’25 Summer Shootaround: A long, candidate, illuminating conversation with Kentucky coach Mark Pope

Summary

Eye On College Basketball: Episode ’25 Summer Shootaround with Mark Pope

Release Date: August 14, 2025

Hosts: Gary Parrish and Matt Norlander
Guest: Mark Pope, Head Coach of the University of Kentucky Men's Basketball Team

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Introduction

In this episode of Eye On College Basketball, hosted by Matt Norlander and Gary Parrish of CBS Sports, the spotlight shines brightly on Mark Pope, the charismatic head coach of the University of Kentucky Wildcats. As part of their summer shootaround series, Norlander and Pope engage in a deep and illuminating conversation that delves into the intricacies of coaching at one of college basketball's most storied programs.

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Life and Current Week at Kentucky

Mark Pope begins by sharing insights into his current life and responsibilities. Having recently concluded an intense eight-week training camp, Pope emphasizes the invigorating experience of bringing together a new team and fostering camaraderie among his players.

[02:47] Mark Pope: "I'm at the Joe Kraft Center. It's our brilliant, unbelievable, unparalleled practice facility here at the University of Kentucky."

Pope also touches on personal matters, recounting a recent visit to his parents in Idaho—a rare and cherished family moment amidst his coaching duties.

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Reflecting on Year One as Kentucky Coach

As the conversation shifts to Pope's tenure, he reflects candidly on his first year coaching Kentucky. Despite a commendable record of 24 wins and 12 losses, culminating in a Sweet 16 appearance during the NCAA Tournament, Pope assigns himself a tentative B minus grade.

[10:02] Mark Pope: "If I was going to grade myself, I'd probably grade myself at a B or a B minus. Clearly, we didn't get our end result... our job is to go win it. We didn't get that done."

He acknowledges both the highs and lows of the season, highlighting the importance of maintaining high standards and his commitment to continuous improvement.

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Highlights and Challenges of Last Season

Pope reminisces about memorable victories and painful defeats from the previous season. Notably, the early-season upset win against Duke stands out as a pivotal moment that validated the team's potential and Pope's coaching philosophy.

[13:05] Mark Pope: "The Duke win so early in the season... was really important. It showed that we were here to become a part of this incredible Kentucky legacy."

Conversely, he candidly discusses the demoralizing loss to Ohio State in Madison Square Garden, describing it as one of the team's poorest performances.

[14:30] Matt Norlander: "At that moment, they just, you know, it was an unexpected result."

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Roster Changes and Player Development

Transitioning to roster dynamics, Pope provides an overview of the players who departed after last season, many of whom secured professional contracts, including NBA draft picks and international signings.

[19:56] Mark Pope: "We had five guys, two guys drafted, five guys signed contracts with NBA teams... Ansley Almanor... is now signed a contract in Finland."

He also introduces returning players and discusses their growth over the offseason, particularly focusing on key contributors like Orlando Ortega and Brandon Garrison. Ortega's decision to return to Kentucky after testing the NBA draft process is highlighted as a significant boost for the team's prospects.

[22:35] Mark Pope: "He's growing as a defensive player. I think he has a chance to be the top defensive player in the country."

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Navigating the Transfer Portal

Mark Pope delves into Kentucky's experience with the transfer portal, detailing the influx of talent and the challenges it presents. He discusses the strategic additions such as Denzel Aberdeen from Florida and Cam Williams from Tulane, emphasizing their potential impact on the team's defensive prowess.

[37:52] Mark Pope: "Denzel... he's got a championship ring, man, that's hard to get."

Pope also critiques the timing of the portal opening during the NCAA Tournament, suggesting a more condensed window post-national championship to streamline the process.

[41:20] Mark Pope: "If I could change it, I would probably move it to the day after the national championship game and make it a really tight window, make it a five-day window."

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Preparing for the Upcoming Season: Schedule and Expectations

Discussing the upcoming season, Pope outlines Kentucky's ambitious non-conference schedule, featuring high-profile matchups against teams like Michigan State, Duke, and Indiana. He expresses enthusiasm for the challenging slate, aiming to prepare the team for the competitive SEC schedule.

[50:04] Matt Norlander: "Alabama and Auburn at Kempom were the only two schools that rated tougher overall... What do you think of my thoughts? Grade me on, on my projection here."

[52:28] Mark Pope: "There's only one acceptable thing here at Kentucky and that's to win all the games."

Pope confidently predicts a three-win improvement over the previous season, eyeing a record that reflects Kentucky's dominant legacy.

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Adapting to an Expanded Regular Season

Engaging in a strategic discussion, Pope advocates for an expanded regular season, proposing an increase to 40 games. He believes that more games would enhance player development, academic performance, and fan engagement.

[56:21] Mark Pope: "I would love to get to 40... our teams turnover so much... we could use some more games and our fans get to know these kids more every single game."

He underscores the financial benefits tied to revenue sharing, positioning an expanded schedule as mutually advantageous for the program and its stakeholders.

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Lightning Round: Rapid-Fire Questions

To wrap up the episode, Pope participates in a lightning round of rapid-fire questions, revealing personal anecdotes and insights:

• Harder Environment:

  [59:31] Mark Pope: "Coach Pitino. No doubt."

• Recruiting Process:

  [59:43] Mark Pope: "Better."

• Hardest Part of Coaching at Kentucky:

  [59:49] Mark Pope: "I love this team... you're like, genuinely, we're public property."

• Favorite Athlete at 15:

  [60:28] Mark Pope: "Sebastian Cole."

• First Concert:

  [67:01] Mark Pope: "Garth Brooks in Seattle."

• Music Preferences:

  [67:56] Mark Pope: "Frank Sinatra... Michael Buble."

• Handling Team Losses:

  [61:59] Mark Pope: "Addressing my team for sure."

• Favorite Meal to Cook:

  [62:34] Mark Pope: "I can make a great salad."

• Number Intrigue:

  [72:52] Mark Pope: "41 is like a deep, deep, meaningful number... I love the number."

Pope's responses offer a glimpse into his personality, leadership style, and personal interests, enriching the listener's understanding of the man behind Kentucky's basketball program.

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Conclusion

The episode concludes with Norlander expressing gratitude for Pope's transparency and engaging dialogue. He teases future episodes, including an upcoming discussion on the Louisville Cardinals, and reiterates the show's commitment to providing in-depth coverage of college basketball.

[75:43] Matt Norlander: "We'll talk to you in a few days. Till then, take care."

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Notable Quotes

• “We didn’t get our end result. Our job is to go win it.”
  Mark Pope ([10:02])

• “He's got a chance to be really special.”
  Mark Pope on Brandon Garrison ([23:51])

• “41 is like a deep, deep, meaningful number.”
  Mark Pope ([72:51])

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This episode offers a comprehensive look into Mark Pope's vision for the Kentucky Wildcats, his approach to coaching, and the strategic moves shaping the team's future. For fans eager to stay informed and engaged with college basketball's evolving landscape, Eye On College Basketball delivers an enlightening and entertaining narrative.

Transcript

[Matt Norlander]

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[Mark Pope]

Whoa, when did I get here?

[Matt Norlander]

What do you mean?

[Mark Pope]

I swear it was just moments ago that I accepted a great offer from Carvana online.

[Matt Norlander]

I must have time traveled to the future. It was just moments ago. We do same day pickup. Here's your check for that great offer. It is the future. It's, it's the present. And just the convenience of Carvana. Sorry to blow your mind.

[Mark Pope]

It's all good. Happens all the time.

[Matt Norlander]

Sell your car the convenient way to Carvana. Pickup times may vary and fees may apply. Okay, before we get to talking about the Duke Blue Devils, here's your last reminder for the bonus shoot arounds the auction episodes. You see right here, top right of the corner QR code. If you're watching on YouTube, go ahead, push through that. You'll have the link to all three auctions. And yes, if you are listening to the show, this is your last reminder that in the episode description or go to my Twitter feed, Gary Paris's Twitter feed, the Ion College basketball podcast Twitter feed. You'll see links there for all three Tiltify auctions. There has been some schools that have been bidding on all of them, which I love to see. But if a school wins two of the auctions, we're not getting, you're not getting double the episode. So it will go to the next best winner in that case. But we're excited. Go bid. We're trying to raise as much money as possible for St. Jude, so get that done. Deadlines Thursday, 5 Eastern, 6 Eastern, 7pm Eastern, p.m. eastern at our Tiltify auction pages and then we will reveal the winners later this month. Now let's get to the Duke shoot around episode. Welcome back to the Eye on College Basketball Podcast. I'm your host for this episode, Matt Norlander. We are continuing our summer shoot around series and we've only done a couple with head coaching interviews. But this is a special one. We got a special guy on the show, it's Kentucky coach Mark Pope who joins us from what Pope, I presume this is your office down There in Lexington. Thank you so much for joining the show. Where are you? How are you? And yeah, I'm so happy to be reunited with you here, bud. Amen, man.

[Mark Pope]

I could do this with you every single day.

[Matt Norlander]

I feel the same way.

[Mark Pope]

I'm at the Joe Kraft Center. It's our brilliant, unbelievable, unparalleled practice facility here at the University of Kentucky. And I can't tell how excited I'm one because I get the chance to talk to the great Matt Norlander. I don't say that lightly. Second of all, do you realize that you and me and I on College Basketball podcast are going head to head with New Heights and the Kelsey Brothers and Taylor Swift? This is a ratings bonanza. Well, down at the OK Corral, that's.

[Matt Norlander]

That's true. A couple things on this one. This is transparency for our viewers and listeners. We have pre taped every shoot around episode. So we are pre taping this on Wednesday, August 13th. I believe that is the date that the New Heights podcast came out. This show is going to go live Thursday, August 14th. So I guess we're getting the downstream from that also. How did you even know that? I'm guessing your daughters informed you that the Taylor Swift album reveal stuff was. Was the deal. Is that how you learned this?

[Mark Pope]

And I was, I was flying home night before last and the girls were like going crazy over there. This announcement that was happening. And then Leanne is a huge fan. She's a big time fan of Ion college basketball. She's also a fan of New Heights and the Kelsey Brothers. And this Taylor Swift phenomenon in our house is the real thing. And so there's all kind of juice about this.

[Matt Norlander]

Hold on. See, Pope can be. It can try and butter you up a little bit here. Your wife does not genuinely listen to our podcast. There's no way that's a thing. If she does, she, Scott Drew's wife does listen to the show. That's the only known college basketball coach wife situation we have. As a, as an honestly dedicated listener, you tell me. Leanne is also dialed in.

[Mark Pope]

There's no doubt, Matt.

[Matt Norlander]

Okay. Wow. How about that? Yes, it is. It is Ion college basketball and New Heights head to Head and, well, you.

[Mark Pope]

Know, not only is Leanne going to listen to this podc, but she is going to give both of us a pretty brutally honest critique.

[Matt Norlander]

I would expect nothing less. Honestly, before we get into your team, your roster, your schedule, a couple quickies. One July, life here, it's over. Pope. And preseason is still, you know, it's next month, officially Guys are on campus, classes are starting soon, I'm sure in Lexington. But take us into your life right now, this week specifically. What is, what are you doing? What did you do earlier this week? What have you still got later this week before? I think stuff really starts to pick up for you next week, in the week after. But right now, where do I find you as Kentucky's head coach?

[Mark Pope]

It's actually, this is actually a great week. So we, we did just finish everything. We broke camp last Thursday. My guys had an unbelievable eight weeks plus week zero on ramp protocol, which was, it's so incredibly invigorating with the new composition of these teams. It's your first time to get this big group together and kind of explore each other and figure out who you are. So we had a really tremendous, tremendous camp. Then this weekend I got to go visit Big Don in Nampa, Idaho, my dad and my mom and so that was actually super sweet for me. I got to spend a day and a half with them, which I don't get to do very often. And then this week is really, this is the one week window where I get to focus all of my energy on doing an autopsy. The eight weeks and a prep for really the next four week session and the next six week session after that and then the season. And so we have our staff day next Tuesday where we start at 7:30 in the morning and we'll finish at 9:00 clock at night and kind of do everything there is and that'll be like the one day kind of culture kickoff and then we're rolling. So this week is a big time planning week, including taking care of things like this.

[Matt Norlander]

All right, so are some guys off campus for like a week, week and a half here? Is this actually a little bit of down period?

[Mark Pope]

We tried to kick everybody off campus to try to get everybody off campus to go home and refresh. And then I'm sitting here in the office and Denzel Aberdeen is down there like in a full sweat getting a ton of work, work done. Reese Potter is out there getting shots. That's. We have a bunch of guys that are not. I mean you think about Da, he just, he's got a national championship ring on his finger. And. And in our one week off where we've told these guys they're banned from the gym, these guys are still breaking in. So that's the type group we have.

[Matt Norlander]

That's actually real quick on that though. How does that, like, how does that work if you essentially are trying to get the guys to go Home. Because I am talking to coaches over the years about this. There are a lot of coaches that actually believe, like, I want them gone, not from. Not for me, for them. Because they're going to hear all of our voices almost every single day. And them getting a chance to break now ensures that, you know, when we hit around Thanksgiving or around Christmas and then once we get to February, like, I don't want them to hate the sound of my voice. I don't. I don't want them. I want my face to, you know, to still be something fresh. For the guys that stayed. Was it, you know, just a logistical, like, man, it's just a lot for me to get home or just were they. Was, you know, Denzel and I think you mentioned Mike. Were they just insistent, like, it's not going to happen, like, I got to put in the work. Why are those two and if anyone else, why do they specifically go against marching orders?

[Mark Pope]

I think we got guys that are just hungry. Two things. One, to kind of. To answer your first question, you know, you'd be shocked if you came to one of my practices. You'd be shocked at how soft my voice is in practice. Because we fight like crazy for EX1 for a few reasons, but one of the reasons you said is a coach's voice weighs out. We fight like crazy for our players voices to be the loudest ones in practice. And so we don't fatigue of each other like that. We really don't. That's not a huge concern of us. But I do have the concern. Like, guys, just get away just so your body and your heart can be fresh from the game. And so. So our guys, you know, I think all of our guys are going to be pretty committed to get at least a few consecutive days off. But we got a bunch of hungry guys, man.

[Matt Norlander]

All right, good deal. I've got a. We're going to wrap this show with a lightning round. I've got. He mentioned he likes his players voices to be the loudest in practice. I got one little small tip. I got one question kind of related to that one that will run down there before we look ahead. One more look back. Year one in Lexington. When this podcast goes live, it will be day 490 since you got offered the Kentucky job. So we're almost on 500 days. Can you. I want you to reflect big picture, you know, two, three, four things that just stand out over the 490 plus days since you got this gig about having it. What is. What has gone as you thought maybe something that you didn't expect, but just, you know, now you can step back. You're many months removed from the end of last season. Obviously, the SEC schedule was insane, but this is your opportunity here. As you do a reset on not just your past eight weeks in practice, Pope, but overall, Year one, how would you grade yourself? What stands out the most?

[Mark Pope]

Well, when you ask me what I think about, the biggest thing is, man, my heart's full of gratitude in a really sincere sense. When you think about how many days since I took the job, the fact that. That we had, you know, 27,000 people show up for my press conference, which didn't really have much to do with me, but it had to do with what BBN is like forever in my life. I'll be grateful for all those people that trekked from all over, from wherever, stood in line forever to come here. It's hard to express. It's hard to explain how grateful I am for that. And then I think about, from day one, that being the environment here. And then I think about. I think about these graduated super seniors and what they did for us last year and the ride that they took us all on and how they were willing to jump in with their whole hearts into not just being great players here and committed on the court, but also embracing this community. If I was going to grade myself, I'd probably grade myself at a B or a B minus. Clearly, we didn't. We didn't get our end result. You know, our job is to go win it. We didn't get that done. I felt like. And this leads right into the other part of your question. I didn't feel like. I felt like we did a lot of things really, really well that I'm very proud of. I felt like as a head coach, I failed our team a little bit in terms of picking and choosing the places where we're going to have it. A relentless standard where anything less than it was going to be successful. So one of our big keys going into the season is we're going to have a standard that. That we will refuse to accept anything less. In some facets of the game that are controllable. I think we're going to do a much better job with that.

[Matt Norlander]

Last season, Kentucky went 24 and 12. It got a three seed. It made the Sweet 16. It won 11 games against SEC competition. Specifically, it went 10, eight in the league, and then it got a win in the SEC tournament. I think I saw. Maybe this wasn't your lowest moment, but I think I. I think I saw you at maybe your lowest moment last season, that's when you lost by 20 in the CBS Sports Classic to Ohio State. Understandably so. At that moment, they just, you know, it was an unexpected result. But I want to go the flip side here, so let's, let's flip positive. What was the. Of all the wins you had last season, what was the biggest one or what made you happiest? Could be the last one against Illinois in the tournament. Could have been the first big one against Duke when you played in the Champions Classic. But I'm curious, in that year, one experience, now that you can look back, which was the one that, I don't know, felt the most fulfilling, maybe it was the hardest to get just anything surrounding it. Which one would you, would you pare down and say was the biggest.

[Mark Pope]

I'm going to be the worst interview ever? Because it's so hard to choose one. You're right that, you know, the, the Ohio State loss was so painful because it was in Madison Square Garden and it was just like it was probably our poorest performance of the season. Credit to them. But that building, second eruption. That building is probably the second most special building to me in, in the world.

[Matt Norlander]

Yeah.

[Mark Pope]

And so, so the fact that we perform so poorly in that building in that city was really hard, man. It's, I don't know, like the, the, the Duke win so early in the season for my guys to get a chance to go prove that they were not mid major super senior guys, but they were, 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, you know, I think that was really important. I really have a ton of. Just because of how much respect I have for Mark Few. I'm really grateful for the Gonzaga comeback. Lost both of our point guards in that game. And Jackson Robinson I've been with for three years, kind of stepped up and led us to victory, running the point in the last, you know, last 12 minutes of that game. And there were so many incredible wins throughout the season. We were the best, you know, so I know you know this, but there's 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's only been two in the whole history of. The whole history of college basketball. So you can forgive me if it's hard for me to pick out one.

[Matt Norlander]

It's okay. I would pick the win over Florida on January 4th. It was actually the first SEC game, 106 to 100 in regulation. That game was at rough. I remember my youngest son had. He had his rec league basketball, like just, you know, six year old basketball. So I watched some of that on my phone as and it was elite. And then I got. We were close enough like here in town, got home to catch the end of that game. I think that was maybe the best regular season game of the season last season. And to get off on a good start there, obviously what Florida did, we did.

[Mark Pope]

We score more points than your son's team easily.

[Matt Norlander]

I want to say my son's game ended like 21 to 16, if that. No doubt about it, man. But that was all told, Pope, like, if I was doing this Kentucky episode with Parrish right now, we were talking about your team like in all earnestness, a minus minimum for you in year one. Yeah, I know it's 12 losses overall, but you take that job, everything that comes attached with it. You had a top 10 offense, all the pieces that you put together in the portal. A lot of those guys, you know, they were one and done by necessity because they had exhausted their eligibility. It was, it was a pretty fascinating year. And, and also like the Caliperi era, you know, there was a storyline every damn month, let alone every year. And it was just, it felt good. As a national media member who talks on a podcast three times a week during the season, minimally, it just, it felt good to have Kentucky enter into a new era. And with you, with you guiding the ship there, there was plenty of intrigue. And guess what? The intrigue remains because you got plenty of plenty of new pieces coming aboard, some key pieces coming back. And I'm, I'm not even gonna let you jump in here. We're gonna take a quick break. Let's take a quick break and then we will get into Kentucky for 20, 25, 26. We'll run down the roster, have Pope give some scouting reports on what he's seen from the guys this summer, what to expect, and then we'll run down the schedule and even more right after this break.

[Gary Parrish]

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[Matt Norlander]

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[Mark Pope]

I did. I actually flew. Yep. So it was actually super painful, if you want to know the truth. So, yeah, so I was flying. This is. I don't even know how to like, everything I'm gonna say is gonna make me sound like a horrible person.

[Matt Norlander]

Let's do it. I'm all for it.

[Mark Pope]

So I actually did. I thought, man, this is gonna be super easy. I'll just jet out there, be super easy. So I flew to Minneapolis. We were stuck in a storm, so we couldn't land for like a half an hour. Missed my connecting flight to Boise. I was supposed to get there at 11 o' clock in the morning. Saturday had to be. So I had. I sat in Minneapolis like so many of us when we tried. Then I had to be rerouted to la and then got to LA eventually, and then was rerouted to. To Boise eventually. So the, the flight home was much easier, but it was, you know, it's. It was. So. Yes.

[Matt Norlander]

Yeah. What he's saying, folks, is that, you know, you go in the summer, you got access to the pj. I saw this guy last month. I'd see him at the Adidas event in the morning, he'd be gone back up to down to North Augusta. And then I'd see him again, like six hours later. I was like, did you leave? Oh, yeah, I left. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. You want to get on the jet with me now? I got to stick here, Pope. But yeah, flying that. Hey, listen, I've had the opportunity, the rare opportunity just a few times to fly on a private jet. And when you get to experience that and the ease in which you are able to just go to an airport, get on a plane, fly up, land, and do that, and then you have to Fly commercial. Yes. It will spoil you in an instant.

[Mark Pope]

So I understand what you're saying in all honesty. So along the way, the great thing about the way I traveled to Idaho was I got to meet so many incredible people and that actually is a bonus. So. So I won't complain about that part.

[Matt Norlander]

Okay, fair enough. Let's get to the roster here. I'll. I'll name off all the guys and then you can fill in the folks on. On where we're at. Gone. Just remind here who's. Here's who's gone from last season. A lot, a lot of production. Jackson, Robinson, Kobe Braya, Lamont Butler, Amari Williams, Andrew Carr, Ansley Almanor, Kirk Reason, Travis Perry, all gone. Those players combined to produce 50 points around that for Kentucky last season. Some real, real impactful players. Pope, I think almost all of them that expunged their eligibility. Did all of them get some sort of professional contract? Is that, is that many at the NBA level And then Almanor might be playing in 15 Finland, right? Is that right?

[Mark Pope]

Yeah. So we had five guys, two guys drafted, five guys signed contracts with NBA teams and then. And it's super exciting. Ansley Almanor who came in here, you think about Ansley came in here as a guy who knew like he just knew the way the roster that he was going to be coming off the bench had an unbelievable record setting season in the history, the best shooting season in the history of Kentucky basketball for a guy six, eight or over and is now signed a contract in Finland. Man, it's super cool.

[Matt Norlander]

That's really, really. I dig that. That's really cool. Back Ortega away. Brandon Garrison, Colin Chandler, Trent Noah. We'll start with oa. He tested the draft process. He comes back, he'll be a preseason all American. He averaged better than 16 points last season. What have you seen from him since he made the decision to come back? What will his role be this season versus what it was last season? Obviously there will be a lot of stuff that carries over and be similar but he wants to be a better player. You're going to make him a. He stands to be potentially your best player. So what have you seen and what's in store?

[Mark Pope]

Well, when it worked out that he was coming back, you know, I couldn't get away out of my head, man. Of course like literally more singing to.

[Matt Norlander]

Come on this episode.

[Mark Pope]

I hope the gratitude and he's, he's. He's got so much more to his ceiling. You know, clearly he. I'll tell you what I was most impressed with you know, the summer sometimes is a different, we keep it at a little bit different cadence. We actually, to your point, early in the podcast in the summer, we try and keep it to a cadence where it's like super constructive and we kind of dial the competition back a little bit to kind of focus on skill and understanding and iq. This group was impossible to hold back. And Ortega owe coming in the summer after he'd gone through the entire NBA process after he'd had, you know, one of the historic season as a player in Kentucky, which is hard to do with, no break comes in there and he was, he was, he, he did things defensively this summer that I, I would walk out off the floor and be like, I don't even understand what I'm seeing on the court. It's a real credit to him. And so he's, he's growing as a defensive player. I think he has a chance to be the, the top defensive player in the country, the most versatile. Versatile. He's, he's, he's, he's spending a ton of time growing his decision making as a play maker. I think he actually has a chance to become an elite level playmaker. Of course he spends that time, you know, you know, continue.

[Matt Norlander]

Good stuff. Brandon Garrison, he opts, he opts to come back and I think he's a real passionate player. I think he's a key, important player. Stands to have his production really jump up. Right. What have you seen from him over the past eight weeks?

[Mark Pope]

It's been fun to watch him grow as a leader. So towards the end of last season, we started for the first time the last month of the season we started him to hear him say something from time to time and he's carried that into the summer. I thought his work ethic continued to grow throughout the course of the summer, especially the last three or four weeks. He really dialed in and understands kind of that the next step doesn't come naturally. You got to go take it. And so it's been fun to watch him grow that way. He does give us this incredible opportunity to switch one through five because he's such an elite level switch defender on ball screens and away from the ball. We expect him to have a big season. It's his second year, so fun stat for him. He was our leading assist turnover guy on the entire team this summer in the eight weeks. Well, right at a 2 to 1, it's just a turnover ratio. And so it's been fun to see him grow that way in terms of his ball security from where he came in last summer. It's been really incredible.

[Matt Norlander]

You mentioned that. Actually, I'm curious in your experience coaching at the college level, when you mentioned how Garrison led an ATO rate for you in the summer, broadly speaking, the stuff you see in the summer and you take all that bucket of data right from your teams and your players and then you go and you play a season and then you look at what happened in the regular season and postseason. What's the hit rate on that translating, generally speaking, over the past 10 plus years that you've been in college? Is it often, does it often correlate? Is it sometimes it's just completely hit or miss outlier. Just. I think fans might be interested to know because coaches will always understandably so get excited about their guys in the, in the summer, see a lot of stuff. You're playing each other, you're not playing high level competition. So what's the translation level for that? You know, again, not specific to one player. But just how often does that correlate?

[Mark Pope]

I think it's like a 68%. Now I know I pulled that number.

[Matt Norlander]

Out of thin air. Yeah, that's what I was looking, I was looking for 69, but we'll take it.

[Mark Pope]

But what I'm saying is sometimes it's just crazy. Mrs. Right. Because actually these are, these kids, these young people are just so dynamic as human beings and so much of what happens on the court is what they take into it that day. And so their lives can change so fast. We're not dealing with someone that's actually in the same space in their life right now, today, as they will be in three months, thankfully. Right. Because they're growing and so there is some error rate. But what's really fun for us is actually, especially when we get second summer guys is to track their progress from the previous summer and also to see them fit more seamlessly into what we're trying to do and understand it. It's really fun to watch. Trent Noah, for example, last year was a disaster. His first few weeks of the summer, maybe a lot of the summer in terms of understanding what we were trying to do. And then one year later he walks in and he's like the most veteran season voice on the floor and is like, guys, just everyone relax. Let me explain what coach is saying right now. It's actually so fun to watch from summer to summer and season to season, watch these guys grow.

[Matt Norlander]

That's cool. And no, obviously a local guy and look forward to seeing him flourish as the months come. Colin Chandler is The fourth player that I mentioned that's back. What, what have you seen from him? And yeah, what kind of jump should be expected for him in year two under you?

[Mark Pope]

He's made an incredible jump. You know, one of the things that he was focused on this summer was his ball handling, his ability to get wherever he wanted to get and not have handling the ball slow him down from getting there. And he worked incredibly hard at it this entire summer. He's made massive progress. Like, it's, it's, it's really stunning. I think he's finishing the ball better. He's another guy that grew immensely defensively during the season last year and he's carried that over. You know, he's got a chance, he's got a chance to be an elite level defender. He's playing so hard for us right now. He is. Of all my guys, we don't. I think he, like, I feel like he can't breathe if there's not something on the line. Like, he is the most competitive. I mean, he just can't wait to get to the next competition. It doesn't matter what it is, by the way. It can be anything. If we're guessing, if we're going to see a blue car or a red car when we turn the corner, he wants to be in that. And so he's going to have a huge impact on the team this year.

[Matt Norlander]

I like to hear that. Let's talk transfers. I've got a big picture transfer question about 20, 25 in the portal, but we'll get to that after we talk about your guys. Start with Jalen Lowe, transfers from Pitt. He averaged 17 points last season or just shy of that. Expected to start at the point for you this season as a lead guard. What have you seen? So what should Kentucky fans expect from him? And yeah, what does the game look like?

[Mark Pope]

He's a lightning quick get wherever he wants on the court leader, vocal leader. He's not. He, he actually, this is, this is going to come off wrong. So will you edit this in post production? But he actually has the beautiful skill of not being overly concerned with what other people like him in any given moment. And that's actually a really important skill as a leader. Sometimes you got to be a truth teller. Sometimes you got to hold people accountable. And for those of us that are like born pleasers, sometimes that can be really challenging. There's no fear in him to be like, nah, this is how it is. And if you like it or don't like it, it doesn't matter. It's just the truth. He stepped up as a great leader for us and he's an elite level playmaker off ball screens. I mean he can, he can fling the ball everywhere on the court, make every pass. I think he's, you know, he was our leading three point field goal percentage shooter in five on five competition this summer at almost 42 and a half, just right under 42%. And so we're incredibly excited about what we believe he's going to do in terms of efficiency this summer. We think he's going to take a massive jump. He's, he's been special for us.

[Matt Norlander]

Yeah, I'll be interested to see his three point accuracy. I know he was a tough shot taker and maker at pit, so I think we've talked about this before, but I think one of your key directives heading into the season is to make sure that he is putting himself in your offenses, putting him in a position to be able to thrive both as a distributor but also just to scheme him up to be able to take open shots. Because he was almost, he was playing at a certain degree of difficulty last season, right?

[Mark Pope]

Yeah. So if so, actually, you know, nationwide there's statistical measures that we get to call from. And so he was in the 95th percentile at taking the highest percentage of shots in the bottom 20% of shot quality. So that's a lot of words. I know that's a lot of words. But ultimately what that means is he was in the top 5% of players taking the hardest shots in the country at a regular basis. And so one of the things that he's really focused on is like, how can I work hard instead of working hard to make hard shots, how can I work really hard to earn myself great possessions? And I think he's made incredible progress this summer. It's one of the things my staff is great at coaching.

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[Matt Norlander]

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[Mark Pope]

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[Matt Norlander]

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[Mark Pope]

Death is coming for our family.

[Matt Norlander]

The Disney Plus Hulu HBO Max bundle plans starting at 16.99amonth. All these and more streaming soon. Visit Disney Plus Hulu HBOMaxBundle.com for details. Let's get to quaintance. He comes from Arizona State, nine and a half points a game. He's got the torn acl. He's got a driver's maybe already took the driver's test. I need two updates on him. One, what's the status of this driver's test? You went on Instagram Live last week and gave kind of a rundown of how you were prepping him. And then two, I know we're probably still a little far out, but let's, you know, let's get some sort of update. Like, is there any hope whatsoever that he can be ready to go in November, or are we more realistically thinking closer to the start of SEC season? What's the latest from doctors in terms of his. His recovery at this point?

[Mark Pope]

Point? All right, so let me talk to you about jq. So we just did. Just. I want to put this all in proper perspective, okay? Like, I am a, I'm a very amateur chess. I don't really know much about the game. I know how to move the pieces that I'm fascinated by playing. And usually I, you know, the first player that I've ever played against has given me a real challenge is Colin Chandler. I happen to be lucky. Up three, two on Colin. Okay. And then we've taken a hiatus because it started to get a little. There started to be some emotion involved. JQ is up 1:5 on me. He is a survive, I kid you not. Like, and it's driving me crazy. Like, I can't even look at him. I'm so upset with him. Okay, so we're coming from the place of this being one of the smartest, like, spatially, like, you know, being able to have a lot of calculations in his head all at the Same time with that said, he is not a talented driver.

[Matt Norlander]

Okay?

[Mark Pope]

He's not. Okay. So we knew this because we had had a team golf outing, and he was driving the car, the golf cart. And I get a call from Coach Fox. He's like, we have got to get JQ out of the driver's seat because Coach Fox was in the passenger seat. He was afraid for his life. Okay, this is a veteran coach. Is his veteran as they come. So then we did this whole thing as a team. We're like, all right, this is what we're doing. We're going to send him off. He's going to get his. Take his test the next day in Florida, the last day. So Thursday, after our workout, we went over to the parking lot football stadium. We had done this whole course of cones so that he could practice driving through. He made it through. Nobody died, which was a huge win. Okay. He did have a police officer in the passenger seat kind of helping give him driving tips. So then he goes to. Down to Florida, and. And there was all kind of paperwork issues. He finally took that. Took the test. He finally, eventually took the test. Long story. I'm leaving out a lot of details.

[Matt Norlander]

Yeah.

[Mark Pope]

And was doing great until he backed straight over a cone and they failed him.

[Matt Norlander]

Wow. Tough. Seeing the drama continues. How about that?

[Mark Pope]

Apparently. And he. I asked his permission to tell the story. He backed dead straight right over this cone. I'm like, did you know? How'd you know? Did you truck me? He's like, no, I backed over it. It was just like this loud. The car jumped up and down. And so we have some work to do on him. And here's the problem, okay? This is a long answer to jq. The problem is when he plays the game of basketball, he just runs over everybody. This guy is a physical specimen like you haven't seen before. In fact, don't tell him this, okay?

[Matt Norlander]

Again, this is on a. Publicly consumed.

[Mark Pope]

Yeah, but he's. I don't think he's a podcast.

[Matt Norlander]

Not like your wife. He's not watching the podcast.

[Mark Pope]

His hands are so big and he's so strong. I. I don't know if you're gonna be able to relate to this. And this is super embarrassing for me to say as a coach, but, like, you know, he's been working so hard on his free throws. Made incredible progress. Went from being like a 48 free throw shooter last season to. To week seven, he was over 80 from the free throw line on 150 free throws a day. Made incredible progress. So every Time, every, every, every time he shoots, like, we'll go celebrate. And I give him five. And now it's like I can't let anybody see it. But it hurts so bad when this kid just gives you a natural high five.

[Matt Norlander]

Yeah.

[Mark Pope]

And I can't show it because I got to be a tough guy. So, so I'm like trying, you know how when you, you're about to feel something really painful, you just try and like keep your face straight.

[Matt Norlander]

Sure. How about that? Okay. J.Q. didn't answer the question, by the way. When are we gonna see this guy on the floor?

[Mark Pope]

Listen, he's, he's, it's really important that he gets a full recovery. So it's gonna be a little while.

[Matt Norlander]

He's working a little more specific than a little while. Like he's going to play this upcoming season. Right. That every intention. He'll be on the floor this upcoming season.

[Mark Pope]

I have every expectation that he'll play this season. I don't, I don't think he's gonna play all the games this season, but we'll see. Like, he's, he's made great progress and he's, he's kind of crossing off the benchmarks as he goes. He's in a really important three week space for him right now where it's the first time we get to hit strength training head on. He's still not doing anything live ish or even close to it, but we're really going strength heavy, heavy, heavy the next three weeks and so we'll see how these three weeks go.

[Matt Norlander]

So there's hope but no guarantee that maybe he could be on the floor by the end of November.

[Mark Pope]

Maybe ish. Maybe ish. This one's hard. Like this, this was.

[Matt Norlander]

I'm not trying to get you to say like he's going to be back November 21st, but just a general ide. Quaintance just for, for non Kentucky fans listening like quaintance at full strength, he's got the opportunity to be one of the most impactful defenders, you know, in the entire country. So his inclusion in Kentucky's roster when he is fully healthy will bring Kentucky up another tier, if not up another two tiers.

[Mark Pope]

That's why as a 16 year old last year in a, in the Big 12, which is a good conference, as a 16 year old, he was like one of the leading shop blockers in the country.

[Matt Norlander]

Yes, he led. I think he might have led the country in. I don't, I hate the term steals and blocks. They call them stocks. It's A big NBA term. He might have led the country in stocks last season among all players, not even just freshmen. Big time stuff. Let's keep it moving here. If we go player by player, it's gonna be a two hour pot. I'm not keeping you that long. All right. Denzel Aberdeen comes over from Florida. Cam Williams from Tulane. Mohammed Diabate from Alabama. You mentioned Reese Potter. He's. He might be, as we're still recording, he might be getting shots up in the gym. He comes over from Miami University in Ohio. Big time gains. I would say that your Portal editions rank among the best in the sport for obvious reasons. But. Yeah, give me the, give me the rundown on, on those four. And seems to me you've got. You got one of those good problems because if you think you're going to whittle your roster, let's say quaintance gets healthy. Pope, I. I see eight at minimum. And if all these guys hit and then we'll get to the freshman as well. I mean, not. You could be going with 10. Maybe you will need to go with 10 with the way that you want to run your offense and get up and down the floor. So let's talk transfers that we haven't hit on yet.

[Mark Pope]

Denzel, I mean, in the gym right now. Winner, winner, winner, winner. He just, he's got a championship ring, man, that's hard to get. Like, he's incredible. Cam Williams. It came in here as an elite, elite level shooter. By the end of the summer, we're like, is he going to be our top defender, Our second or third best defender? He, he let us in dim numbers, which is a defensive impact metric for us. He was tied for first in block shots. He was fourth in rebounding. You know, he just, he's got a chance. We're really, really excited about him. Andrea Yelovic, I think you mentioned him. We're hoping to get him on campus at the end of this week as he goes through this whole process. But we have high, high hopes for him. You know, this whole group. Reese Potter, like I said, is in the gym right now. You know, one of the things, we were 51st in the country, Ken Palm statistics last year defensively. And so we were like, we have got to get better defensively. We need Modi. So we brought Modi in. This Modi Abate is a, he is a dog. He is a competitor. Like, he loves it and he is incredibly talented. Gives us. You talk about Brandon Garrison, switchability, Modiabate guard every single position on the floor and, and have everyone Kind of on their heels. Like he has a chance to be really special. So this group of transfers we're incredibly excited about.

[Matt Norlander]

Before I get to the freshman, I was going to mention Yellow Vich as kind of a newbie. But yeah, he coming over an international born player. You're waiting on him getting cleared. Hopefully that's coming pretty soon here. I, I'm going to ask you to be as transparent and forthcoming as possible while understanding there's certain things that coaches just are going to say on the phone that they will not say on a podcast. I get all that transfer portal life from, you know, end of March through mid May. For you and your staff in 2025, how would you sum up what it was this year versus what it was last year?

[Mark Pope]

It's. Well, the one benefit for us is we had been here and won, right? And so, so that was the one thing we didn't have coming in the first year. We didn't have, we didn't have any, you know, guys were kind of saying like what is Kentucky going to look like? I mean you just had one of the great all time coaches in the history the game, you know, vacate this seed and you brought in me. Right? And so, so there was that question. I don't think we had to deal with that question at all this year. Everybody had seen us play and, and seen what our guys did. But in terms of the madness and the Mayhem and the 247 nonstop, I'll tell you the hardest thing, actually the worst thing, the worst thing was playing in the NCAA tournament while the portal was open. That I probably mismanaged that last year in all honesty because what happens is you have to like the game demands that you, that you, you go down two roads as fast you can. And I didn't do that well enough this year. And that's something that we've talked in great detail about how we're going to remedy next year. But it was all the chaos that we love in portal season.

[Matt Norlander]

Some follow ups on that one. When would you have the portal open in college basketball? Last season it opened the Monday after the first round, which was a change from the year before. It opened the Monday after Selection Sunday, so they bumped it back a week. If you had the magic wand, Mark Pope, when would the portal open in college basketball?

[Mark Pope]

It's just an impossible question because one of the hard things is that if you open it after the NCAA tournament, you have some kids that are sitting there waiting a month, right? If you open it during, it just, it just causes you A bigger responsibility as a coach. And there can be some real confusion as a player. I think it can get really hard as a player also, because players are also. There's no way as a player that you're not at least paying attention to what's happening. If I could, if I could change it, I would probably move it to the day after the national championship game and make it a really tight window, make it a five day window. That way everyone's had time to evaluate, everyone's had time to see and just make it a shorter window so that we can just get through the process. The process is already crazy fast. But I say that also acknowledging that that answer has a lot of. Raises a lot of issues too. There's no perfect answer, but we're working like the main thing should still be the main thing. And the main thing is giving these kids an unfettered opportunity to go be a champion. And I still believe that that's where these kids get the greatest experience of their life that they'll never forget is pursuing a championship with their whole hearts. And in the meantime, if they don't change it, we just have to be better at staying focused on that. But that would be my preference.

[Matt Norlander]

Five days though. You've made a decision. Here you go. Crunch it down. As it stands right now, players have about a month. Last portal question. They'll get to the freshman, then we'll get to the schedule. You and I both know that Kentucky, not just because of name value, but also because of the finances attached to your program. You guys in the portal season get talked about a ton for just your overall presence. And I know full well that you did not land players that you were recruiting because you. I know at least of one player and I'm not gonna say I'm on the show, but I know of at least one player that you were recruiting the portal that you didn't get because you were 100% outspent by another school. So it can happen. It often doesn't happen. But how, how do you handle that aspect of the job, Mark, when you know that when you're going through this portal process, trying to figure out who you're going to be able to get and managing an element to recruiting that wasn't there three, four, ten years ago and knowing full well that, that people will be speaking certain things on you and your program, some of them might be matter of fact true, some of them might not be so true. It might be, you know, anti recruitment. How do you handle that part of the job?

[Mark Pope]

Well, One, I'm really blessed in two ways. One, one, I get to wear this, this logo. Right. I mean so that, that just does so much for speaking for itself. And two, we're, we're really blessed to be on the, you know, I'm going to tell everybody that we're spending $500 million on nil. Right? That's what I like to say. And so we're, we're really blessed to have support of bbn, to be incredibly competitive. So those two things as a foundation, I actually love the whole thing. I don't think the system is great. I'm not sure. I do think we might be missing some, we miss, might be missing some opportunities in allowing our players to become like, you know, like I don't want to get lost in achieving and leave out the becoming and achieving is also earning money, achieving all this stuff. But like what was transformative for me in my college experience was I became something I actually became. And so sometimes I worry that in the game on a 30,000 foot level that we might be mortgaging some of the becoming for just the simple achieving. With that said, I love it. Come on. To be a coach in college basketball right now and have the opportunity to navigate this insanity is actually the coolest thing ever. And because it takes every bit of your faculty, we're always guessing and we're trying to guess the best we can. It's incredibly challenging. I love the whole thing, man. I don't think there's ever been a better time to be a coach than get to try and navigate all these dynamics.

[Matt Norlander]

In my own experience, I would say what you just said rings very true with college coaches. We're all guessing, we're trying to guess the best we can. That it can be true of talent evaluation. And then in the past few cycles with transfers it has been eye opening to find out sometimes staffs have a good idea if they're going to get someone. But the way that recruiting has changed at particular transfer players and how money drives so much of this stuff, there will even. There will be. There have been no shortage of coaches that on a, on a Wednesday morning at 9:30 think there's no chance of getting a player and that player will publicly commit to that coach, that very same coach by 4 o' clock that afternoon. The acceleration which a lot of this has happened has been very interesting. And here Kentucky in the midst of.

[Mark Pope]

All this is obviously, hey Matt, it's made your job really hard.

[Matt Norlander]

In many ways it has, but, but no less hard than, than what you guys are doing, doing on that. And then obviously Kentucky is very interestingly positioned within the sec, within revenue sharing. All that stuff. I reported on that last month. You can read that [e-mail] let's keep it moving here. Let's talk your freshman Jasper Johnson, Malachi Marino. You've got Braden Hawthorne, who is technically, I guess a red shirt freshman. Kentucky fans that are die hard and watching and listening this podcast, they're very aware of them. But you've got three very intriguing, three very different players here. Give the the quick synopsis on those three dudes.

[Mark Pope]

Super quick. I mean I love like I can't believe I get to coach these three guys. Jasper Johnson, one of the best kids ever. Soft spoken, but on the court he takes on a totally different Persona. He is dangerous, dangerous, dangerous score. He could easily go get put up 12 or 15 points in two and a half minutes. He just is. He's going to be really fun to coach and he's hungry to grow. Malachi Moreno, he, I've seen him dominate eight feet and in offensively and defensively in like at the highest level of kids his age in a such an incredible way. Coaching him at USA Basketball was unbelievable to watch. His domination in that space and he's incredibly mobile. And then this, this Braden Hawthorne, he is one of the most unique coach kids I've ever coached. I don't know what his ceiling is, but if I was going to compare him to a player right now and I'm doing this in incredible humility, there is so much of some type of Tayshaun Prince vibe in him. It is this kid. I don't know how soon it's going to happen, but I think this kid has a chance to be special. Like he, he just, he might have the goods, man. Like it's very cool to watch him.

[Matt Norlander]

Are you feeling more fulfilled now that you're back to work this Friday? No, I need a vacation.

[Mark Pope]

See the movie that critics are saying.

[Matt Norlander]

Is an awesome look at that crowd.

[Mark Pope]

Pleasing, fist pumping all out brawl of a film.

[Matt Norlander]

You're right about that. They're coming after our family. Go fix this. Oh my God.

[Mark Pope]

Rated R. Only in theaters Friday.

[Matt Norlander]

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[Mark Pope]

I mean it's just, you know, we're just so hungry to play every great game we can. I understand that. This is Kentucky, right? And so I think last year we fell a little short. We had the third hardest schedule in the country. We should be number one every year. Like that's something that's really important to us. And you know, we, we don't have full autonomy in how we do it, but we do the best we can because it's great. Games are like, that's why we play, right? To play great games. So I love our schedule this year. I think we're getting tested in major major ways and can't wait to get to it.

[Matt Norlander]

Alabama and Auburn at Kempom were the only two schools that rated tougher overall. Obviously SEC programs along with Kentucky which was number three. Here is the non con schedule. I'm not going to. I'm not Pope. We have a. We have a regular season win total prediction segment on these summer shoot around episodes. If you want to say 310 you can. I guess I wouldn't guarantee that that also will make news and be aggregated by your ksrs and the like. But I am going to do it. I'm not going to be a coward and not say it just because I got the coach on here. Here are your notable non con games for Kentucky men's basketball. They're at Louisville. I want to get to that in just a second actually. At Louisville November 11 versus Michigan State in the Champions Classic November 18. They've got Carolina on December 2. The ACC SEC Challenge. That's going to be in Rupp. Carolina and Kentucky have made something of a habit to face each other in many years. I love to see that continuing the Gonzaga game against Kentucky will be In Nashville this season on December 5th, they get Indiana and Rupp Arena. Love to see those two programs coming back together. And then obviously the Kentucky St. John's game at State Farm arena in Atlanta, the CBS Sports Classic on December 20th. Those are your biggest high major non con games. And then when you get to the SEC schedule overall, you've got two plays against Florida, you've got two plays against Tennessee, you've got one more two play in here. I forget who it is. It might be Vandy, but you've got, you've got an appropriately difficult schedule. I don't think Pope, I don't think the SEC is going to send 14 next season. 14 was an outrageous, outrageous number. Record setting number. Smack. You know, just smash the previous record there. But, but I'm gonna say, I'm gonna say 24, seven for your Kentucky Wildcats going into the SEC tournament last year as a reminder, you were 21 and 10 going in. So I've got you with a three win improvement which is, which is pretty marked. What do you think of my thoughts? Grade me on, on my projection here.

[Mark Pope]

Well, one, one the sac. I mean let's just give a shout out to SEC last year, not just 14 teams, but seven teams in the Sweet 16. That, that. I, I just, I'm sure that number's never existed. But before that is just so.

[Matt Norlander]

I know that was a, it was a record. That was a record.

[Mark Pope]

That's actually proving it. I just thought that was so cool. Really, really incredibly proud of this league. And it's just so amazing to be in here. I mean, here's the deal, Matt. You know there's only one acceptable thing here at Kentucky and that's to win all the games. So I'm not going to undershoot the expectation here. We got to go win them all.

[Matt Norlander]

If I am, if I am wrong and you win 25 or more in the regular season, do I need, do we need to make some sort of public.

[Mark Pope]

Yes. Yes. What do you have for me? What do you have for me? So that' 25 and over. Yeah. 25 and over.

[Matt Norlander]

25 and over. I famously was very wrong about Auburn last year preseason rankings. The staff certainly let me know about that.

[Mark Pope]

Let me say. I know Bruce. I know, I know Bruce was all over you on that one.

[Matt Norlander]

They do not let me forget about that. Which is fine. Which I and Auburn fans, by all means we. I, I gotta figure out something. What, what that is. I'm not sure. What if I'm right though? What if I'm right? Then what happens then? Then what do I get? What if I'm writing your 24 or 23? Then what?

[Mark Pope]

What do you want?

[Matt Norlander]

We'll figure it out. You know you're.

[Mark Pope]

I will. This is what I'll do. I'll put you on the mic at Big Blue Madness the following year.

[Matt Norlander]

Oh boy. Okay. That's got to be the following year on the mic. Okay. We can, we can make that happen. That's a deal.

[Mark Pope]

I'll.

[Matt Norlander]

I'll make something equally as good happen. I don't want to. You could come back on the show, but that's not like, that's not a. That's not a big prize. I don't know. I, I got, I got Miles Davis behind me here. Maybe I'll get you a couple more Miles Davis records.

[Mark Pope]

Let's go.

[Matt Norlander]

I know you're a Miles Davis fan.

[Mark Pope]

I don't know if a lot Miles Davis. I'm not claiming to, but if you don't just turn on some Miles Davis after 7 o' clock tonight. It changed your existence on the planet.

[Matt Norlander]

Big time stuff. And I love that you are a Miles Davis fan. Couple more schedule stuff, lightning around, we'll get you out of here. You're setting a record, by the way, all time coaching guests, which there haven't been many, but this is the longest one. You're the best for this Louisville game. It's early again. A lot of Kentucky fans prefer that game around Christmas because that's when it's been mostly played. I kind of do like it this year as a change of pace. It's a good little early season bonus. I do wonder, would you be willing and maybe you haven't thought about it, maybe you don't have an opinion on it. We are seeing more non conference games in February. We're going to have three of them this year. You know, you got Duke, Michigan. That's going to happen. You've got Ohio State, Virginia. That's going to happen. And I. This is going to become more of a popular thing. The SEC has an 18 game schedule. You can certainly accommodate for that and getting it done. Would you be open to playing the Louisville game in February and years to come if that was at least put on the table or do you want that game to be at some point in the first six or so weeks of the season?

[Mark Pope]

Well, a couple of things. One, I love what Pat's doing at Louisville and I love what coach is doing at Indiana. Like I think both. I think it's. It's great for this community right here. That Louisville's getting better and Indiana's getting better. Like it's super cool what they're doing too. I don't have a huge opinion on when. I just love playing the games. I do. Like, I love, you know, first week, second week, great games. So I love that just whoever it is in terms of playing in the the one complication was playing in the regular season is one the SEC. I mean, you know, I don't know. There was seven, eight, nine, 10 teams in the SEC ranked in the top 25 last year. And so the league is so brutal. And when you get that one by week, just, just helping you survive through the NCAA tournament, I mean, that's how far you're thinking down with that bye week. So my lean would be to probably be like at that point you're starting to think postseason and so maybe save. Save that bye week to. To try and get a little healthier. But you know me, I love every. Let's take every game every day, right? Let's go.

[Matt Norlander]

Well, that segues into my next part, which is you want to expand the regular season, period. We've talked about this before, but we're doing it here on the podcast. If you had the wand hope, how many games just in the regular season, not even counting SEC tournament, NCLA tournament, how we are at 31 right now. We will go to 32 in that for 26, 27. The season will expand to 32 games. But you want even more than that to you, what's the, what's the ideal number? What should men's basketball be playing in its regular season moving forward?

[Mark Pope]

I would love to get to 40. I actually think we're three games in. So this is what we did this year. We added two exhibition games against D1 schools, which is. I'm fine with that. Just let's go play. And then we, we add next year we add the other game. So. So to me, we've gone from 31 to 34 in my mind, man, can we squeeze in six more? And I'm tell you why. One, our guys do better academically during the season than they do out of the season. Two, like when our guys go on to the NBA, they've played a 31 game season. That means by the time they get to the all this was my experience when I got to the all Star break my first year in the league, I felt like I'd played two seasons already and I still had 60 games left to play. So I'm not sure it's a great prep for moving into the NBA at all three. Our teams turnover so much because of the current environment, which I'm all in for. It's all great. But like to give our teams a chance to go through a couple evolutions in one season that they used to go through. They used to have one or two or three seasons to get through those evolutions of growth. Now we're trying to squeeze in one season. We could use some more games and our fans get to know these kids more every single game. Last year our fans BBN got to know our guys so much better. Our fans deserve it. And when you're tying all this to revenue share, there's nobody that's going to complain players, coaches, fans about getting to 40 games where everybody capitalizes off the revenue share model.

[Matt Norlander]

Right? You just nailed it. Unquestionably. The more games, the more home gates, the more money, the more money be a bill to pay players. I've said this on the show earlier this summer, Pope, that is. That is coming. We're going to 32. I think 34 is inevitable maybe by the end of the decade, if not the first two years in the 2000-30s. 40 is a huge number. That wouldn't. That would require I think the season to bump back to like an October. You're talking like October 18 to 20 start overall. It's a lot of games. I'm not sure how I feel about 40. It's a lot. If you do that, by the way, there's no reason why you shouldn't be playing a non conference game in February. Kentucky just did it cows last year with against Gonzaga. I know UK fans like that. So at least just remain open to the concept. And if you do that, you mix in a few SEC games in December, a little additional ones. You can still get the bye week, by the way, in February, Pope. So we can.

[Mark Pope]

If you'll get me to 40, I'll take the the game. I'll take the extra game in February. Let's go.

[Matt Norlander]

I know there are other SEC coaches that are in favor of expanding. We're going to get more than 32 and it's going to happen soon because they want to pay players, they're going to need to pay players. Revenue sharing, all that. It is on its way. All right, we've gone over the schedule. You ready for a lightning round to wrap this up?

[Mark Pope]

Bring it.

[Matt Norlander]

All right, this. I have a specific number of questions here and I'm going to let you in the audience know why. I have the exact number of questions. You'll find that out on the last question. So it's question answer as rapid fires you can. If you need a little explainer here and there, we'll obviously take that. But let's rock and roll. You ready?

[Mark Pope]

Yep.

[Matt Norlander]

Okay. What's a harder environment, all things considered, for a Kentucky player? 1996 when you played, or 20, 25 when you're coaching? And keep in mind, 96, you know, you had Patino, but 96, you didn't have social media. So everything considered. Is it harder to be a play at Kentucky now or 30 years ago?

[Mark Pope]

Which is harder, social media or coach Pitino? Coach Pitino. No doubt.

[Matt Norlander]

Taking everything into account is recruiting. Is the process of recruiting better or worse than it was a decade ago?

[Mark Pope]

Better.

[Matt Norlander]

What's the hardest part about being the coach at Kentucky?

[Mark Pope]

It is. It is. The best part also is that is that. And I've said this, actually, I just was talking about this yesterday. I love this team arrivals book. I just finished it. And at one point, when he first takes office as the president, United States President, Abraham Lincoln says, declares to his wife, he says, I am now public property. And I think that's the greatest honor. And one of the biggest challenges of Kentucky is that you are like, genuinely, we're public property.

[Matt Norlander]

What Pope is referring to there is team of rivals. Doris Kearns Goodwin, who's won a Pulitzer, wrote a big book on Abraham Lincoln. Who was your favorite athlete when you were 15 years old?

[Mark Pope]

Sebastian Cole. Great, great, Great Britain 800 meter runner. Incredible. Mylar.

[Matt Norlander]

Also interesting. Okay, describe the feeling you get when you walk into a basketball gym.

[Mark Pope]

I just feel juice, man. It just is through my whole body.

[Matt Norlander]

If I walked into your home right now through the front door, what would I see? And would I have any idea what you do for a living?

[Mark Pope]

No, you would have no idea. You see a giant fireplace.

[Matt Norlander]

Okay, what's the best vacation you've taken in the past 10 years?

[Mark Pope]

Oh, I've been blessed. I did just recently go to Switzerland for the U19s. We went two days early, and I got to take Ms. Leanne and it was. It was truly one of the great 48 hour periods. And then. And then the games were great, too, also.

[Matt Norlander]

All right, good deal. You randomly just went really hot. Your mic is good again, but for about 10 seconds, you got really loud out. But we're back, we're back. And we're normal. We're good, we're good.

[Mark Pope]

What's one place not loud?

[Matt Norlander]

I did. And now we're back.

[Mark Pope]

We're back.

[Matt Norlander]

We're better. What's one place you've never been that you're dying to visit.

[Mark Pope]

New Zealand.

[Matt Norlander]

You're not balding. Why won't you grow your hair out?

[Mark Pope]

It's one less decision I have to make every day.

[Matt Norlander]

How often do you cut your or buzz your hair?

[Mark Pope]

Every two or three weeks, but it only takes me like, three minutes.

[Matt Norlander]

Okay, folks, by the way, quick interjection. I saw this dude after, like, like, maybe a month of not cutting his hair on the road, and I loved it. I wish he'd grow it out, but you just won't do it. How many pairs of shoes do you think you own? Try and get as close as possible.

[Mark Pope]

Probably a hundred.

[Matt Norlander]

Okay, what's tougher after a bad loss? Addressing your team in the locker room or addressing the media?

[Mark Pope]

Addressing my team for sure.

[Matt Norlander]

Okay, Kentucky media, take note, please, for the upcoming season.

[Mark Pope]

And here's the deal. It's just because. Because. Because when I adjust my team, they're all their guts are out on the floor, and there's devastation locker room if we lose. And so the media, it's easy to go take responsibility for everything with the media, but. But you're trying to repair hearts and souls in the locker room.

[Matt Norlander]

I imagine actually addressing your family sometimes can be just as tough, though, right?

[Mark Pope]

Well, they're not even close. I mean, the girls just tear me to pieces.

[Matt Norlander]

Okay, you'll have a minute on the girls in just a second here. Stand by. What's the best meal you can cook?

[Mark Pope]

I can make a great salad, man. Big time salad. You know, I can do. I can make a caprese salad. Prepare. I don't cook anything, but I can prepare a salad.

[Matt Norlander]

Got me on a technicality. Can't hate you for that. Who's the best talker on this year's team?

[Mark Pope]

JLo.

[Matt Norlander]

Okay, Jaylen Low, if you could change one thing about yourself with the snap of your fingers, what would it be?

[Mark Pope]

I wish I could sing.

[Matt Norlander]

Okay, what do you remember about.

[Mark Pope]

Is Glad I can't sing because I never stop, but I wish I could say.

[Matt Norlander]

What do you remember about the night you got offered the Kentucky job?

[Mark Pope]

I remember I remembered the. So the girls were spread all over. So Leanne was in Houston. My girls were kind of just spread all over. And so I'll never forget jumping on a Zoom FaceTime with. With all the girls and the conversation we had about, you know, I asked Mitchell, like, I need a half an hour to talk about, you know, there was no doubt we wanted the job, but I just needed a half an hour to confer with my girls. And so the really special conversation with each of my girls input was I'll never forget as long as I live.

[Matt Norlander]

All right, fair enough. I remember some other stuff about that night, but we'll keep it moving. You've got a group text with all 16 SEC coaches. Who's the worst texter in the league or the worst text backer of all the 16, and you can't pick yourself.

[Mark Pope]

The worst. Well, I'll tell you what, that's not easy. I'm going to say Rick Barnes, although we communicate a lot, just because I don't know if he's paying attention to group texts.

[Matt Norlander]

The answer is Mike White. Next question. After your playing career, you were studying to be a doctor and then gave that up to get into coaching. If you had become a doctor, what kind of doctor would you have been?

[Mark Pope]

I would have been a bad doctor in the er.

[Matt Norlander]

Just imagining you being in the air about it, just towering over everyone. It's an amazing image there. Give me one great thing you love about each of your children.

[Mark Pope]

I love Ella's. She's a big dreamer. I love it. She's chasing huge dreams. Avery is the toughest, might be the toughest person I know. Shy of her mom. Layla is like the embodiment of joy. If you know, if you're around Layla for two seconds, you will be smiling. 100. And Shay is probably one of the smartest people I know.

[Matt Norlander]

Okay, good stuff. What food do you hate?

[Mark Pope]

Blue cheese.

[Matt Norlander]

Me too. What's the most random or far flung place you've ever played a basketball game and what do you remember most about it?

[Mark Pope]

So, I mean, I played a year in. I played two years actually in Istanbul, Turkey, separated. And I played one year like on the far, far eastern border of Turkey, which is literally in the middle of nowhere. In the middle of nowhere. And it's probably though it was strange.

[Matt Norlander]

What was strange about it?

[Mark Pope]

That this town was. It was, you know, this is 30 years ago now. So the town was exactly what you'd expect to think of like more of like a Middle Eastern feel. The fact that there was even a gym there was surprising. It was, it was, it was different.

[Matt Norlander]

We'll talk about that more one day down the road. NBA or college. Who's the most interesting teammate you've ever had? And if you can't take. If you can't limit it to one, I will take three.

[Mark Pope]

So, yeah, so, okay, so I'm. I got a couple. I'm going to Anthony Mason, who. Who was super unique to me and Then I'm going with Fred Hoiberg. Just because I have so many Fred HoIberg stories for you. It's. This is what I. This is what you have to give me. If we get. If we get 25 or more.

[Matt Norlander]

Okay.

[Mark Pope]

We get to do a full podcast on Fred hoiberg stories.

[Matt Norlander]

Sure. You know how actors are sometimes. They'll got this thing where, like, they want to chase the artistic dream, but they sometimes need to make these commercial movies in order to, like, make everything else viable. It's called One for Them, One for Me. The Fred Hoiberg podcast is literally just one for you and me and no one else. But sure, that's what you want. Hoiberg and Anthony Mason, the same question, Same answer for the same question. I love it. Keep it moving. NCAA tournament. 68, 72 or 70 16.

[Mark Pope]

You know, I don't care. Just make. Keep the tournament. Great, man. Keep it 68.

[Matt Norlander]

You heard it, folks. Who.

[Mark Pope]

What?

[Matt Norlander]

Who or what was your first concert band artist? What was it?

[Mark Pope]

It was Garth Brooks in Seattle. Seven Night Stand. It was unbelievable. Everyone's too young to remember Garth Brooks in his heyday, but it was. He was an incredible performer.

[Matt Norlander]

He might have been the most commercially successful artist of the 90s, maybe. I think that might be true. I have.

[Mark Pope]

Yeah. Just as an aside, Leanne actually was in New York. She got be there when he did his million person concert in Central Park. She was actually at it. So it's very cool.

[Matt Norlander]

I have Miles Davis behind me. We talked about that before. If not Miles Davis, who else is among your favorite musical acts?

[Mark Pope]

Well, I'm a. Yes, I. I'm a. Like, kind of after 7pm Frank Sinatra, even Michael Buble I'll listen to. Which I know that doesn't do a lot for my street credit. I am actually right now in love with a song that Old Dominion sings, which I love. I mean, what a unbelievable band they are. You know, I grew up loving Pearl Jam.

[Matt Norlander]

Like, there we go.

[Mark Pope]

If I could go to one concert right now without any doubt, this shows you how old I am, it'd be Boys to Men, hands down. I would. I would give anything to do that.

[Matt Norlander]

Have you seen Boys to Men in concert?

[Mark Pope]

Never.

[Matt Norlander]

I have. Keep it moving. Other than watching games. How much? College basketball media, online articles, newspaper newspapers, podcasts. How much do you consume? Be honest.

[Mark Pope]

A lot.

[Matt Norlander]

Okay. What's one thing about the public that they would be surprised to learn about you?

[Mark Pope]

Who. I'm a hack pianist.

[Matt Norlander]

Okay. When working out music or podcasts.

[Mark Pope]

Music.

[Matt Norlander]

Okay. Would you rather Host the party or go to the party.

[Mark Pope]

Host.

[Matt Norlander]

Okay, you're in Kentucky, land of horses, Home to the Derby. Have you ever ridden a horse? And if so, how long ago did you ride a horse? Mark Podcast.

[Mark Pope]

I've ridden a horse a couple times ago. I had to get one big enough that my feet weren't dragging on the ground and it wasn't a pretty sight, but I loved it.

[Matt Norlander]

Okay, let's do word association with a few places you've been. When I say byu, you say Special. Okay. When I say Utah Valley, you say.

[Mark Pope]

Grind.

[Matt Norlander]

When I say Indiana Pacers, you say.

[Mark Pope]

Reggie Miller.

[Matt Norlander]

When I say Kentucky, you say Home. What's your favorite sport outside of basketball?

[Mark Pope]

I love cycling.

[Matt Norlander]

Is this one in the same to watch and do I guess those are two different questions here. Yeah.

[Mark Pope]

So, so I'm off the bike. It's a long story. Why. But, but for a long time I was, I was like, I was, I was crushing on the bike. Like it was my, it was my healthy place. It was almost like a religious experience because it's so horrible and painful. I rode Lodiga in the west. It's 206 mile race. Right. So I love it. But I'm also a big fan. I'm a big fan because I just love watching people stretch their capacity to endure suffering. I think it's pretty incredible.

[Matt Norlander]

I think it's pretty fascinating that your favorite sport outside of basketball to watch is cycling. Who spent more on their roster this year, you or Rick Patino?

[Mark Pope]

It doesn't matter what question you ask me about Coach B. I'm gonna have done it more, bigger and better coach.

[Matt Norlander]

There you go. I agree. By the way, who's one coach you've never coached against but are eager to do so?

[Mark Pope]

Oh, well, I mean, there's the legends, right? Like a John Wooden, which is not going to happen.

[Matt Norlander]

Well, no, they got to be alive and coaching right now.

[Mark Pope]

I, I, there's not that many coaches I haven't coached against yet. I don't actually.

[Matt Norlander]

Let me take off, Let me just tick off some names because I don't know. Off the top, I'm really excited.

[Mark Pope]

Coach against Tom Izzo, I've never done.

[Matt Norlander]

That was my first one. Have you coached against ISO before for.

[Mark Pope]

I'm really excited to do that. He's one of the greats all time in the game. I'm really, really looking forward to that.

[Matt Norlander]

Okay, that's obviously on the docket to come there. I don't think I've ever seen you mad. What gets you into that Place.

[Mark Pope]

I think when I let people down, I think that's really hard. It's probably the most important thing.

[Matt Norlander]

Okay. Among anyone that's alive, any person, any walk of life who's someone that you've not yet met that you'd be dying to meet.

[Mark Pope]

Alive.

[Matt Norlander]

Got to be alive.

[Mark Pope]

I would love to. I would love to. Oh, that I haven't met yet. Ah, it's so boring. But. But, you know, I think. I think this.

[Matt Norlander]

Okay. No, yeah. It doesn't count. Go.

[Mark Pope]

I think President Obama. Pretty fascinating. Pretty fascinating life.

[Matt Norlander]

There we go. Cake, pie, or brownie?

[Mark Pope]

You're making me choose between the three.

[Matt Norlander]

You can pick the. If it's a certain kind of pie or cake or whatever. That's right. Brownie is the answer. What's the best thing about being married to your wife?

[Mark Pope]

Oh, geez. Okay, so actually, I was talking about this yesterday. So Leanne Pope, she loves better than any human being I've ever met in my life. There's five people in her life, and I have never seen a human being care for, love, sacrifice for, and give to better than Leanne Pope does anybody that's around her. It's incredible. Like, she. She is really the. Such an incredible gift to BBN in the state of Kentucky because she loves people and she. But she loves me and our girls in a way that's brilliant.

[Matt Norlander]

Love to hear it. This is the last.

[Mark Pope]

So mad at me that I said brilliant because she loves me and I can't say brilliant. She loves me and the pop girls in a way that I. I've never. There's. There's no comparison. Fair.

[Matt Norlander]

Fair enough.

[Mark Pope]

Sorry it came out. I think I've said it twice. She crushes me for saying brilliant too often.

[Matt Norlander]

Good. Well, then she can crush you again. We're not adding this. Editing this after the fact. Last question. It's the 41st question. I specifically asked you 41 questions because you wore 32 at Washington before you transferred to Kentucky for $0 for Rick Patino back in the mid-90s. Maybe you've told it before. I don't know. But why did you wear number 41 at Kentucky?

[Mark Pope]

Do we have 27 seconds for me to preach?

[Matt Norlander]

The floor is yours, my man.

[Mark Pope]

Okay, so Pete Carroll, my good friend Daryl Bevel, was the offensive coordinator for Pete Carroll for a long time, and he talked about Pete Carroll just having this attitude that there was always something great just around the corner. Just keep going, right? And then I'm. I'm really. I'm super faithful person. And so. So I believe that there's joy in the morning. Like, I believe that's. I just believe that's the gospel. And so what's cool, I'm telling you what's cool about 41 is that when Noah was stuck in the flood, it rained for 40 days. And on the 41st day the rain stopped. When the children of Israel were lost and abandoned and wandering in the wilderness, they wandered for 40 years and on the 41st year they entered the promised land. When Jesus fasted, He fasted for 40 days. On a 41st day he began his ministry. And then when he came back after his resurrection, he was on the earth for 40 days. And then on the 41st day, he got to go back to his father. So 41 to me is like a deep, deep, meaningful number. It's joy in the morning and we just have to hang in there. And when you get to 40, don't quit, man. Get to 41. So I love the number. Like it means a lot to me.

[Matt Norlander]

By the way, you also won your first game at Kentucky by 41 points.

[Mark Pope]

Did you realize 41 pops up over and over? So our first game we won by 41 points. My first game ever as the head coach in Kentucky and then to finish the season, Kobe Braya got drafted as the 41st pick in the NBA draft.

[Matt Norlander]

Love it. By the way, long time listeners to the pod would would be let down if I didn't at least invoke Dave Matthews Band one more time. One of their very best songs is titled number 41. If you have not yet listened to it post hope go ahead and find it. You have set the record. This is. Oh my Kentucky Fans, you're welcome. 70 minutes with your head coach. This is just to speaks to what kind of guy he is and frankly this is also I picked him the right week for him to do this. So I appreciate it so much, man. I look forward to seeing you, seeing you soon, hopefully even before we get the season going. Obviously CBS Sports Classic with St. John's we'll see if we can get you and Patino to get together and, and make some more stories and get some more stuff. But thank you so much for joining us. And we'll see 247 heading into the SEC tournament next year. We'll see. We'll see who wins.

[Mark Pope]

Thanks Matt. Thanks for, thanks for covering college basketball like you do, man. It's important.

[Matt Norlander]

I appreciate that. Thanks everyone for watching and listening. If you just dialed into this shoe to round episodes, your first one, go check the feed. We've had plenty more. And we got even more to come. Including, yeah, guess what, Guess what. The one after this episode is going to be next week. It's going to be the Louisville Cardinals. That's next up. We'll talk to you in a few days. Till then, take. Take care.

[Gary Parrish]

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