the previous administration. How about this one with Pope?
He told one caller who asked to see the black uniforms make their return he’d do his best to work his magic.
“Put it in a request. I’ll try and make it happen,” he said. “… If we try and go with the black — I can’t promise you I can deliver on a specific game. … I love it, let me work on it.”
Another team bonding trip — this time in NYC
We’ve seen the Wildcats visit the King Center in Atlanta and the Space Needle in Seattle. What’s next for this squad with a trip to New York City coming this weekend when Kentucky takes on Ohio State in the CBS Sports Classic? Pope, who freely admits NYC is one of his favorite places in the world after growing up in the area, says they have two nights of activities planned in the Big Apple before Saturday’s matchup.
The Cats have to ace their finals first, then they’ll have their fun starting Thursday.
“Our guys finish finals Thursday and then we’re heading up. We’re going to expose these guys to the city,” he said. “… Every time we take a trip we just carve out a good 90 minutes or two hours where we can go put ourselves in a different environment so we can know each other better and get to see the world a little bit. It’s been really special for us. There’s no better place in the world to do that than New York City.”
What is a championship chest?
Remember when Alvin Brooks III told the team to ‘use our championship chest’ in Kentucky’s upset win over Duke back in November? It’s become a catchphrase for Big Blue Nation as the program pushes for banner No. 9, but what does it mean exactly?
Pope gave one heck of an answer when asked for a definition — it’s long, so stick with me for a second.
“Catching bodies with your chest is really important,” Pope said. “So the idea of like, we have two components of it. One is a positive step. So you’ll hear me say ‘positive step’ all the time. That’s when you’re in a defensive stance. When you’re in a defensive stance, great defenders — If I’m in a stance and the man I’m guarding takes a dribble to his right hand. Then my first move, it actually instinctively — almost every human being’s first move is to lean their body in the direction where they’re trying to slide, and their first movement is to take their right leg and pick it up and bring it forward when that doesn’t actually cover any ground. So we teach all of our guys through sheer repetition every single day, in our banner behavior segment of practice, that the first instinctive movement as this player is attacking to his right.
“My first one has got to be left foot off the ground, not left foot pushing out and extending. Because then with my first movement, even if it’s a little bit slower, I’m actually covering ground with my body, with my chest and so it’s a positive step. I don’t know if you can visit their mind, but it’s not instinctive. If you go do this at home, you’re going to be like, ‘Wow, that’s really weird. I always do, I actually end up my first foot off the ground is not covering any ground to actually get in front of the defender.’ So it’s something we really, really train. And then after that positive step, it’s all about not receiving an offensive player with your hands, but receiving an offensive player with your chest.”
There are a few obvious ‘championship chest’ standouts — plus an interesting one you may not expect.
“Otega Oweh and Lamont Butler are two of the best in America at championship chest. I’ll tell you who else is really good at it is Trent Noah,” Pope added. “He is terrific with his championship chest. We have some guys that are getting better every day, but it’s a really important component of guarding without fouling, which, through the first 11 games of the season, we’ve been one of the best teams in the country at guarding without fouling. A lot of credit to our staff, to Alvin Brooks and Mark Fox and the rest of the staff about really digging into these concepts that allow you to guard physically without fouling.”
There you have it. Don’t get handsy on defense, use your body, and more specifically, your chest.
The post KSR’s five best moments of Mark Pope’s call-in radio show appeared first on On3.
