ATLANTA – With the spacious room now empty – confetti scattered across the floor and helium-filled balloons dancing along the ceiling of the ballroom, evidence of an epic celebration – we are left in the aftermath to ponder it all: How in the world did Kentucky upset Duke 77-72 Tuesday in Atlanta?
That performance, a gutty, determined, collective never-say-die fight, should never have been possible three games into a season where no roster even existed a few months earlier.
When he was hired in April, new coach Mark Pope had zero players. In short order, he invited 12 players, seven of them fifth-year seniors who were deemed good, but never celebrated as elite, to join him in this remarkable experiment.
Given time to blend, define roles and learn their new coach’s methods such a victory might be possible in late February. But in November, in their third game together? Preposterous.
Or is it?
In April, we all believed Pope was at a huge disadvantage by having to build a roster from scratch so late in the process. The flip side of that, however, is that Pope was free to court whoever he wanted for whatever position he needed without being encumbered by a handful of players left over from the previous staff who may or may not fit his style.
The world was his canvas and Pope painted a masterpiece.
“Nobody knew each other. Nobody had ever been with each other,” Pope said afterwards. “But they’ve been very intentional about getting to know each other. Three or four weeks into the summer, I had guys doing incredibly gracious, generous acts of kindness for their teammates. These guys have been so intentional about working to love each other.”
Andrew Carr, a fifth-year player from Wake Forest, echoed the sentiments.
“It’s really cool being a part of a brand new team because everybody didn’t know anybody else,” he said. “Everybody had to have the same amount of effort to get to know and love and serve and care for your teammates in the same way because you didn’t know any of them.
“For us it was a really cool growing experience and because everybody had a concerted effort on it, it allowed us to really connect super quickly and get to know each other super quickly and it translated right to the court.”
Notice neither Pope nor Carr mentioned anything about basketball skills? This is deeply personal, a true locker room.
“The closer we get,” Carr said simply, “it’s harder and harder to break us.”
Duke found that out Tuesday in Atlanta. The favored Blue Devils raced ahead, scoring 46 points in the first half, and holding a 10-point lead two minutes before intermission. Kentucky looked to be teetering, the moment too big for some of its players.
“The last ten minutes of the first half were really frustrating for us,” Pope said. “We gave up 46 points. That’s not characteristic of us. That’s not who we are as a team. We had seven turnovers in the first half. That’s not characteristic of us.”
UK lost the first half 46-37. They won the second half 40-26, including a 24-11 run over the final 10 minutes to close out the 77-72 win.
“What I was really proud of is guys went and sat in the locker room and all it was all constructive,” Pope said. “The guys do most of the fixing before I even get in the locker room. You could see that in the way they came out at the start of the second half. It was just sheer resolve and determination.”
A brand new team, assembled in a flurry and playing its third game, should have crumbled under the national spotlight. Make no mistake, Duke is really good. Up close and personal, the size and athleticism is impressive. And yet, Kentucky prevailed.
“When things are going tough, it is the psychology of us as human beings that we start to communicate less, we start to get lost in our own heads, and literally and figuratively, you start to turn away from the huddle,” Pope said. “Our guys are incredibly intentional about fighting that, and they’re like, ‘No, we’re going to turn back to each other.'”
The prime example was Jaxson Robinson, who struggled mightily in moving from the protective shell of a celebrated sixth man to the team’s primary target on opposing scouting reports.
“You mentioned guys putting their arms around Jax. That’s not just natural,” Pope said. “They’re fighting actually to make that happen. That’s one of the blessings to have beautiful guys on the team. We’re our guys. We’re each other’s guys, and we’re not going away from each other. If we have a bad half or a bad play or a bad game, we’re running back to each other.”
The key is keeping the name on the front of the jersey as the focal point.
“If Andrew has to carry around the burden of this being about him, it’s too big. If Otega has to carry around the burden of this being about him, it’s too big, and it’s actually not very rewarding,” Pope said. “When it can be about us, that’s when it’s magic. That’s the gospel. That’s life. This team has really adopted that.”
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