After the incredible win against Florida, Mark Pope had a lot to say. Below is a breakdown of his full comments after the game heading into getting ready for Georgia at 7 PM tonight.
Source: UKAthletics.com, January 4, 2025 Transcript by: Gameday Captions, LLC
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MARK POPE:All right. If you guys didn’t have fun tonight, you should quit right now and find a new job. That was just an elite level, physicality, bloodbath, competitive, just incredible performance after incredible performance going down the line. A great game. It’s like, how fun is this SEC league going to be? I mean, just incredible. Congratulations to Florida. They’ve had an incredible start to the season. They have big-time players that are really competing at a high level and guys that are really dialed into their particular role on that team. I couldn’t be more proud of our guys. They just battled and battled and battled. Sometimes we are not great, these guys have so much fight in them and so much togetherness and so much resilience. It’s a really fun team to coach. The only sad thing for me is we only get 17 more of these. I already get sad thinking that we only get to do this 17 more times in this regular season. So, we are going to try to enjoy every second of it.
Q: Mark, what did you think the way that Andrew Carr kind of finished the game for you? He had a rough first half offensively and a little bit on the defensive end, but came up big when you needed him.
MARK POPE:Yeah, Andrew is like, you go down these lines and it’s pretty incredible. You think about Andrew, you know, he’s 50% from the field and a 40% from the three-point line and he’s five assists, zero turnovers. We spent the last several minutes of the game switching one through five and had ridiculously difficult defensive responsibilities. I thought he was terrific. You know, what’s nice is with us moving Andrew around, you could see that Florida had to be responsive in the lineups they were choosing to put on the floor because they were trying to deal with Andrew down the stretch. And that’s really impactful. You have a good feeling as a coach when you know that the other side has to kind of jockey a little bit to try to figure out what they can do lineup-wise. It might not be the lineup or position that they want on the floor for a bunch of reasons but the one they have to have on the floor to handle Andrew Carr. That’s a pretty good feeling. And that talks to his incredible effect on the game.
Q: Mark, 16-0 run and 10-0 runs. Other than the simplicity of making shots and getting stops. What goes into something like that? What does a team need to have to have runs like that against a team like this?
MARK POPE:Well, to have the first run you need to have Otega Oweh. I will tell you what, you know what guys, it’s the most humbling thing in the world to watch these guys grow. And the game is such an incredible teacher. Otega’s first rotation was a little bit more short than normal and he was out before the first media. He sat for a little while and he is coming off of a game where he didn’t love it. He refused to allow any of that to affect any of his intensity or drive. When he came back in we were a little bit sideways and couldn’t kind of find a rhythm and he was like – you guys just relax man, I will come find all of your rhythm for you. And with the later runs, I think it has a lot to do with, listen, Florida is a great team. Sometimes, I’m just talking about our team right now. I’m a big believer, this is going to sound soft. But I’m a big believer that all of my guys snuck into Kerr Kriisa’s apartment after celebrating his birthday to go scare him and surprise him. You know, my guy that is struggling right now because he can’t play right now and it’s killing him. They all snuck into his apartment like little kids, to go surprise him. I actually think those runs come from a group like that. I really do. I think it comes from being together and these guys are working so hard to be together as much as they can. I think that’s probably the most important ingredient.
Q: Mark, I was going to ask about that, I was going to ask about Otega before you said that. Of all of the personalities on your team, he seems like the one that is the first to say, you know what – enough of this, I’m fixing this. Is that accurate?
MARK POPE:It’s interesting because when you guys talk to him he is the most soft-spoken guy ever, isn’t he? But he has a competitive fire in him that burns really really deep. What he is doing this season is just really incredible. You know, Otega is interesting. Otega breaks some of our rules. He is one of those guys where from time to time I have to close my eyes and look away and don’t change it and just accept it that this is just Otega being Otega. He’s done that for us a lot this year and the contribution he’s making to this team and the way he’s leading and the joy he brings to our guys is really special.
Q: Mark, how do you kind of summarize the value of Koby, being able to have a Koby to bring off the bench?
MARK POPE:How fun is it to watch Koby Brea in the second half go – what was he, 6 for 7? Something crazy like that? Where is Koby? 7 for 9. And just like, off the bounce. It’s interesting. We worked so hard to create shots for Koby and Koby comes off of an action that we think is so creative and then he stops and he lets the defense recover because he just wants to go off the bounce and just wants to just shoot off the bounce. He was magical tonight, wasn’t he? I don’t know, you are hard-pressed to make a real cogent argument that he’s not the best shooter in the country, it’s just ridiculous. The way he shoots it, how he gets it off, where he shoots it, how high he shoots it. Clearly, he was massively important for us and he was also another huge catalyst in those runs. We had some fatigue on the floor and had to go with some makeshift lineups maybe that were a little heavier on different guys than traditionally we do. And Koby was like, don’t worry – I got it. I’m just going to make shots. He was spectacular. He has also grown immensely on the defensive end. He’s also like the most beautiful kid you are ever going to meet man, he’s special.
Q: With the runs and the crowd in the switch of momentum, it felt like a game from 30 years ago with you guys playing Arkansas or something. This place was different today, was it not?
MARK POPE:Well, I told the staff we were just meeting for a second meeting with the guys after the game and I told them I was like, I’m so happy for you guys because they are now going to be able to start to connect the experience of being in this gym with a real experience they are having. When I walk into this gym and it’s totally dead silent and there is no one here and the lights are out, which I love to do. That’s all I hear is what we heard today because I got to live it for so long and I’m just really grateful that my guys, the guys on this team, my staff, they are going to learn that. And there is just nowhere like it. BBN was ridiculous tonight. I mean, how fun was it to be in that gym? It was pretty special.
Q: Coach, in the back. You said earlier this week that the SEC would teach you a lot about yourselves. What did you learn today?
MARK POPE:We learned that we got to get a lot more physical. We learned that it’s going to be like a life or death fight on the boards every single night. We learned that we are going to have to be really creative changing the way that we guard throughout the game. Which our guys, our players were unbelievable in receiving adjustments during the course of the game. We learned, just incredibly talented guys. There was a minute there where I was like – Elijah Martin might not miss another shot for the rest of his life. He was unbelievable. We had one coach saying – we’ve got to force him inside of the three, and another coach saying – he just made 3 straight twos. You know, he was absolutely terrific. And we are learning how fun this is. I think that’s the overwhelming thing for us is we only get to do this 17 more times. We just can’t waste a minute man. I hope BBN doesn’t miss a second of it. It’s going to be great times and hard times and they are all going to be growing times and that’s why it’s so fun to play in this league.
Q: How does it feel to get your first SEC win as a Kentucky head coach?
MARK POPE:I actually don’t know; I hadn’t considered that. I’m so happy, you know. The one thing that you learn when you have been coaching for a little while is that it just really doesn’t have to do with us. I mean, this is about this community and these players growing and learning and the fact that we get to be here to bear witness is unbelievable. It’s really special.
Q: Mark, you mentioned physicality a second ago. I know not every team will pose the unique challenges that Florida did but you guys did get hit pretty hard on the glass, offensive rebounding, second-chance points tonight. How do you go about adjusting and combating that and also what were the challenges of doing that in season on the Tuesday-Saturday schedule?
MARK POPE:Yeah, it’s a beautiful thing, this league. Tonight, it’s on the glass. On Tuesday, it’s going to be something else that’s really exploited. This league is going to needle any space where you are not the best in the country. Florida is the second-best rebounding team in the country right now. You know, our guys, we hung in there is probably the best way we can say it is we hung in there. Also, the last six games, the number one analytical half-court defense in the entire country and our guys were 25 assists and six turnovers. Like that number guys, I was going to say breathtaking but Lee Anne gets mad at me when I say breathtaking. That number is insane. 25 assists, six turnovers against the number one defensive team in the half-court in the country over the last six games, that’s crazy. It’s what you want, you just want to go against the biggest challenge, you want to go against the best teams. Undefeated teams, what are they ranked? Six, seven, five something? Another top 10 matchup. It just makes you get better. In regards to rebounding, well, first we are going to get into the training room to try to get healed up. Then we get into the weight room and then we get into the film room and try to figure out some different things schematically and habit-wise that we can do. The one thing I’m not worried about is our guys fight.
Q: Coach, this team now has three wins over top 10 programs. What can you talk about this team’s ability to show up in the big-time games?
MARK POPE:They love it, they love it. Every day we are learning to love each other a little bit more. Just the opportunity to compete, you know, there is nothing better. You only get to do this for a little time in your life, to just compete like this. Our guys are falling in love with competing, they are falling in love with it. I don’t think they are scared. I don’t think they spend a ton of time stressing or fretting about outcome. I think they are doing a terrific job as best as anybody can about staying in the moment and just competing on this possession. And then when we do get sideways, somebody else steps up and says I will be present right now. I think our guys are doing a great job at that.
Q: Mark, down here. December there was some inconsistent offensive performances. 106 points in your first SEC game. Just how promising of a sign is that going forward?
MARK POPE:I would like to do that every game. I don’t know how. I don’t know if we are going to be 14 for 29 every game. The 29 is the part I’m super happy about, you know it’s been really hard for us to get close to 30. We have a bunch of guys stepping up. You think about us offensively. Think about Amari Williams tonight. He was 6 for 7 from the field, he’s 5 assists. You think about our starting 4 and 5, they are 10 assists, 1 turnover, like that’s insane. As a group are starting 4 and 5 are 10 for 15 from the field. Offensively what those guys are delivering right now in terms of playmaking. You know, five games ago Amari really really dug into this idea that I’m not turning the ball over anymore. I’m going to get on top of my – he had just gone underwater on assistive turnover ratio, it was under a 1 to 1. He hasn’t had more than one turnover in a game in the last six games now, he’s a 5 and 1. Offensively those kind of things are the markers that keep us. We won’t be 14 for 29 every night, but if we can protect the ball like this against the number one half-court defensive team in the country and we can share the ball like we did with 25 assists, it will bode well for our offense every single night.
Q: Mark, down here. Speak on Amari Williams play. He was on foul trouble for most of the game. What do you take from a performance like that when he is in foul trouble? How hard is it to do something like that when you are in foul trouble?
MARK POPE:I think Rueben was what made the game hard. I think, he’s a monster. You know, number nine, I’m going to say his name wrong so forgive me. Rueben Chinyelu. You talk about – what a special player because he walks on the floor and he is not distracted by any other agenda, just doing what he does great. What he does great is he moves bodies, I mean it’s incredible. He was a bully tonight. I thought that was probably the biggest challenge that Amari faced foul-wise. Is this true, Deb? I think Amari has never still fouled out of a game in his whole career, is that true? It was probably a little bit more of an anomaly foul-wise for him. Super grateful, guys. Enjoyed it.
End of Transcript
Tune in to the SEC network or wsgs.com to hear the Cats take on Georgia at 7 pm.
