Goodness, Kentucky’s highs in Mark Pope‘s debut season coaching the Wildcats were sky-high, weren’t they? There was something special about No. 41 winning his first game at Rupp Arena by 41 points. He’d follow that up with eight top-15 victories to tie an all-time record in the history of the sport — not too shabby […]
Goodness, Kentucky’s highs in Mark Pope‘s debut season coaching the Wildcats were sky-high, weren’t they? There was something special about No. 41 winning his first game at Rupp Arena by 41 points. He’d follow that up with eight top-15 victories to tie an all-time record in the history of the sport — not too shabby for a guy who apparently wasn’t cut out for the gig when he got the offer.
Pope proved that by beating Duke in Atlanta in his first high-profile matchup as head coach, then did it over and over again with wins in Seattle over Gonzaga, Louisville at home, Florida in the SEC opener, Mississippi State and Texas A&M back-to-back, Tennessee in Knoxville, then again in Lexington, before putting a bow on the regular season with a comfortable road victory at Mizzou.
It wasn’t perfect, though, with 12 losses on the year — including a few stinkers. If we’re gonna celebrate the highs, it’s fair to address the lows, too. Pope was asked about both in a recent appearance on Eye on College Basketball with Matt Norlander, starting with the ugly before getting to the beautiful.
The one that still hits him hard? Kentucky’s no-show in New York City, falling 85-65 to Ohio State inside Madison Square Garden right before Christmas.
“The Ohio State loss was so painful because it was in Madison Square Garden. It was probably our poorest performance of the season, credit to them,” Pope told Norlander. “But that building — to rub it in, that building is probably the second-most special building to me in the world. The fact that we performed so poorly in that building, in that city, was really hard.”
That one was easy to single out. The big wins were tougher — because, again, the Wildcats had so many of them.
If he had to name the most impactful, he’d say it was the 77-72 win over the No. 6 Blue Devils. That was the moment national talking heads stopped thinking of Kentucky as a feel-good island of misfit portal toys and starting thinking of Pope’s group as a legitimate contender.
“I don’t know, the Duke win so early in the season. For my guys to get a chance to go prove that they were not just mid-major super-senior guys, but that they were legitimately here to become a part of this incredible Kentucky legacy of these great teams throughout the generations? I think that was really important. I think that was really important,” he said.
Don’t underestimate that win in Seattle, though, given the circumstances with both Lamont Butler out and Kerr Kriisa going down with a broken foot, coming back from down 18 points in the second half to beat No. 7 Gonzaga 90-89 in overtime.
That was the coming out party Jaxson Robinson deserved on the big stage as a Wildcat.
“Just because of how much respect I have for Mark Few, I’m really grateful for the Gonzaga comeback,” Pope continued. “We kind of lost both of our point guards in that game, and Jaxson Robinson — I’ve been with him for three years — kind of stepped up and led us to victory running the point in the last 12 minutes of that game.”
The list of highlight wins could go on and on. What about the game-winners against Oklahoma? Or his NCAA Tournament victories — especially against Illinois in the Round of 32? The Wildcats had quite a bit of fun together in Pope’s first year leading the program.
“There were so many incredible wins throughout the season,” he said. “We were the best — there are only three teams in the history of college basketball that have won eight games in a season against top-15 ranked opponents. We were the only one last year.
“There have only been two in the whole history of college basketball, so you can forgive me if it’s hard for me to pick out one.”
Don’t blame you at all, Pope. We feel the same way.
Category: General Sports
