The Mark Pope Show presented by UK HealthCare, November 24th 2025

The Voice of the Wildcats, Tom Leach talks with head coach Mark Pope

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Well that's a flaw. Yeah, man, come on, stay up,
let's go go prebout it.

Speaker 2 (00:09):
I'm into OHS pradition.

Speaker 1 (00:13):
That's three football, Kentucky.

Speaker 3 (00:17):
Pre take the lead, little mission.

Speaker 4 (00:21):
Three ball, Maxie, don't count the bucket?

Speaker 5 (00:25):
What makes us different than everybody else?

Speaker 3 (00:28):
Is you all from the UK s Sports Network. This
is the Mark Folk Show, presented by UK Healthcare. To
talk to Coach Pope called the Clark's Pumping Shop phone
line at eight five nine two eight zero Cats that's
eight five nine two eight zero two two eight seven,
or state wide at one eight hundred six oh six

(00:50):
game that's one eight hundred and six oh six four
two sixty three guys, or you can tweet questions to
at UK Sports Network for Kentucky.

Speaker 6 (01:04):
The Mark Pope Show.

Speaker 3 (01:05):
Presented my UK Healthcare begins now. Alongside the coach, here's
the Voice Southern Cats, Tom Leach.

Speaker 1 (01:15):
Welcome into our first edition of The Mark Pope Show
for the basketball season. Glad you are with us, says,
We begin the journey that will weave its way through
the rest of the non conference schedule, the SEC schedule,
and then the postseason.

Speaker 6 (01:31):
Coming up.

Speaker 1 (01:31):
We will talk about the matchup with Tennessee Tech. Coming
up on Wednesday night, Thanksgiving Eve. The Golden Eagles are
coached by a former Wildcat, John Pelfrey, and Pel is
going to call in and chat with us coming up
a little later in the show. He and Coach Pope
are part of a very special fraternity as former Kentucky

(01:54):
basketball players, so it'll be fun to hear from John
and to talk a little bit about his team in
this matchup. Coming up on Wednesday night is at seven
Eastern time. Pregame coverage we'll start at five point thirty
with Dave and Cameron and Andrew, and then that's Thanksgiving
of course on Thursday, so we'll talk a little bit
about that with the Coach Pope and how it will

(02:15):
work out for his guys. You can send in your
questions on the text line at eight five nine two
oh three one two three four eight five nine two
oh three one two three four on the Clark's Pump
and Shop text line. You can also post questions for
Coach Pope on social media on x send those two

(02:36):
at UK Sports Network. It's the Mark Pope Show, presented
by UK Healthcare on the UK Sports Network.

Speaker 3 (02:46):
You're listening to the Mark Pope Show presented by UK
Healthcare on the UK Sports Network. The Mark Pope Show
is brought to you by Coca Cola, Appalachian Regional Healthcare,
Little Caesar and buy UK Healthcare.

Speaker 6 (03:02):
Tell me Who's in the house tonight, UK.

Speaker 5 (03:08):
Fight every single day for every single one.

Speaker 3 (03:13):
The Mark Pope Collins Show is brought to you locally
in Lexington by Baptist Health Liquor, Varn Skyline, Chilli Kroger
and buy Toyota.

Speaker 4 (03:25):
Beautiful of fifty Gods.

Speaker 7 (03:28):
Go there.

Speaker 3 (03:30):
Catch the wild Cats in Lexington all season long on
your home for Kentucky Basketball the UK Sports Network.

Speaker 1 (03:40):
The Big Blue Dream is alive and well and you
can count on the Cats to deliver the best performance possible.
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Speaker 1 (05:53):
Welcome back in to the Bark Pope Show and after
we finish up stick around for BBN Radio presented by
Clark's Pumping Shop. Darren Hedrick the host, and tonight he'll
be joined by UK Baseball coach Nick Minchione and Andrew
CAPPIs from our UK Sports Network team as Coach Pope
moves in alongside first of many, time to do this again.

Speaker 6 (06:13):
I am so happy to be here with you. I
can't even tell you. Be here with you and BBN
at our favorite uh Malones. It's just the best man.

Speaker 1 (06:24):
Come on and you're playing a team on wednes with
R or am.

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I allowed to say this with with our incredible uh
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Speaker 1 (06:38):
And you're playing a Tennessee Tech team on Wednesday night
that is coached by a former Wildcat And we're gonna
talk to to pell here in a minute. But that's
always fun to for that kind of angle to a
game like this.

Speaker 6 (06:49):
John Pelfrey is a legend among legends, an unforget okay family.
Yes he is and uh and was was really one
of those incredible guys that came here and turned the
program when it was really really in the cellar. And
he's also an incredible person and he's had an incredible
coaching run.

Speaker 1 (07:10):
Let's talk about how practices have gone for your guys
since the went over Loyola on Friday.

Speaker 6 (07:16):
So it depends who you ask. If you ask me,
I think practices are going great. We had our longest
practice of the season today, So how long is this brutal?
We were just knocking on the door of three hours.
That's not including film and all the prep. If you
ask the players, they might say they preferred some of
the other practices we've had, but I think we're making progress,
We're digging in and it's a great time for us.

(07:38):
This little stretch right now is a really really important
growth time for us, and we're trying to take advantage
of it. So practice has been really good. Guys competed
today and suffered somewhat today and I think hopefully walked
away with some valuable lessons that are going to help
us as we move forward.

Speaker 1 (07:57):
Well, the first question or two somewhere there has to
be about guys that are injured.

Speaker 6 (08:02):
We'll start with Jayalen Lowe. Anything new. Jalen Lowe was
on the court today in non contact skill work. He's
making progress, which is really exciting, and uh, it's just
going to be it'll be a continue to be a
day to day scenario. But it was good to see
him not just in the skill work but also out

(08:23):
there coaching, which which is going to be a really
important part of what he does when he's playing on
the floor and in practices now and so so we're
trying to give him more and more responsibility. He was
doing well.

Speaker 1 (08:35):
Is it changing much of how you will play not
having him versus what your plan was coming into the year.

Speaker 6 (08:41):
Yeah, so we're evolving as we learn about ourselves for sure,
and not just evolving in terms of some stylistic things
in terms of style of play, but also evolving a
little bit in terms of what what our priorities are,
what the holes are in in in kind of who
we are. And so yeah, we're we're in a we're

(09:02):
in a major growth period now.

Speaker 1 (09:03):
And then Mohammed Diabate had to miss the game with
an ankle issue Friday.

Speaker 6 (09:07):
How's he doing? Mo was coaching again today and he
shot free throws. He coached and shot free throws. So
we tested him last night. He's still got a ways
to go, but but he he was out of practice,
participating as much as he could.

Speaker 1 (09:21):
And then you gave us the update on JQ Friday night.
I'm sure that was exciting for fans that he continues
to make really good progress.

Speaker 6 (09:29):
It was super fun. We're in staff meeting this morning
and we're like, all right, we're gonna do some you know,
we're trying to spend some time on some post offense,
which which I think we have an ability with this group,
with a couple guys specifically where we can find ourselves
in the post when the game is going a little
a little screwy for us. We can find some peace
and settle ourselves in the post. I think Malachi's got

(09:51):
a chance to be a really really effective post player.
Uh BG does in his own way. Uh for sure,
we can get something of yet a yell at the
at the four and JQ for sure has got some
space there. So we were in the staff meeting talking
about doing three on three drills just to snap punch

(10:13):
drill and including JQ, and so we have to still monitor.
There's still a safety protocol with him when he's doing
any type of almost live action, and so he's going
to be going against our GA. So I looked at
Fitz and Willison. I was like, Hey, which one of
you can I trust to handle JQ with kick gloves

(10:35):
in the post. And both of them were kind of pale,
and neither one of them wanted the assignment at all,
not because they worried about hurting him, because they worried
about getting hurt. So, but he was in three on
three today, first time he's done some three on three,
so he's making steady progress.

Speaker 1 (10:49):
You talked about what the passing ability of Malachi's what
first interested you in him as a post player post moves.
What is still there the.

Speaker 6 (11:00):
Upside for him, Well, he's actually surprised me with his
his physicality translates. His physicality actually translates in the post.
His balance is really good. He's kind of learning what
he can get away with and what he can't get
away with at this level. And that's going to be
a problems of fouls. Yeah, well not just fouls, but
in terms of, you know, where he can create space

(11:21):
in the post, how he can earn catches, what he
can still do after the balance, like how his body
can impose itself on different styles of player. So he's
he's he's learning all that, he's going to continue to
learn it. But I do think we can make huge
progress leading up to conference play where he feels like,
you know what, I have some space to really work

(11:42):
in here. We need to get to a break.

Speaker 1 (11:44):
You can make sure to join us for Countdown to
tip Off presented by Jack Burford Chevrolet ahead of Kentucky
and Tennessee Tech, that gets going at five thirty Eastern
time on Wednesday night. This is the Mark Pope Show
presented by UK Healthcare and this is the UK Sports Network.

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Coach Mark Pope here, we'll get to some questions here
in just a moment we're expecting to hear from coach
Pelfer here in just a bit. I will remind you
the text line is available eight five nine two oh
three one two three four. If you have a question,

(15:38):
you can also post on social media. Post them on
x if you have questioned for Coach Pope and we
will get that passed along to him.

Speaker 6 (15:47):
Ah.

Speaker 1 (15:47):
Coach John Pelfrey's on the line with us, the head
coach of Tennessee Tech and a former Wildcat coach. Pelfrey,
how you doing, I'm doing great? How are you great?
Good to hear your voice. A lot of great memories
for Kentucky fans of your days here with that unforgettable
group and Richie and Darren and Sean and all the

(16:09):
great things that you guys did. And uh now coming
back here to bring your team back, what's that gonna
be like for you?

Speaker 6 (16:15):
John? Well, I'm gonna give you some coach speak. You know,
it's not about me. It's about our team. It's about
us being able to figure out what we can do
well and where we need to get better at. These
games are are great evaluations and kind of show you
on the things that are important. But also you know,

(16:36):
in reality of it is is for me, this is
you know, not just another place. And certainly the building,
I've had a long relationship with it. Everybody knows my
love affair with my alma mater, so I'll have to
you know, deal with some of that and and certainly
try to prepare myself. It's just, you know, have a

(16:58):
lot of emotion. They're honestly from It'll be a sixteen
year old high school kid. You got to play like
seven games in here, and obviously spent five years here
as a Kentucky basketball player, and I've been in here
as an assistant coach since my second time as a
head coach. My first game ever as a commentator for
ESPN was a Kentucky Blue White scrimmage with John Saunders.

(17:20):
So awesome. So I got a forty one year relationship
just building. So you know, when when Mark asked me
to do this, I told him no, Rod did no
hesitation whatsoever, not doing that. And I got home and
my associate head coach said, you're playing a game. So
then I had to come crawling back, groveling back. But

(17:42):
it's yeah, it's a special place and I'm very, very
appreciate the opportunity and just hope our team can come
in here and we can continue to grow. I really
like my team. We've got a great group of young
men first and foremost, and I think they can play basketball. Certainly.
Got to get better and get a final level consistency

(18:04):
for sure.

Speaker 1 (18:04):
All right, well, let me bring in the coach here
to the show, because you guys are part of a
really special for tourn To day. I worked with Mike
Pratt for many years, work with Goose now, and I
just see those guys when they're together with other former players.
There's just a brotherhood or a bond there that is
special to them, and you guys are a part of that.

Speaker 6 (18:24):
So Coach Pope Bell, first of all, thanks for jumping on.
And we've been studying your team for the last couple
of days and that you guys are good.

Speaker 19 (18:32):
Man.

Speaker 6 (18:32):
You've put together a great talented group and you're doing
so much with them. It's awesome. So you know, thanks
for coming to play this game. It's it's going to
be a hard five battle. I can't wait till you
get here, and I'm so excited for you to walk
back in this building again and just feel the love.

Speaker 4 (18:51):
Man.

Speaker 6 (18:52):
So I'm so happy that you're coming. It just is
like I love it when the family rolls back in
this building. Can you play. Please share with us your
top one or two or three greatest most iconic stories
from your time here at the University of Techy. But
come on, man, bring the goods. This is nobody's listening.

(19:13):
It's totally a private conversation. Just bring the thunder. Just
the two of you. Yeah, yeah, I hear you. You know,
don't pass over the one that it goes paused on.
Don't pass on it. Go to the one that first
gave it to your mind. Well, first, I gotta say
I kind of blacked out there for a second when

(19:35):
they mentioned you and you're you've been a national championship here,
so they got complete reverence for that. And then Jack
Goose Givens, who I'll never forget. I was like nine
years old and the Goose got losed for what forty
one or forty two and seventy eight he won the championship.
And so I am just in all of the players
in all of the place and blessed by the opportunity

(19:57):
to kind of do this. Listen, I you know, you're
talking about games, you talking about practice, You talk about
having to deal with that man. You know what a
record a daily basis. I mean, I don't know where
you want me to start. Like, all I can tell
you is I called him the other day and he
called me back and I said, Coach, how should I
handle this thing? Going back? You'll go back and say
what do you think? You know? Should we slow it down?

(20:18):
Should we speed it up?

Speaker 19 (20:19):
And he starts talking about the three point client and
I'm like, we can't do it that, We're not physically
gonna be able to do that. And then he says, well, well,
you know, I kind of told him this story about how,
you know, when my relationship started as a place and
he says to me, hell, you're getting old, And I'm.

Speaker 6 (20:36):
Like, what, so are you, coach? I know you don't
look like it. I think he's a vampire. That guy
has an aged today. Yeah, but you know, I don't know, Mark.
I think some of the things that stand out to
me early on, right because when you get a chance

(20:57):
for me, when I got a chance to come here,
nobody thought I belonged here. You won't go, you won't
play all these things right you get told to do.
And so when it finally started happening right, Like you're
playing against Louisville here at home, and you're playing against
Alan Houston, and you beat Bob Knight in in Indiana

(21:22):
and the Big Four Classic and the Who's Your Dome?
And like you take down Kansas here in Reperna after
getting absolutely destroyed by like fifty five the year before,
and you're like, you're out there. It is just like
I can't believe this is happening to me. And I
love it, and I want more. I just want more.

(21:45):
So I was a little bit of a junkie, and
you know, a lot of people say I'm an acquired taste.
I'm okay with that. I'm cool with that. But because
I literally lived this thing every single day, and I
know everybody kind of thinks I'm a little bit corny
from time to time. But I was literally like a
kid at King's Island. Man, I knew the park was

(22:05):
going to end, and I was just racing around trying
to get a few more rides in. That's literally the
way I spent five years here. I could have done
this for a lifetime. I don't know. It's really hard
for me to narrow it down to one, but I
think Mark, you know this right, it's like the special moments.
I don't know what it's like to have a national championship,
but yeah, we really appreciate the wins. We really appreciate

(22:28):
the championship with the love affair with the fans and
your teammates, Like you don't have to have it every day,
but once you get back, it's like you never left.
And it's just hard to explain to people how deeply
rooted it is in US. Hey, you mentioned this, so

(22:49):
this has been well chronicled, but I just love it.
I could hear it. I could hear it a thousand
times over. So you guys got blown out by Kansas. Yeah.
I think it was Coach's first year with you. Is
that true? Coaches first year? Yeah? Yeah, yeah, by you
lost by like what fifteen fifty five? Exactly fifty five?
And then well you just can you remember anything from

(23:11):
that post game or that I remember every day. I remember,
I remember every US. So we went to Indiana and played
them really close. This was Coach's first year, and and
then we go to Kansas and I'll never forget this.
He you know, I guess it was an early game
on Saturday, so we get there on Friday, and you know,

(23:32):
coach like he took us to fog Allen and he
had us in there, and man, we went through an
individual like you can't believe. Richie Farmer to this day says,
we didn't lose on Saturday. We lost on Friday. We
were getting after full court for an hour, doing double drill,
shooting threes, the whole deal. But we came out and

(23:55):
we were shooting around. What an awesome place to play
basketball too, By the way, that's a that that building
is really cool. But were you won there last year?
So that's or two years ago. That's an amazing thing.
But this guy was standing in the stance and he says,
because of the ball kind of got loose and headed
over over that way, you know, towards the score table,
and I went to get it and he says, hey, Pelfrey,

(24:16):
this ain't Indiana. And boy was he right. They had
Mark Randall and Fritshirt and Roy Williams and all these
guys and Coach Pattino I think turned over a water
cooler at halftime and it was full of gatorade and
it hit the floor and exploded, and Billy Donovan's over

(24:37):
there trying to count up deflections and he never moved. Mark.
The Gator races went right over his Gucci shoes. Yeah,
he just never flinched. It was amazing. And after the game, Uh,
we get on the bus and Coach Patino Trumps say, hey, Coach,
were ready to go? He says, yeah, I'm ready to go.

(24:58):
Go find a cliff and drive this bus off.

Speaker 1 (25:04):
Hey John, we have to get to a break. Can
you hang on for one more segment? This is great? Sure, absolutely,
and let's get a quick break.

Speaker 6 (25:11):
We'll come right back.

Speaker 1 (25:12):
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Promise we'll get to some of your questions in shortly,
but we're gonna have one more segment here with Coach Pelfrey.
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gallon at the pump. Kroger Fresh for everyone, Mark Pope,
John Pelfrey, back to.

Speaker 6 (27:44):
You, John. Okay, all right, So, so coach clearly didn't
the bus driver did not agree to drive the bus
off a cliff. But we all know what that feels like.
I might have said something similar a week ago. What what? What? Okay?
So you made it clearly back to where you're going.
Tell me the aftermath after you arrived, Well we got

(28:07):
back here. It was you know it was a little
bit late, even though it was an early game, and
I remember, you know, he can't do this now, but
he jerked us all back in there. And we're still
in Amorals and the Moral Coliseum. That's where our locker
rooms and stuff work, because y're one, right, So we're
over there and they roll in TVs with DHS tapes
and stuff, and he makes us watch the game. So

(28:29):
after the game and he's you know, he's throwing remote
controls and all that stuff. He says, Darren, I will
see you out on the court. Darren was having a
little bit of trouble shooting free throws just yet. Me
being a good teammate, I get my gear on and
I'm gonna watch her with them, you know, and just
kind of like moral support. He says, what are you doing?
Get out of here. I don't want to see you

(28:50):
till monday. And so he ran me out of building,
and so he Darren. We're into the shooting free throws
and Darren kind of chuckled. He says, what are you left?
And there nothing colch He goes, I'll tell you what's
funny me watching you shoot free throws right now, that's funny.
So it was just he is the absolute best. I mean,

(29:10):
we all know that in terms of if you love basketball,
you love him. And at the end of the day,
when somebody takes that level of interest in you, and
when he figures out that you're not going to give up,
that you're going to stick with it, it's just an

(29:31):
amazing experience. I told somebody this the other day. You know,
I played for him for three years and obviously I've
been out a lot longer than that. Our relationship with
him is incredible. It is absolutely incredible, and we're just
so honored and blessed by that guy coming into our
life and giving us experience he gave us. Yeah, I mean,

(29:53):
what a gutsy group. Man. You guys are incredible. Like
that run you took all of us at all of
BBN on during your career was just it just as unbelievable.
That's I can't imagine what it's like to walk into
that building and have your jersey in the rafts man,
but you deserve it. That's just so cool. One last question,
one last question. Yeah, I got one last question that

(30:16):
you're not gonna like talk to me about. And I've
never we've talked a lot. I've never actually talked to
you about this, but I'm sitting at home watching this,
uh this Elite eight game against Duke Sean Woods hits
that runner from fifteen feet with his eyes closed? What
are you thinking in that moment? Like you just walk

(30:36):
me through that? Can you remember? I mean one of
the yeah, all of sports. Yeah, well, first of all,
your folks have throw me the ball and he did so,
and I am getting in the way and kind of
leveling Bobby Hurley think I didn't call a foul. And
then when he hit the shot, I immediately put my
hands in there. First thing. There are two things went
through my head. One, good for him, He's now made

(31:00):
a shot that you know, everybody can really respect it admire.
And two, we're going to get a ring that they
cannot say anything about because my junior year coach Newton
got us rings first and they said back on top,
but we couldn't get it because we were still on probation.

(31:20):
And yeah, then we get out there and obviously the
play happened so fast and it never worked in practice, right,
We always defeated that past. We always defeated that play.
And when he caught it. I can't tell you the
level of anxiety of like what is about to happen?
And then the next thing, you know, the first thing
that ball hit was the floor. I don't even think
it touched the net, And just an incredible performance by

(31:42):
him and a really tough, challenging night. But that's kind
of what sports is all about, right. It's easy to
run around and act right when things are going your way,
and that thing put us in a situation where we
had to decide to show people kind of what we
were made of. And even though we didn't get the
outcome we wanted, that's you know, we were very proud

(32:03):
of where we played, and we're able to move on
because we didn't leave anything in the tank. That was
the thing I think that all of us appreciate is
that you'd be able to walk away from it someday
and not having regrets, and we certainly don't have any
of those. John.

Speaker 1 (32:15):
We could do this for two or three hours, I'm sure,
and a lot of great memories that we could bring
up with you, but I know you've got a game
to prepare for, so To's coach, Pope, so we'll let
you go. Look forward to seeing you on Wednesday Night
back at rap Arena.

Speaker 6 (32:32):
Well, thank you so much, and obviously we just love
and appreciate what Mark's doing here for all my many
and and just stay with it. Love you pel We'll
see a couple of days, does.

Speaker 1 (32:41):
John Pelker peal Is Tennessee Tech Golden Eagles coming into
rapp Aerena on Wednesday Night back with more of the
Mark Pope Show, presented by UK Healthcare when we return
on the UK Sports Network.

Speaker 5 (32:52):
Unlocked exclusive coverage of UK Athletics with UKSN all Access,
from behind the scenes content to yame day covers.

Speaker 6 (33:01):
It's all in one place.

Speaker 5 (33:02):
Find it on the UK Athletics app or uksnallaccess dot com.

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Go SUP seven to two.

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Oh right, all.

Speaker 13 (35:03):
Right, it's a beautiful day for football here at the
stadium and we're just about ready for kickoff, score zero zero,
and suddenly I'm in the mood for a Coke zero
sugar Real Coke Taste zero sugar.

Speaker 14 (35:16):
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Speaker 5 (35:32):
Stay connected to the Cats with that Big Blue Brew,
the official newsletter of UK Athletics. It's free, it's daily,
and it's all things can suck.

Speaker 6 (35:40):
Sign up now at UK athletics dot.

Speaker 5 (35:41):
Com, backslash Big Blue Brew. That's Ucathletics dot com, backslash,
Big Blue Brew.

Speaker 1 (35:48):
Watch bb into Right, presented by UK Healthcare every weeknight
at seven thirty on w l e X here at Lexington.
Fans can also watch archived shows at bbntnight dot com.

(36:09):
If you have a question for Coach Pope, you can
send them in to at UK Sports Network on X
or you can send them in via the Clark's Pump
and Shop text line eight five nine two O three
one two three four And we'll start with one off
the text line from Chris listening in Jacksonville with playing
Coach Pope on Wednesday night Thanksgiving, then on Thursday and

(36:31):
the UNC game next Tuesday. How will the team handle
the schedule with practices? Is there any family time for Thanksgiving?
Will the players be with you and your staff and families?

Speaker 6 (36:41):
So we'll be off on Thanksgiving, but we'll uh yeah,
we'll be uh. We'll have a bunch of a bunch
of guys that are that are staying in town at
our house as well as a bunch of staff and
and and uh. Then we'll practice uh Thursday or practice
Friday Saturday, so it'll be a solid week. We're going
on Tuesday, Wednesday, off Thanksgiving and then hitting hard again

(37:03):
over the weekend.

Speaker 1 (37:04):
Speaking of Thanksgiving, Brandon Garrison grabbed eleven rebounds and took
them away from other people on Friday night, and then
he and his mom gave back on Saturday thirty turkeys
to God's Pantry here at Lexington.

Speaker 6 (37:17):
Come on. So, first of all, I love that our
guys publicly and privately are taking upon themselves to give
back to this community. It's awesome. We got to watch
it all summer long. We've seen the stories about our
guys doing it. Our guys are also doing stuff that
they're trying to keep private, which is unbelievable. I'm really

(37:39):
proud of our guys. Brandon Garrison is he is so
determined right now to he just has grown as a
young man. It's awesome and he's I couldn't have been
more proud of him. A couple of nights ago and
he just taught all of us a great lesson. I
talked about post game, but I'll talk about it again

(38:01):
because I just am so proud of him. You know,
here's a guy who you know, had maybe struggled a
little bit with his game against Michigan State. We moved
him to the bench for a bunch of different reasons.
Something that had nothing to do with him, just had
to do with health and roster issues, and he had
two choices. He could have chosen to be upset about
it and kind of blame and and uh and and

(38:24):
be a little sideways, or he could say, uh, you know,
nothing can impact how I play and how hard I
play and how well I play. And so he went
to the bench, came off the bench for the first
time in the season, and set a career personal record
with eleven rebounds. And it's just the perfect response to
when things go wrong or things go sideways, or decisions

(38:46):
made that's a little bit out of control. It's just
he he chose to not give away his power. He
wasn't gonna he wasn't gonna feel sorry for himself. He's
just like, fine, and if this is a situation, then
I'm gonna go crush it. And he did. And and
so he's he's giving back to the community with this
really gracious thing with with God's pantry and he's he

(39:06):
you know, he taught us all a great lesson, uh
in the in the last game, just based on the
circumstance around him. And I'm just really proud of him.
He's he's he's he's growing, and he's he's trying and
it's it's fun to watch and he's gonna do some
great things for us this year.

Speaker 1 (39:20):
Let's go to our Alumni Hall Fan question of the week.
We'll make it this one from Alan at UK Sports
Network on X. Have there been uh? And he looks
at using Mo when he's healthy at the five to
invert the offense similar to Amari given his passing abilities,
he says. Alan says he loves the thought of d
A h. Colin, Otega, Cam and Moe as a versatile lineup.

Speaker 6 (39:44):
Yeah, I do think there's a space for Mo at
the five Situationally, you know, it's important that we don't
forget that MOA's you know, now, Mo's gonna be really
mad when I say this. But Mo is six five.
He plays a lot bigger than that. But that actually
makes really small than four. But there will be moments
he's so physical we can do it. There will be
moments where that's appropriate. The nice thing about this rosters

(40:07):
we have a lot of different and we have so
many different looks that we can put on the floor
and we're in the process of learning about that now.

Speaker 1 (40:14):
So visit at Alumni Hall UK on X to weigh
in with your thoughts, and you could have a chance
to win an Alumni Hall gift card courtesy of the
folks at Alumni Hall. Back to the text line for
a question about from Ian and Springfield about Cam Williams,
he says, what is it about Cam that makes him
almost always lead in the plus minus category even when

(40:37):
he isn't shooting?

Speaker 6 (40:37):
Well, Yeah, Cam is a really fun study. He's been
this way since the very first day of camp. He
just has a presence in the top three or four
on the team in every single statistical category. Rebounds, dim numbers,
that's defensive impact metrics DPA, which is defensive points against,

(40:58):
you know, deflections. He's solid, he protects the ball in
a great way. He makes such huge contributions and he
still hasn't shot the ball like he does. And so, yeah,
you really have something when you have a guy that
can make an incredibly positive impact on the game even

(41:19):
when he's not doing what he does best. And so
Cam is that you know this, You know, he's he's
getting some minutes at the four, starting for the four
right right now. He started at the four for US
and and and and so I think that's given him
some space to kind of find a little more comfort level.
He dug in twice. He had he he had two.
He had a really great h left wing shot fake uh,

(41:43):
putting his head down, driving it all the way to
the rim in in the first half, and then in
the second half he made a second move where he
was really stubborn and getting too the rim in our
last game. That's gonna be a really important part of
his game. It's one of the ways he's growing. I've
I've compared him to Kobe Brand in that sense about
he needs to grow this space of being physical enough
to get downhill and punish teams to try and take

(42:04):
away a shot. He's still, you know, growing his skill
in terms of guarding on the ball, navigating traffic to
be there on the catch and deal with ball screens.
But he's shown great acumen and so I think he's
got a massive upside. He is a guy that's going
to be way better at the end of the season
compared to how he is early on now, and he's

(42:25):
been pretty good for us so far already.

Speaker 1 (42:27):
Subscribe to the Kentucky Basketball Podcast, presented by UK Federal
Credit Union today. It is available for free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify,
iHeartRadio and the official UK Athletics Am right back with
more questions on the UK Sports Network.

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Celebrate the holidays at Malones. Dine in for lunch or dinner,
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A couple of segments left. If you have questions for
Coach Pope, send them in on social media at UK
Sports Network, on x or on the Clark's Pumping Shop
text line. It's eight five nine two oh three one

(45:13):
two three four from the social media feed from Skyways
at UK Sports Network. How do you manage the pressure
of BBN when you have a rough loss like the
Michigan State loss and what's your message for fans staying patient?

Speaker 6 (45:27):
Well to one, I don't know if there's pressure from BBN.
It's just the pressure that we have put on ourselves, right.
We have expectations, we have goals that we're trying to
reach and so I think we're pretty internally focused in
terms of the scrutiny that we put ourselves on. I
don't think anybody's tougher on us than we are on ourselves. Now.
We're trying to serve BBN and we're trying to represent BBN.

(45:49):
But I'm not sure anybody was quite I don't know
if anybody could have been as mad at me or
us after the mission A Stay game as I was
mad at myself and us, and so we're we're holding
ourselves to that standard. The second part of that question.

Speaker 1 (46:09):
Was what was because the same person, what message do
you have for fans staying patient?

Speaker 6 (46:13):
Oh, I don't because we're not patient. We're not a
patient fan base. We don't do patience. We don't believe
in that. Like we we we have to go win,
and we got to go win now. And and so
I'm not trying to encourage BBN to be patient, be inpatient.
I'm inpatient. We're all inpatient. We got to go get better,
and so that's what we're that's what we're working to do.
And I do think, I do believe that this team
has a huge upside. I'm disappointed with how we've kind

(46:36):
of started this thing in those two games, for sure,
but I am incredibly hopeful that we still have it
in us to become a great team, and that's what
we're shooting for.

Speaker 1 (46:49):
From Elizabeth on the text line here in Lexington, she
says it seems incredibly likely that h Raidon Hawthorne will
go to the NBA in less than four years. Red
Shirting him would then mean he loses a year of
playing time that he never makes up. Why isn't it
more beneficial to the team to give him short minutes
as possible, as many short minutes as possible now in

(47:09):
November in case you need him.

Speaker 6 (47:11):
Yeah, it's actually we're having these ongoing conversations with our
whole staff and his whole his whole team. And the
interesting thing about red shirt is once you burn it
for one second, you can't get it back, and so
we're just trying to make sure that that that's the
direction we want to go. He is a he is

(47:33):
in a really, really, really terrific young talent, and he
has an incredibly bright future. He also right now needs
to grow, like there's so much growth in him, and
the advantage of red shirting is that he gets to
be solely, uniquely focused on developing. He doesn't have the

(47:53):
distractions of a game twice a week where he's altering
his his workout program, preparation or anything else. But there's
also the value in minutes, and so we're just trying
to be trying to make absolutely sure that we're making
the right decision before we burn it, and we'll see
how that goes over the next couple weeks.

Speaker 1 (48:13):
Thank you for the question from Andrew on social media
and UK Sports Network. What is your favorite Thanksgiving dish?

Speaker 6 (48:21):
I love with a passion, incredible passion, green bean castrole.
It's got to be the greatest Thanksgiving part of Thanksgiving.
Green Bee Castle. I'm not a big turkey fan. I
don't like the what is it the cranberry sauce, It's
not really my thing. I'm not really eaving that big
of potatoes guy. I'm not really a big pumpkin pie guy.

(48:47):
If you just gave me a plate of green bee castle,
I'm pretty satisfied. Let's get back to practice.

Speaker 1 (48:52):
From Dan and mount Vernon on the text line, what
percentage of your decision making with lineups is based on
the plus minus category?

Speaker 6 (49:01):
Some the plus minus is you know, with all of
these stats and analytics, we have none of them. Payt
An entire picture. And so for example, sometimes guys that
log heavy, heavy minutes just because they're playing so much

(49:22):
of the game, sometimes that has a real impact on
their plus minus capability, right, and so that's certainly something
we have. You know, we have twenty three stats, So
every after every game, I get an Excel spreadsheet with
twenty three categorized stats that I keep track of as
a basic foundation evaluation of guys individual contributions to the game.

(49:47):
The plus minus is on their DPA, is on their
dim is on their percentages, on their points per possession,
points for pression plus SIST. So there's so many you
kind of get this bevy of of numbers that can
kind of guide you a little bit. And then there's
also feel, and there's also you know, who else is
on the court. There's also size and physicality and balancing
out gravity. You know, you can't have it's hard to have,

(50:11):
you know, more than one or two guys that don't
have huge gravity on the court at the same time.
So sometimes it's who else is on the floor. So
we take all those things into consideration as we try
and put together a rost.

Speaker 1 (50:21):
Watch BBN Game Day presented by Chi Saint Joseph Hospital
all season long. The show airs on Saturday mornings at
nine on wl EX here in Lexington. Check UK athletics
dot com slash UK Sports Network for TV affiliates and
times in your area. If you're outside the state, you
can also watch it uk athletics dot com, slash videos
or on the Kentucky Wildcats Facebook page. It's the Mark

(50:42):
Pope Show, presented by UK Healthcare on the UK Sports Network.

Speaker 5 (50:46):
Stay connected to the Cats with that Big Blue Brew,
the official newsletter of UK Athletics. It's free, it's daily,
and it's all things can suck.

Speaker 6 (50:54):
Sign up now at UK.

Speaker 5 (50:55):
Athletics dot com backslash Big Blue Brew. That's UK Athletics
dot com backslash Big Blue Brew.

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Dear you, you've hung the lights, checked off every to
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holiday scratch offs from the Kentucky Lottery. Play festively fantastic
games like Twinkle Cash, Merry Multiplier and Snow much fun,
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Speaker 1 (51:22):
Grab your tickets today your local k Y Lottery retailer
and put a little play in your day this holiday season.
Please play responsibly.

Speaker 15 (51:28):
Remember it's just a game.

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Thinking about digging, planning a tree, putting up a fence,
hold that shovel before you break ground, head to Kentucky
eight one one dot org or call eight one one.
It's quick, it's free, and yep, it's the law. Submit
your request online or call before you dig. Member utility
pros will mark where the underground lines are. Don't risk
the injury, service outages, penalties, or costly repairs.

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Toyota Phone is on and there's no better way to
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Let's go places.

Speaker 13 (52:57):
Oh right, all right, it's a beautiful day for a
foot here at the stadium and we're just about ready for.

Speaker 14 (53:02):
Kickoff score zero zero and suddenly I'm in the mood
for a Coke zero Sugar Real Coke Taste zero Sugar. No,
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(53:25):
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Speaker 5 (53:27):
Unlocked Exclusive coverage of UK Athletics with UKSN All access
from behind the scenes content to game day coverage. It's
all in one place. Find it on the UK Athletics app.
Or Uksnallaccess dot com.

Speaker 1 (53:54):
Welcome back into our show. For complete social media coverage
of the Cats, like UK Sports Network on face Book,
follow on Instagram at UK Underscore Sports Network, or you
can follow on x and send in questions at UK
Sports Network. As we have one segment left. Got a
question here on the text line the Clark's Pumping Shop
text line from Aaron. When you're collecting data for analytics,

(54:16):
do you take into consideration the quality of the opponent
at a.

Speaker 6 (54:19):
Given Yeah, yes, absolutely, we very much do. In fact,
a lot of the publicly available analytics are due to
strength of opponents, so they make adjustments for it the
best they can. And so you know, we'll, for example,
in our first six games, we've you know, we've played
four or we've played two games against essentially you know,

(54:41):
top twenty five opponents, and so we'll spend a lot
of time separating out those two games and kind of
reading what we can from that incredibly small sample size.
We'll take the four games separately, we'll take the six games.
We'll throw in George Shown and Purdue. So you're always
kind of you're trying to change up your a pooled
to see if there's something you can learn. I mean,

(55:03):
the things that stand out for us, just on a
very basic level was we you know, uh, you know,
we held in our last game, we held our opponents
twenty nine percent from the field. We had fourteen kills
in the game. Those are just epic numbers. They're really
incredibly they're incredible numbers. There's our all time records as
we've been here, fourteen kills and and and that's been

(55:26):
pretty consistent in those four games against non top twenty
five opponents, and then in the two games against top
twenty five opponents in very different ways. Mind you, we
just got cooked. And so so you know, we we
we know there's a ton of room for us to
grow and and we're excited about that. But we also

(55:46):
know on a baseline that we have some we have
some really good stuff to work with. We just got
to we just gotta make it effective on the court.

Speaker 1 (55:51):
The Clark's Pumpetshop text line from Kyle in Louisville, he
says when he watches jazz for Johnson, he sees a
guy who's going to develop into a triple double thread
on any given n What are your thoughts on Jasper's development,
and how do you see that moving forward.

Speaker 6 (56:05):
I've been really excited about Jasper Johnson as a playmaker.
I think he's been terrific. He's got a real he's
got a real vibe for for past the ball and
what he's done. In the last practice of Saturday and today,
I put him in some really complicated decision making uh spaces,
and he's been able to deliver balls on time with
incredible accuracy cross court, you know, actions and and so

(56:26):
I'm excited about that. You know, we all know that
he's a lethal score, that he really shoot the ball,
that he's he's really slippery to the rim. Uh, you know,
he's he's getting accustomed to the to the physicality of
the game. He's he's he's got you know, it's hard
for everybody to guard for sure, and and he's he's
really growing and working hard in that space. One of

(56:47):
the things I love about Jasper's when I see him
in practice and we're going through defensive drills and his
face is like he's wide eyed and he's gasped for breath.
And he gets this. I told him the other day.
His his his lips get all white because he's worked.
It's a hard that's like, oh, this is our guy,
and so I expect him to grow into a great player.

Speaker 1 (57:05):
First ones down, appreciate the time. We will see you
on Wednesday night for the matchup with coach Pelfrey.

Speaker 6 (57:10):
Thanks Tom, appreciate you all right.

Speaker 1 (57:12):
We want to remind you, Oh, first, an update on
the SEC tournament. Kentucky Volleyball's playing right now against Tennessee.
Kentucky's up to to one, just starting the fourth set.
That's cool, so Coach Ginner company. They're in the semifinals,
trying to advance to the finals of the first SEC
tournament twenty years, so they're winning everything in the league.
Might as well get that one too. I want to
remind you that Clark's Pump and Shot BB and Radio

(57:35):
is up next with Darren Hedrick. Coach Nick Minion will
be with him to talk UK baseball Andrew Kappus from
our UK Sports Network team right here on the UK
Sports Network.

Speaker 3 (57:45):
This has been the Mark Pope Show, presented by UK
Healthcare on the UK Sports Network. The Mark Pope Show
was brought to you by Coca Cola, Appalachian Regional Healthcare,
Little Caesars and by a Healthcare.

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