Kentucky Basketball’s Annual Media Day was on October 8th, and the local media heard from Coach Mark Pope and the players.
One of the most interesting quotes from Coach Pope all day was when he was asked about his philosophy on building a starting lineup.
Here is what Coach Pope had to say about his starting lineup philosophy at Media Day, “I’m so sorry because I’m going to give you the worst answer. It’s both and all the above. It really is. I believe in the synergy of every aspect of this game. I think that’s such a massive part of this game. I think that’s why team sports are brilliant. So there’s going to be times when I’m saying, hey, we’re going with this starting lineup because these pieces fit together. There’s going to be times we’ll go with the starting lineup because it’s the best five guys. It will be all the answers above. I think that’s a pretty dynamic space. We don’t spend a lot of time emphasizing starting. It’s finishing that really matters. Sometimes finishing is even, you know, not the most important thing. There’s so many ways that guys make contributions. But there are times when, on paper, it might look like you could make a really rational argument about why things rotations should work differently because there’s a lot of rational arguments to be made. But we’ll consider all those things as we go.”
This quote from Coach Pope was great because it shows that he will be flexible when it comes to who starts. Sometimes in college basketball, adjustments to the starting five need to be made, and some coaches don’t make them. That won’t be the case for Coach Pope, as he will make sure he is making the right decision for each game.
Coach Pope’s thoughts on closing lineups was also interesting because sometimes coaches don’t leave in the hot hand, and this can hurt a team in late game situations. When Kentucky hired Coach Pope it was clear that he was the best of the best when it came to X’s and O’s plus coaching decisions. Every time he speaks, he shows just how good he is going to be at those parts of college basketball as Kentucky’s head coach.
