The Mark Pope Show presented by UK HealthCare, March 4th 2026

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

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
There is no.

Speaker 2 (00:04):
Love.

Speaker 3 (00:07):
Let's apply, yes, man, come on, stay, let's go.

Speaker 4 (00:11):
Let's go.

Speaker 5 (00:12):
Remo back, Oh proficient, Let's free?

Speaker 1 (00:19):
All right?

Speaker 6 (00:26):
Count fucking What makes us different than everybody else?

Speaker 7 (00:32):
Is you?

Speaker 8 (00:34):
From the UK's Sports Network. This is the Mark Pope Show,
presented by UK Healthcare. Send your questions to Coach Pope
on Not Clark's Puff and Hump text line at eight
five nine two er own three one two three four.
You can also post your questions on x at UK

(00:54):
Sports Network. Are on the UK Sports Network Facebook page.

Speaker 9 (01:01):
Assignment.

Speaker 1 (01:01):
It's will win Batters win National champions That's.

Speaker 9 (01:04):
Our job, Kentucky.

Speaker 8 (01:08):
Then Mark Pope Show, presented my UK Healthcare begins now
alongside the coach.

Speaker 6 (01:14):
Here's the voice ton the Cats, Tom Leach.

Speaker 3 (01:19):
Good evening and welcome into the Mark Pope Show here
on the UK Sports Network. Tough night in Texas for
the Wildcats as A and M comes from behind to
beat Kentucky last night, and now there is one game
left in the regular season for teams of the SEC,
and for Kentucky that is against the team that's already
the regular season champ, the Florida Gators. Coming up Saturday

(01:40):
at four pm Eastern. It'll be on ESPN and we'll
have the call on the UK Radio Network and we
will talk with Coach Pope about last night's loss, about
that upcoming matchup with the Gators, and all feeds into
the SEC tournament next week and a lot of teams
bunched up in the middle of the pack playing four
seeds and Kentucky could I think I read today finish

(02:01):
anywhere can finish as high still as fourth in the SEC,
depending on how things play out this weekend. So that's
what's on the agenda. You can send in your questions
on the Clark's Pump and Shop text line. It's eight
five nine two three one two three four. You can
also post questions for Coach Pope on x It's at

(02:22):
UK Sports Network to do that. We'll be right back
on the UK Sports Network.

Speaker 8 (02:29):
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 Colon, Appalachian Regional Healthcare.

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Little Caesars and by UK Healthcare. Tell me who's in
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Catch the wild Cats in Lexington all season long on
your home for Kentucky Basketball the UK Sports Network.

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Let's go places. Welcome back into the Mark Post Show.
It's presented by UK Healthcare. And when we finish up,
you need to stick around for the final edition the

(05:43):
Kenny Brooks Show for this season. That's presented by Bluegrass
Hearing Clinic. We'll shift to coach Menngiona in that slot
in the coming weeks BBN Radio with Darren Hendrick. That'll
be coming up at seven thirty Eastern. That's presented by
Clark's pumpin Shop. And tonight, new offensive line coach Cutter
Leftwich will be visiting with Darren as well as defensive
coordinator Jay Bateman. Spring football practice starting next week and

(06:04):
Coach Brooks and the UK women won today over Arkansas
and I think I saw this stat that it was
the largest margin of victory in the SEC Tournament ever
for UK women's basketball team.

Speaker 1 (06:13):
That's awesome.

Speaker 3 (06:14):
So they will play Georgia tomorrow at eleven a m.
Eastern and you'll hear it on most of these same
UK Sports Network stations, with pregames starting at ten forty five.
Coach Mark Pope has moved in alongside. After a late
night done in College Station, Texas and a frustrating night,
I'm sure when you watch the.

Speaker 1 (06:31):
Tape, Mac, I can't remember anything about last night.

Speaker 3 (06:35):
If only that were true, would be better for your
middle Hill.

Speaker 19 (06:38):
Let's just go back to Saturday. We have two games
to cover. Let's talk about Mandy. Tough night for us,
like gut punch, but you know we've had more than
our fair share of those this season, and guys have
responded in epic ways and that's what I expect from
this group again.

Speaker 3 (06:57):
This time it was a game that was going really
well for about twelve minutes, and I know in the
pregame you talked about in their press you want to
attack it and then but do so in a way
that avoids you from getting too sped up when you
get into the half court and you don't have an
easy shot, and that's kind of what they hope to do,

(07:17):
is to get you out of your typical comfort zone. Right,
is what happened. Yeah, we had.

Speaker 19 (07:23):
Some self and inflected itself, some things that didn't go well.
But yeah, I thought the way we started the game
was great. I thought our guys energy, their decisiveness. You
know the text Adam is going to challenge you to
be a first this time decision maker. You can't second
guess yourself. You got to go make decisions. And our
guys I thought were really forceful for the first You

(07:46):
don't give or take twelve minutes to about the seven
minute mark, we're really really forcedful. I think we were
thirty eighteen and we hadn't played great. We played great
defense the whole night, but we had kind of got by.
We had done a decent job protecting the ball and
kind of staying on attack, staying on attack, stand attack,
and then we just made a series of errors.

Speaker 1 (08:09):
Handling the ball.

Speaker 19 (08:11):
We went through a space of really going essentially one
for fifteen, give or take from the floor, and we
gave up a bunch of shots that you know, they're
the second highest three point point distribution team in our league,
and we did a bad job of kind of staying
assignment sound and garden three point line and all that

(08:32):
stuff added up to a really tough, you know, in
game time, nine minute stretch extending into the beginning of
the second half to where our guys finally got their
footing it again and like they always do, really competed,
but just just had dug ourselves such a hole it
was hard to get out of.

Speaker 3 (08:48):
Defensively, this is, as you said, a team that shoots
a lot of threes hadn't been making a lot, but
they found their rhythm in this game. And for your guys,
did you see any distant theme to the breakdowns that
were occurring defensively?

Speaker 19 (09:03):
One of one of the one of the things, uh
that we saw a lot was kind of being slow
to react out of gap help. So one of the
concepts is really important in shell principles is you're early
to help and early to recover.

Speaker 15 (09:15):
And so.

Speaker 19 (09:17):
With our spacing and our shell principles defensively, that means
that you're in a gap where if there's penetration there
kind of running right in your chest, so you don't
actually have to move in that direction and you'll actually
say this, when we're doing it right, we'll be running
away from penetration because we've already been in that help
position and we're actually running away to get there on

(09:39):
the catch. And we we had so many times where
we died in the gap, and and that's a when
you're playing a team that really shoots it, that is
just a it's a you know, it's a it's a
it's an error that's gonna you're gonna get punished for
what we did last night. So it was it was
really those things. It was the ball protection. It was

(09:59):
us going really really cold on great possessions. Our guys
did actually a terrific job earning open shots, earning penetration
to the rim in that seven In that nine minutes,
there was pretty much everything. It was guys making plays
for each other to earn shots from the three point line,
guys getting downhill to get finished with us doing a

(10:20):
good job to try and stop the bleeding, about about
working the ball inside really to no successful avail. The
only field goal was was DA's high ball screen drive
to two feet where he kind of ball faked and
got a lamp in that streak. And so it was
kind of all three of those things in just a
whirlwind of of not goodness? Is that a real phrase

(10:43):
WorldWind of not goodness?

Speaker 3 (10:45):
That would seem to be applicable for that particular moment Trent.
Before we get to the break, one last comment on
last night or question on last night, Trent gave you
a nice boost by hitting a couple of threes and
it got foul out of the three point shots, So
he made nine points. Had to be good for his confidence.
What about the injury that he suffered to his ankle, Well,

(11:06):
just to tell you how bad at night it is,
I think it's the first time in the history of
basketball where the head coach has heard his own player.

Speaker 1 (11:13):
Is that true? I don't know. At that point. At
that point, you're like, you know what, this this might
not be our night. It just might not. But Trend
is as tough as nails, and so he'll do whatever
he needs to be ready to go Saturday.

Speaker 3 (11:28):
He had been playing better in terms of, you know,
things he was doing defensively and rebounding, and just see
Goose I we're talking about in the air that he
seemed to be look more confident on the floor, and
Jack's been rooting for him to get a three just
because he knows it might lead to something better.

Speaker 1 (11:44):
And it did. Yeah, yep.

Speaker 19 (11:46):
And and you know, there were some things he would
like to take back from that game. A couple of
middle penetrations, a couple you know, in that in that
stretch he had a couple of good looks at three
that he missed.

Speaker 1 (11:54):
But but he was really good to the ball.

Speaker 19 (11:58):
You know, he came up with a couple fifty to
fifty balls, a couple of rebounds that were impactful for us,
and his ball.

Speaker 1 (12:04):
Security was pretty good.

Speaker 19 (12:05):
And you know, Check continues to be an important part
of this and he's going to increasingly be so now
as we start to play games, you know, back to
back to back in the SEC and then as we
as we play you know, two games and in forty
eight hours in the NS tournament, so our depth will
really be tested. And those guys are coming around and

(12:25):
are going to be huge parts of that.

Speaker 3 (12:27):
Send in your questions for Coach Pope. We'll start getting
to those when we come back field. Your game day
appetite at Balloons or Drake's open for lunch, dinner, carry
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Watch BBN Game Day presented by c CHI Saint Joseph
Health all season long. The show airs on Saturday mornings
at nine on WLAX. 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 Commonwealth of Kentucky,
you can watch at UK Athletics dot com slash videos,

(16:14):
or you can watch on the Kentucky Wildcats Facebook page.
We are taking your questions of the Clark's Pump and
Shop text line at eight five nine two oh three
one two three four, or you can also post questions
on x It's at UK Sports Network to do that.
Florida Gators are coming up for Senior Day on Saturday,

(16:34):
and uh, what four seniors right that you guys will
be honoring on Saturday.

Speaker 1 (16:39):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (16:40):
Uh, And two of them are players that came to
your program as walk On's one was already on the
team when you arrived. Walker Horn and then Zach Tal
came to get through an open try out with students,
and those two guys are a big part of watch
you know, the practices they're giving, a great look on

(17:00):
scout team and just great teammates.

Speaker 1 (17:03):
Well.

Speaker 19 (17:04):
Walker Horn is a little bit of a legend around here.
He's had some great moments in games, hit some big
shots for us down the stretch. He is also the
connecting and emotional leader of our bench, and it's important
to have guys to connect with every single player on
the team, and.

Speaker 1 (17:24):
Walker does that. He's really smart.

Speaker 19 (17:25):
He comes from a coaching family and so he knows
the game really well and he's just been a gift
to us. I delegated a bunch of responsibilities for him
on game day where he just takes sole responsibility. He's
done great with that. And then Zach Tai with some
of our best news. The entire team is taking this

(17:47):
journey with Zach. His ambition is to get into law school,
and so it started earlier this season with him talking
to the guys about the El Sad and prepper for
the El Sad and taking it practice Lsatz and then
finally getting it and then going through the whole application process,
and then just last week we found out that he
got accepted the UK Law School, which she'll be enrolled

(18:10):
that next fall. But I kid you not, it was
really fun in the locker room because when he announced,
the guys, the guy celebrated. They all feel like they
also were accepted in the UK law school. It was
a team effort, and our video group put together a
beautiful montage actually a tribute to Zach, where they imposed

(18:32):
his face on Tom Cruise from a scene and a
few good Men and a scene from my cousin Vinnie,
and there was also there was one other one of these.

Speaker 1 (18:44):
Maybe it was the Jim Carrey movie where he's yes
and all three.

Speaker 19 (18:52):
You could imagine Zach delivering exactly that speech in the courtroom.

Speaker 1 (18:57):
It was pretty fun. So we're so proud of him.
And except for him, and.

Speaker 19 (19:02):
I'm hoping none of my guys need legal help three
years from now, but if they do, they know where
to go get it.

Speaker 1 (19:07):
There you go.

Speaker 3 (19:08):
Uh, do you think you'll do that again with students
when Zach's after Zech's time has passed year?

Speaker 19 (19:13):
Yes, Uh, I think it's really healthy. I think it's
good for us, you know, with the with all the
you know, the the new rules that are coming in
with the settlement, we're still trying to navigate what's actually possible.
But I love the idea of having open walkout tryouts,
and and uh, it's not just you know, if we're fortunate,

(19:36):
you know, usually you take no players from it. But
in Zach's case, he started two years ago on a
literally a one day callback. We're like, we'll bring you
back for one day, see how it goes, and if
you do well, we'll give you one more day. And
so he lived in that space for a whole season
where he was just getting a one day callback and
and then he's been a fixture on the team this year.

(19:59):
I think it's good. I think it's good for our team.
I think it's good for our culture, our locker room.
I think it's good for this community.

Speaker 1 (20:04):
So I love doing it. It's just a matter of
if we're allowed to.

Speaker 3 (20:06):
I want to spend a lot of time or a
little time on those two guys. We'll talk about Denzel
and Otego and we get to the pregame on on Saturday.
Here's a question we'll get to before we hit ourn extprek.
It comes from Aaron here in Lexington. Coach, do you
think basketball is a rhythm game? And is there anything
that suggests players use more energy per minute in attempting
to rally from a deficit than if they have a lead.

Speaker 19 (20:30):
Well, it's very much a rhythm game. And but the
rhythm is is interesting because there's so many things that
can affect it. So, you know, situational things affected, matchups affected,
fatigue affects it, fouls affect it, you know, all the
all those things are trying to take away from rhythm. Uh,

(20:51):
you know, different lineups function together. You know, we actually
do studies on our guys where they're production, So we
have enough data. Now you get really a half two
thirds way through season, you get enough data to kind
of have a good cue of like, at what minute
in a rotation does the guys production start to seriously decline?

(21:13):
And we actually have two guys on the team where
their production continues to increase the more minutes they play,
they become more efficient, and so you know, that plays
into it. Different guys actually respond to two different you know,
lengths of time on the court in different ways. Some
guys fall off a cliff after four minutes, their production

(21:34):
falls off a cliff if they play a fifth or
six minutes. Some guys, you know, might tend to really
struggle the first three minutes, but minutes four, five, six, seven, eight,
they get better and better and better and better. And
so there's so many dynamics to consider and you can
kind of chase your tail sometimes. But definitely a rhythm
game definitely takes energy to mount to come back. What's

(21:56):
interesting about when you're in a comeback space is you
really can't be a scoreboard watch it because and we've
had a lot of them. We've had, man, this team
has had incredible comebacks this year record setting comebacks. But
when you're in the process, it never goes smoothly and
it never goes quick. And so what happens is you
whittle away. You know, you're down eighteen, and you whittle away,

(22:18):
you know, cut it down to fourteen, and then it
goes back to sixteen or twenty and then and you
just got to keep fighting, keep fighting, and keep fighting.
And then a lot of times it just breaks late
in the game. But you can't spend too much time
scoreboard watching. You just got to a concentrate on the
play that's right in front of you. Uh, something that
we actually did poorly against Texas A and M with

(22:40):
a lead, We actually did that poorly. We kind of
lost focus on just to play in front of them.
So it's always a challenge, always something you're trying to accomplish,
and the good teams do it.

Speaker 3 (22:49):
Time for our Alumni Hall Fan Question of the Week,
and we'll make it about the four seniors. So take
it in Zell, Zach and Walker because Zach hit a
big three earlier this season. Walker had that catching shoot
three just ahead of the shot clock buzzer. Otega Denzel
have hit their moments, So for fans of the four
seniors who gave you the moment that was the most

(23:10):
memorable for you as a fan. Tweet your answers to
add Alumni Hall UK on X and you could have
a chance to win a gift card from Alumni Hall.
We'll be right back on the Mark Pope Show, presented
by UK Healthcare on the UK Sports Network.

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Speaker 3 (25:35):
It is the Mark Pope Show presented by UK Healthcare.
If you have a question for Coach Pope, you could
send it in on the text line at eight five
nine two three one two three four. You can also
post your questions for Coach Pope on X at UK
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Back to questions, This one uh from Chris on X
at UK Sports Network. Why did you wait to call
the time out? I think it was at four nineteen
in the first half when A and M was making
their run.

Speaker 19 (26:16):
Yeah, you're sitting there and you're like, ah, man, we
we we you have a media time coming out at
at four and and so you're you're you're hoping that
you can just use the media and at that point
we just you know, it's only nineteen seconds away, it's
one dead ball away. But we just our guys just
desperately needed so we had to call it. I like,

(26:37):
you know, you you you love to save that first
time out if you can for uh, you know, an
end a half possession. You know, there's probably there's probably
a legitimate argument I should have burned all four of
our game timeouts in the first half, but that's always
terrifying to do. Our team has been so good and
so resilient about coming back. Uh and and and so

(27:00):
you know, I probably could have waited. I probably could
have waited, tell them, tell the media, but we just
we just we were just in desperate need. So I
had to burn it.

Speaker 3 (27:09):
And this went off the text line and a couple
about the substitutions. So they this one asking coach, would
you ever consider changing your substitution patterns? And maybe it
feeds into what you were talking about with efficiency and
minutes and analytics.

Speaker 19 (27:23):
Well we we we uh we changed our substitute psitution
patterns a lot, and some of us, some of us
driven by by situations. You know, we were fortunate last
night d DA got two early fouls and Jasper came
in and played really well, and then we were able
to actually get Da through the half playing still somewhat

(27:46):
of a similar rotation without picking up a start, although
we gave up some buckets that were uncontested because he
was trying to nurse those two fouls. So you know,
at times, you know you're hampered by that. But you
know for our bigs, you know, our bigs are guys
that really drop off a cliff after they get really

(28:06):
past that five minute mark, and so those rotations will
be will stay pretty consistent, you know, Moe's and an
interesting dynamic right now. So you think Amda Batte. We
actually subbed him out of the game in the first
half so we could eat because because it was it
was actually it was actually during the first half, which
was the first time as soon as his susan has

(28:27):
got time where he was uh you know, it got
to sun down and so he was allowed to eat,
we subbed him out so he'd get some calories really quick.
It's games down there, tips at six easter, So you'd
be surprised that the things that impact impact rotations, uh.

Speaker 3 (28:41):
With substitution decisions, for you, is it mostly about those
analytics you're looking at or is how much of it
is also maybe just what you're seeing with your eyes.

Speaker 19 (28:49):
Well, sometimes sometimes it's just sometimes it's just shake your
head things. We had three inbounds in in the uh
in the in those seven minutes in the in the
end of the first half where they were like, close
your eyes and shake your head and be like, I'm
not sure exactly what is happening right now. We made

(29:11):
a couple of of of surprising decisions, uh, trying to
inbound the ball full court to the other team, which
which maybe defy defy uh, you know, basketball logic. There
were a couple lazy things where he's like, okay, so

(29:31):
you know, maybe we as a group need to be
settled at player needs to be settled, or we just
need to you know, fix something. So sometimes this reaction
plays that just in the context of the game don't
make a ton of sense. But there's all kinds of reasons.

Speaker 3 (29:44):
I we talked a little bit about this. I don't
know there's anything else to expand on. It's a question
from Chuck. First ten minutes went very well, what changed
and uh, why was it the response better?

Speaker 1 (29:55):
We've talked some of that already, but I thought the
response was great. It was just late. I think that
was the unfortunate part.

Speaker 3 (30:01):
Just a little too late for a couple of shots there.
Late that about four minutes you could have got it
to ten and another one maybe a minute later.

Speaker 19 (30:07):
And those fifteen possessions and it's fifteen possession of a
couple of them offensive rebounds. But those fifteen possessions in
that stretch from the seven to thirty give or take
fifteen seconds mark down to the end half like we're
getting good stuff. Like it's actually good stuff. There's there's
you know, with very few exceptions that are things that
we wentn't turned down. And so you know, like I said,

(30:30):
it was, it was those three factors all at the
same time. And I thought our guys did a and
I thought we did a nice job kind of redirecting
where our attempts were coming from to give other guys
other situations, other possession types of chance, and we just
kept coming up empty. And it happens sometimes in games

(30:51):
that it's miserable when it does. What you have to
do is count on your defensive side of the ball
to be great during that stretch in our wasn't you know,
we actually weren't great defensively the entire game. You know,
the one thing we know about our team, our ninety
nine percent is not very good. Our one hundred percent

(31:12):
is great, but our ninety nine percent locked in, our
ninety nine percent intensity, our ninety nine percent physicality just
isn't very good. And and that's one of the challenges
that this team has is that, you know, we we
can't live at ninety nine percent. It's got to be
at one hundred percent focus, one hundred percent commitment, one
hundred percent present. That's not easy to live there. And

(31:35):
we've been great at demonstrating that it's hard to live
there consistently. We just don't have a lot of room
for error. We can be great, but we don't have
a lot of room for er and being great. And
and you know that that probably seven minutes was was
a decent example of the fact that we don't have
a lot of makeup ability. We you know, we need

(31:55):
to be locked in the entire time, and we can.
We're capable of doing it. We just didn't do it
on the road last night.

Speaker 3 (32:02):
Join us for Countdown to tip Off, presented by Jack Burford.
Chevrolet coverage of Kentucky and Florida begins at two thirty
Eastern time on Saturday from rapp Arena for Senior Day.

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So join us.

Speaker 3 (32:13):
Here are these UK Sports Network stations. Will we come back,
It'll be our former player segment. Chuck Hayes is going
to join us and we'll get to that. We'll we
come right back here on the UK Sports Network.

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Speaker 3 (35:29):
This is the Mark Pope Show. It's presented by UK
Healthcare and Saturday's game is also presented by UK Healthcare,
official healthcare partner of the BBN in Kentucky's number one hospital.
As we welcome to the program, A Wildcat Legend, the
twenty twenty five UK Defensive Player of the Year in

(35:51):
the SEC. That is Chuck a legend. How you doing,
I'm doing well.

Speaker 29 (35:56):
How are you guys doing?

Speaker 3 (35:58):
We're doing great. Gotta reminisce with you right off the
bat here about people. Fans will debate what's the loudest
it's ever been in rupp Ana And there was a
game in coach Patino's first year when they upset Shaquille
O'Neal and Lsu and Chris Jackson.

Speaker 1 (36:17):
Then there was.

Speaker 3 (36:20):
The game against Kansas that had beaten Kentucky by fifty
five of the year before, and many others. The the
one that I remember for you three Florida had just
gone to number one in the country on Monday and
the Gators roll into Upperena on Tuesday night and you
guys had them down twenty in the first half, right.

Speaker 29 (36:40):
Yes, And for me, that takes the cake. That's the
loudest I've ever heard rup to be honest with Florida
had no chance. We were so locked in as a
team that year. And when they were the rankings dropped
the gym in number one. Yeah, there's the guys were.
The guys were in like blood from the jump. We

(37:02):
were ready to play on Monday.

Speaker 27 (37:03):
If we could.

Speaker 29 (37:04):
And uh, that was probably the most fun I've ever
had at Rupperina.

Speaker 3 (37:09):
Another moment for you at Rapperina. All these fans here
with us and that are listing are going to remember this.
I just saw a stat yesterday preparing for the game.
There's one player I think he's at Mississippi State in
the and the SEC.

Speaker 19 (37:21):
That is.

Speaker 3 (37:23):
Celebrating senior day at the same school at which he started.

Speaker 1 (37:28):
Wow, Chuck Hayes, that's amazing.

Speaker 3 (37:30):
Yeah, it's a different time obviously, but I remember you
being you standing out there on the court while they
were playing my old Kentucky home and the tears rolling
down your your cheek. Uh, I know that meant a
lot to you that night.

Speaker 29 (37:43):
Oh man, I'll boohoo like a baby. Man, I could
I could think of my first day. I just the
reflect the reminiscing in the moments. I had a rep
at the lodge walking to campus practice at Memorial COLLEGEUM,
and all that was coming to an end, and I
didn't know what was gonna happen next. Man, I could

(38:03):
relive it all over again. I would have. If I
could have done four more years, I would have. Man,
So it was an emotional moment for me and something
I'm serioush for the rest of my life.

Speaker 3 (38:12):
God sitting next to me probably would have taken another
four here, wouldn't you.

Speaker 19 (38:16):
I would have. I don't think Coach would have taken me. Coach,
don't me. He was like, they get this guy out
of here, Chuck. I appreciate I appreciate you talking about that.
I think that I would hate for it to be lost.
I think everybody in BBN could imagine being there senior
night and having tears rolled down your face, just because
if what it means to all of us, what we

(38:37):
don't understand, is is it those tiers that you had
were so hard earned. They were just earned through blood,
blood and sweat and fight and challenge and overcoming.

Speaker 1 (38:50):
I know what that feels like. Man, that's actually that's
actually very cool, very cool.

Speaker 29 (38:54):
Yeah, it was a great moment.

Speaker 3 (38:58):
You had twelve hundred and eleven points nine hundred and
ten rebounds. I mean you weren't far from a thousand,
and both only had four guys that had a thousand rebounds.
So you're in the top ten all time career rebounders.
And do you we talked about the Florida game. Is
that the one that stands out for you as far
as maybe the most memorable moment or is it something else.

Speaker 29 (39:21):
That game stands out? And I think the Senior Knight
remember Keith Bogan's, Mike Crease Estell and h Jules Kamar
their senior night when we played Vanderbilt, and I want
to say we beat them by like fifty Yeah, that
was the fun. That was a fun game. And then

(39:43):
I would just remember the SEC Tournament in New Orleans
in three. We beat Vanderbilt and then a hard game
against Auburn and then a tough game against Misissippi State.
Man the Blig Blue Nation showed up so unbelievably and
the Super doll Man. It was probably the most nervous

(40:03):
I've ever been, but also the most excited I've ever
been putting on the jersey as a SEC Tournament No.

Speaker 19 (40:09):
Three.

Speaker 3 (40:11):
You were the twenty twenty five SEC Defensive Player of
the year I was telling Mark, I remembered a pregame
interview with Tubby at that time, and he said, people
don't understand how good Chuck is at covering up mistakes,
and they'll know when he's not here next year. You
just had a very high basketball IQ. I guess that's

(40:33):
where you're still working in the game, right.

Speaker 29 (40:35):
Yeah, yeah, you know that's funny because my rookie year
coach when I left and went to the NBA with
the Houston Rockets, Jeff Van Gundy, he told me he
was going to put me in a starting lineup and
this was his exact words. He goes, I'm putting you
in the starting lineup to cover for Yaoming's slowness and

(40:58):
tracing mcgrady's laziness. In my head, I was like, oh,
I've been doing that for the last four years. That's
that's nothing I could cover for anybody. All right, that's
all I gotta do, so be it. So yeah, and
Tubby Tubby and Tubby system was the same way. We
had some guys who who was always out of place

(41:19):
and didn't understand schemes, and me being on the back
line of the defense, I was like, okay, let me
just cover for him, and I'm always aware where my
man is. That if I have to recover back to now.

Speaker 19 (41:28):
To mine, that's that's that's such. That's first of all,
it's such a great story. Eleven years playing in the NBA,
an unbelievable NBA career, But you got there by going undrafted.
Any any thoughts memories associated with that, because it's just
as it seems like, it's exactly you chuck where someone

(41:51):
might doubt you or or whatever and then you say, Nope,
you don't understand what I can get done on the floor.
But eleven years in the league after going undrafted, thoughts.

Speaker 29 (42:00):
Yeah, Man, when I didn't get my name called coach man,
I just got even more motivated. I got more motivated.
I got a little take in me. I was like,
you know what, I'm gonna proven wrong. So in training
in summer League, I busted my tail to get a
training camp invite, and training camp invite I got cut.
I was like, Okay, I'm still gonna prove them wrong.

(42:21):
I went down to the it was the D League
at the time. I went down to the D League
for six weeks, led them in rebounding and they gave
me a ten day contract with Houston in January of
six and then I made them. I'm made them play.
I told myself. I was like, I'm gonna make it
really hard for them to tell me to go home.

Speaker 1 (42:39):
Yeah.

Speaker 29 (42:40):
And my first game, I got a double double in
Chicago at the United Center and wow, yeah, man, that
it led to eleven year career.

Speaker 3 (42:48):
What a fantastic story, Chuck. I appreciate you doing this.
Hopefully we'll see uh scouting. I know you get back
to add a lot of games, so hopefully we'll cross
paths with the Warriors down now out there with clinn
asabookie on the TV crew, right.

Speaker 9 (43:04):
Yeah, I see them all the time.

Speaker 29 (43:05):
We travel together, man, and it's people, doesn't People don't
understand how good Colinna was our in our day. And
it's a funny story. They always ask Clinna how did
he get to Kentucky and he'll point to me and
goes chuckles my host and I was like, I was like,
this has been a long time since two thousand and
one when I hosted Klina, and here we are working

(43:25):
together in this field.

Speaker 19 (43:26):
Man.

Speaker 9 (43:26):
It's pretty awesome.

Speaker 3 (43:28):
Great to hear from you and look forward to seeing
you soon.

Speaker 29 (43:30):
Thank you, Chuck, all right, thanks for having me all right,
go ahead, coach.

Speaker 1 (43:34):
Thanks loud.

Speaker 3 (43:35):
Jack Hay is joining us here on the Mark Pope Show,
where you get to break come back into more of
your questions. You can watch BBN Tonight, presented by UK Healthcare,
every weeknight at seven thirty on wl e X and Lexington.
You can also watch archive shows at bbntonight dot com.
Mark Pope Show, presented by UK Healthcare of the UK
Sports Network.

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Speaker 3 (46:07):
It is the Mark Pope Show. It's presented by UK Healthcare.
Subscribe to the Kentucky Basketball podcast that's presented by UK
Federal Credit Union. You can get it today if we're
free on Apple, podcasts, on Spotify, on iHeartRadio and the
official UK Athletics app. Kentucky and Florida coming up at

(46:28):
for Eastern on Saturday for Senior Day at RUP. Remember
to get there a little early for the Senior Day
festivities games televised on ESPN. We'll have the call of
the UK Radio network and a lot of fans are
finding out now that it is really pretty easy to
sync up our radio broadcast to the TV pictures. Go
to UK Athletics dot com backslash sync to do that.

(46:49):
Another question This one from Craig asking for an update
on Cam Williams Jaden Quaintance for the post for the
postseason or I guess one game left in the regular seasons.

Speaker 1 (46:59):
Yeah, positive news on both those guys right now.

Speaker 19 (47:04):
Cam is he's actually doing a little bit of running yesterday,
had a solid skill workout today having minimal pain. Hasn't
done anything full speed, but he's making progress. And j
Q is also making some progress. I feel like we've
got the swelling a little bit under control, and he's

(47:26):
he's actually did strength testing today. He's got a much
more intensive ramp up before he could step on the court.

Speaker 1 (47:35):
But good news for both those guys.

Speaker 3 (47:37):
It sounds like Cam maybe would be a little closer.
But do you have any level of optimism yet for
either one of them getting back on the court.

Speaker 1 (47:43):
You know I always have a lot of optimism, So
fingers crossed where I live.

Speaker 3 (47:49):
Let's get to a question. Let me find it here
on the tex step. You can keep those coming by
the way at the Clark's Pumping Shop. Text line it
is eight five nine two three one two three four.
Would you talk this question? I don't have a name
on this one, but asking about when you talk about
fatigue after the game last night. Are you seeing that

(48:11):
in terms of the effect of fatigue in analytics or
something in your eyes?

Speaker 19 (48:17):
No, No, it's it's actually production. So it's our production numbers,
so we can start and it's a it's it's a
kind of a tool that gives us a summation of
their contribution on the court. Really, it's it's their offensive
efficiency plus their defensive officiency, plus a couple other metrics
in terms of kind of showing us how guys develop

(48:37):
as they go from one minute to two minutes, to
three minutes, to four minute, to five minutes, six minute,
all the way to ten minutes consecutive play. And so
it's one of the number of things that we consider
as we work on guys rotation.

Speaker 3 (48:48):
Another question off the text line, can you talk about
bounce passes to Malachi? And I guess that would assume
not only in post ups but off the pick and roll.

Speaker 19 (48:59):
Need I say more? It is a source of immense frustration. Uh,
there is there is a place for it. Short roll,
a pocket pass, short role. Pocket passes is a place,
but it's a it's a conversation that you will hear
here sometimes softly and sometimes loudly with all kinds of

(49:20):
colorful language tearing through the Joe Craft Center during practice.

Speaker 3 (49:25):
Let's get to the BBN United question. This one comes
from Charleston, West Virginia, courtesy of Justin. When the season ends,
what are your favorite hobbies with your family?

Speaker 19 (49:40):
Okay, I'm taking a breath because I'm so far away
from the season ending, like I haven't even got there.

Speaker 1 (49:46):
So, uh, it doesn't matter. We just love to spending
time together, you know.

Speaker 19 (49:51):
We we we'll sit around and play the name game
or play Uno or card games and in the house
where we're fall in love with this game Bank It's
on an app. It's actually the most uninteresting game of
all time, but it is so fun, like we go crazy.
So just being together in any form fashion whatever, whether

(50:11):
it's walking together, working out together, traveling together, games together,
eating together, doesn't matter.

Speaker 3 (50:18):
Question came from one of our BBN United members.

Speaker 1 (50:20):
B b in United is the.

Speaker 3 (50:21):
Official fan membership program for UK Athletics, supporting student athletes,
giving fans exclusive access premium content. Check it out at
bbnunited dot com. One segment left when we come right
back with the Mark Pope Show, presented by UK Healthcare
here on the UK Sports Network.

Speaker 31 (50:39):
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Find it on the UK Athletics app or Uksnallaccess dot com.

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Speaker 7 (52:52):
Just be alive Memberspell's Put your Park interrovites you with Oh.

Speaker 20 (52:55):
Right, all 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 6 (53:09):
No, that's a winning combo.

Speaker 21 (53:13):
Yeah, Chris, refreshing that hits the spot when it comes
to great taste. Coke zero sugar is always on the scoreboard.
Coke zero sugar Real Coke Taste zero sugar.

Speaker 31 (53:25):
Stay connected to the Cats with that Big Blue Brew,
the official newsletter of you Cathletics.

Speaker 1 (53:30):
It's free, it's daily, and it's all things can suck.

Speaker 31 (53:33):
Sign up now at ukathletics dot com backslash Big Blue Brew.

Speaker 1 (53:37):
That's Ucathletics dot com backslash Big Blue Brew.

Speaker 3 (53:51):
Back for our final segment on the Bark Pope Show,
and we are taking your questions on the Clark's Pumpin'
Chup text line at eight five nine two O three
one two three four Uh this one is are you
working on your pick and roll defense? I'm sure you
probably do a little bit.

Speaker 1 (54:10):
There's a lot of shake my head questions.

Speaker 19 (54:12):
If the if these questions come in Sunday, there would
be less shaking my head.

Speaker 1 (54:19):
Yeah, it's it's always a work in progress. Uh.

Speaker 19 (54:21):
One of the most important you know, there's there's there's
really you know, with the on ball defender and the
and the and the uh screen or defender, there's really
six principles that we fight for every single possession. And
then you have all of the you have the whole
third defender concept and the other two players, so everybody has.

Speaker 1 (54:42):
Responsibilities to pick and rolls.

Speaker 19 (54:45):
And one of the one of the most telling of
all six factors, the one that gives us the best
success the most consistently, is when our ball screen defender,
the screener defenders at the point of the screen. That's
much easier said than done. And you know, uh, that's

(55:05):
that's that's a principle that is urgent for us. It's
something we did not execute well in the game the
other night, and so that was there was some frustration
with that. But yeah, something we work on every single day.

Speaker 3 (55:18):
From Gary off the social media feed on x at
UK Sports Network. With the landscape now of recruiting and
the portal and all the other elements that are involved
with high school recruiting and transfer recruiting, what do you
find is the most challenging in terms of recruiting and
what do you think will be UK's best opportunity.

Speaker 19 (55:39):
I think I think the the most challenging part is
probably the changing dynamics of the rules in the landscape.

Speaker 1 (55:47):
I think that's challenging for everybody.

Speaker 19 (55:50):
You know, the rules are different than they were two
months ago, and and four months ago and two weeks ago,
and so with with that changing the landscape, it makes
it it makes it interesting for us. But it's really
just a ton of opportunity. Recruiting right now is so
much opportunity, and it's it's about picking the right guys, uh,

(56:11):
that fit together the right way, and the right guys
has got different over time, so it's it's it's the
challenges are there.

Speaker 1 (56:21):
But but it's just this incredible opportunity.

Speaker 19 (56:23):
There's so many good players, and there's really great young
people and and finding the right ones that could come
here and do this our way under this spotlight, which
is a real challenge and to do it, uh at
the level that that we're expected to do at. That's uh,
that's that's that's where all the challenges and where all
the opportunity is.

Speaker 3 (56:42):
Off the text line. Ever, consider going with a two
three zone on an out of bounds play under the basket.

Speaker 1 (56:48):
Why or why not? We've done that a little bit.

Speaker 19 (56:52):
Our our UOB defense has actually so much improved from
last year. We're really excited about that. We were a
little bit over a one point for possession. Now we're
down to close to appoint eight points per possession. So
we've been really pleased. We actually went to to actually,
you know, most of our possessions are in essence a
switching a switching zone defense. It's a little hybrid defense.

(57:17):
It's been really effective for us. Last year, we're getting
burned strongside corner in so many different ways, and so
that change has been productive for us. We'll keep fitting
it to our guys and get better. But please with
the progress, Thank you, sir.

Speaker 3 (57:30):
Good look Saturday, Thanks love Cats and Gators pregame. We'll
start with countdown to tip off at two thirty Eastern time.
Tip at four for the Cats and the Gators. Be
there early for the Senior Day festivities for the four
seniors who will be recognized. That's it and this is
the UK Sports Network.

Speaker 8 (57:48):
This has been the Mark Pope Show presented by UK
Healthcare on the UK Sports Network. The Mark Pope Show
What's brought to you by Coca Cola, Appalachian Regional Healthcare.

Speaker 6 (58:00):
Little Caesars and by UK Healthcare.

Speaker 8 (58:03):
We are here to win Banners Kentucky Basketball is a
presentation of the UK Sports Network.

Speaker 6 (58:11):
Let's Go CASS powered by JMI Sports.