The Mark Pope Show presented by UK HealthCare, March 9th 2026

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

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Let's work, Let's apply, Yes, come on, stay, let's go,
let's go remounted, look, oh, provision, let's street all.

Speaker 2 (00:17):
Take a.

Speaker 3 (00:22):
Ball.

Speaker 4 (00:22):
Can't tell the fucking.

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

Speaker 6 (00:28):
Is you.

Speaker 1 (00:30):
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 Puffin' Jump text line at
eight five nine two zero three one two three four.
You can also post your questions on x at UK

(00:50):
Sports Network. Are on the UK Sports Network Facebook page.

Speaker 2 (00:55):
Guys gots or assignment.

Speaker 7 (00:57):
It's the wind batters when that'ss esence, that's our job.

Speaker 1 (01:04):
The Mark Pope Show, presented my UK Healthcare begins now
alongside the coach. Here's the voice son the Cats, Tom Leach.

Speaker 8 (01:15):
Good day everybody, and welcome in to the Mark Pope
Show for Tournament time. SEC Tournament week. It gets going
on Wednesday. The Wildcats play the very first game. It
will take on the LSU Tigers at twelve thirty Eastern time,
meaning our pregame will get going at eleven am from Nashville,
and we will talk about that matchup and about the

(01:38):
Cats with Coach Pope. When we get back from our
first break, we will open up the text line, the
Clark's Pump and Chop text line for your questions. In fact,
it's open now, so go ahead and send them in
at eight five nine two three one two three four.
You can also post questions for Coach Pope on x
It's at UK Sports Network. As Kentucky get set to

(02:01):
begin the postseason run and make a little March magic,
hopefully our pregame will get going as I said at
eleven a m. Eastern Time on Wednesday, and the game
is presented by UK Healthcare on the UK Sports Network.
UK Healthcare is the official healthcare partner of the BBN

(02:22):
and Kentucky's number one hospital. We're back with Coach Pope
when we return. This is the UK Sports Network.

Speaker 1 (02:31):
You're listening to The Mark Pope Show, presented by UK
Healthcare on the UK Sports Network.

Speaker 9 (02:38):
The Mark Pope Show is brought.

Speaker 1 (02:40):
To you by Coca Cola, Appalachian Regional Healthcare, Little Caesars
and by UK Healthcare. Tell Me Who's in the house tonight, UK.

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Fight every single day, for every single one.

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Fresh for Everyone, LSU, Kentucky's opponent on Wednesday at the

(05:58):
SEC Tournament, finished its regular season on Saturday with a
triple overtime loss to Texas A and M. The Mayubingals
ended up as the sixteen seed for the tournament, but
took Kentucky right down to the wire and the game
in Baton Rouge. That was way back on the fourteenth
of January. It was the Malachi miracle game when Colin

(06:21):
Chandler made that perfect pass three quarters of the length
of the floor and Malachai Moreno caught it, turn and
hit the shot that won the game for Kentucky. And
I was actually part of a five game winning streak
for the Wildcats, the second of the five in a row,
and that's what Kentucky will be looking to duplicate this
week in Nashville to get five straight and be there

(06:44):
on Sunday down at Bridgestone Arena, which Mark Pope has
joined us to talk about tournament time for the Wildcats.
If you remember, probably not thinking about it, get a
few other things on your mind these days, but I'm
sure you remember your days and how much fun sec
turnnaments were in the mid nineties.

Speaker 14 (07:01):
As the tournament is awesome. Five straight is the job.
We got to find a way. It'll take care been
done before you, and it'll take some uh some perseverance,
but we can't wait to get down there and get started.

Speaker 8 (07:15):
I'm sure it's true for your guys, because it is
a fresh start. No matter how the season goes, it's
a it's a reboot, and any of the disappointments none
of that matters.

Speaker 15 (07:24):
Now.

Speaker 14 (07:25):
Well, hopefully, hopefully, you know, we will build on everything
we've experienced this year and kind of put in our
tool toolkit and go to work. I think the guys
are you guys can know compete and and play at
a great level, and it's gonna be It's gonna be
incredibly exciting.

Speaker 8 (07:39):
I assume Sunday was an off day, so how was
practice today?

Speaker 15 (07:44):
Yees?

Speaker 14 (07:44):
Sunday, we had meetings all day uh that were productive,
both do an autopsy and then and then prepping for
SEC and then uh, you know, we had a full
install today. The guys were good. Uh and like I said,
can't wait to get down there and get to work.

Speaker 8 (08:03):
What can you share, if anything on the autopsy on
that game Saturday.

Speaker 14 (08:08):
Well, you know, we knew going in there were two
things that had to be accomplished, kind of the point
of reference to to to have a chance to when
we had to match them on the glass, which we did,
and we had to handle transition, which we didn't. And
really at the end of the day, that's the difference
in the game. You know. Then it was nineteen oh

(08:30):
in transition in the first half where we got a
little bit sideways and and and you can't you know,
Florida lives on the glass and in transition that's where
they're great. And we actually guarded in a half court
well for the vast majority of the game. We handled

(08:50):
the glass. But transition, you know, we just didn't get
the job done. We didn't have the urgency to do it.
There were some miscues and some mistakes, and so that
that was you know, at a very baseline level. Our
biggest issue.

Speaker 8 (09:04):
Their field goal percentage dropped precipitously in the second half
and sixty four in the first thirty in the second.
Did you see some improvement.

Speaker 14 (09:11):
For sure, because you know, we weren't giving them just runouts,
you know some of that. You know, of course, credit
to Florida. That's what they do. They're over twenty percent
of their possessions or in transition, and that's hard earned.
They run hard, they rebound well, they leak out, and
they pushed the ball well, and they share the ball well.
So it's a staple for them. It's what they do,
and you know, going into the game with them, that's

(09:31):
something you have to take away, and we did in
the second half. We just couldn't do it in the
first half.

Speaker 8 (09:34):
We talked about turnovers in the pregame and that number
actually was solid. I think it was nine, yeah, nine turnovers.

Speaker 14 (09:41):
It was the first game we've lost with eleven or
less turnovers. But you know, really, when you go back
and look at the film, there were so many things
that counted as turnovers. You know, so many attempts at
the rim that turned into block shots, which essentially for
us functions almost worse than a turnof because of the
live ball turnover where we're a man down because we

(10:01):
have somebody kind of running out of bound. So our
decision making, even though we kept our turnovers down, it
was it was essentially the equivalent of being a plus
eleven game because of our decision making and so it's
a hard learned lesson. Hopefully we've learned it. If we
do our job, we'll get to see them again in
the course of this tournament and hopefully I have a differential.

Speaker 8 (10:23):
We will come back continue our chat with Coach Pope.
You can start sending in your questions right now on
the Clark's Pumping Shop text line eight five nine two
three one two three four. You can post them on
x as well. It's at UK Sports Network to send
your question into us. And when we're finished the Mark
Pope Show presented by UK Healthcare stick Around for BBN
Radio presented by Clark's Pumping Shop from seven to seven

(10:46):
thirty Eastern Darren Hendrick will be joined by Cameron Mills
to preview the SEC Tournament, and then it'll be the
first installment of the Nick Minjeones Show, giving you an
inside look at UK Baseball. That'll be from seven to
thirty until eight. UK Baseball hosting Ball State tomorrow and
then they host Alabama for the start of SEC play
coming up this weekend out of Kentucky Proud Park. We'll

(11:06):
be right back. This is the UK Sports Network.

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Speaker 8 (14:17):
It is the Mark Pope Show presented by UK Healthcare
and we will invite you to watch BBN Tonight presented
by UK Healthcare weeknights at seven thirty on WLAX, here
and Lexington. You can watch archives shows at BBN Tonight
dot com. It is a fun time of year. You

(14:37):
don't get to get caught up in it like fans do.
There's nothing better. Teachers have the chance to win Teacher
of the Year this week and next week because there
will be afternoon basketball starting tomorrow.

Speaker 14 (14:49):
Yeah, it's pretty great. I mean, it's just a this
is it is like Christmas, and it lasts for a
month and it just is the best, and.

Speaker 8 (14:56):
It's a for a team, it is a it's just
a little bit of a reboo chance to just kind
of everybody zero zero. And we've seen some stories here
Coach Hall's last team, the twenty fourteen national runner up.
There have been others that you make a run, you
get hot, and we were just talking about Miami, Ohio.
Just the power of what momentum can do.

Speaker 14 (15:16):
Yeah, I was. I was on the unfortunate and when
I was coaching at BUYU, we were a six seed
and and Ucelle was a playing team. They beat Michigan
State in an eleven eleven play in game and then
went on an incredible run to get to the Final
four and played great through the whole tournament. That's why

(15:37):
the tournament's great is because just as it has everything
and everybody, it's you know, when you're playing one off basketball,
it's anything can happen. And you know, we feel like
we have a team that's you know, we played the
best teams in the country. We've beat a lot of
great teams. We've we've dropped games that we wish we
wouldn't have and and so you know, walking this thing

(15:59):
with a ton of experience, and we're counting on our
experience and and the toughness bills of us to get
to to help us make a run. And that's that's
the goal of every team. It's interesting if you're undefeated,
or if you're if you haven't had it. You know,
if you've barely had enough wins to get into the postseason,
you still are under the same pressure in game one
because it's single elimination. And so this is an incredible

(16:22):
opportunity for us. We can't wait to get to it.

Speaker 2 (16:25):
All right, Let's get to some questions.

Speaker 8 (16:27):
You can send those in on the Clark's Pump and
Shop text line at eight five nine two O three
one two three four or on X and that is
at UK Sports Network. Aaron asks any updates on Cam
Williams and Jane Quaints.

Speaker 14 (16:40):
Yeah, so Cam actually practiced some limited today. Uh, you know,
he practiced a few days ago and it was pretty
sore afterwards. He went again today, so we'll we'll see
how he feels tomorrow. But he seems like he's getting close.
Like I think there's a real chance jq is is
still not been incorporated into practice in any meaningful contact way,

(17:03):
so he's a little bit farther away.

Speaker 8 (17:04):
Another question off the Clark's Pump and Chop text line,
is there a different level of preparation that goes into
the postseason games as compared to the regular season games.

Speaker 14 (17:13):
No, the answer is no. You know, for the SEC tournament,
the one thing is for every single team, you're at
least on your second time around, so in that sense,
you know them better. You actually have a game film
against them for at least one game, sometimes two games,
and so uh, there there's there's more in depth prepressions
just because you have more data. But but you know,

(17:36):
we pre you know, prepare exhaustively for every single game.
In fact, you know, as we go through the SEC tournament,
there will be less prep for game two. There will
be way less prep than for game one because we
won't really touch We have a a forward scout team
that's prepping for games down the road, but in terms
of our team, we won't prep them at all until

(17:57):
after game one is complete. And it's a you know,
it's a it's exactly a twenty four hour turnaround, so
there's just not time. But certainly for the games, you know,
and when you're in the Sadly tournament, for the first
game you'll have several days to prep. The second game
of the weekend, you know, you only have forty eight hours,
So in that sense, the preparation is a little bit
more limited.

Speaker 8 (18:17):
Can coach talk about the turnovers and rebounding and shooting
went open?

Speaker 14 (18:23):
Yeah, those are good things. Turnovers are Keeping your turnovers
low is good, and getting a lot of rebounds is good.
And shooting when you're open is really important. And shooting
when you're in, passing when you're not is great. And
it sounds so elementary, but there's actually a lot that
goes into it. Just most recently, as we talked about

(18:43):
in this Florida game, I was really proud of our
guys' effort on the glass. I thought it was you know,
I think we we finished forty one forty. I think
maybe it was the number. It was a one one
rebound diffresh was exactly where we needed to be to win.
But but our decision making at the rim was poor
and they aim, which you know Florida has done to

(19:04):
every team this year. That's what they've done in our league.
That's why they won the league is because they've they've
managed to have great rim protection and really challenge teams
at the rim and and so you know, unfortunately for us,
we're like a lot of teams that have played them
where we wish our decision making at the rim had
been better. It's it's something that we'll grow into. But

(19:26):
us making plays for teammate is going to be incredibly
important against LSU. Also, they're they're a team that has
got great length at athleticism and they bring several people
to the bottom on penetration, whether it's cutting or passing
or thrown into the post. And we'll really challenge you in
the rim, but they give you the opportunity to make
power plays and deliver on them. And it's going to

(19:47):
be really important for us to do in this game
if we want to have success, which we do.

Speaker 8 (19:50):
Uh, power plays just elaborate. I know what the term means, but.

Speaker 14 (19:53):
Just for power play is just you know, any time
that you earn a second defender, so you can earn
a second under in a myriad of different ways. You
can earn a second defender in transition by pushing the
ball and engaging the wall. For example, you can earn
second defender on a pass head by just catching a

(20:16):
pass head and get an angle driving to the baseline
down where the help defender has to commit to you.
You can earn it running off a screen away from
the ball, where the screener's man has to give you
a curl protect and you have your man lochntrail. You
could certainly earn a second defender on a ball screen
on isolation penetration. You can earn it in the post.

(20:38):
And so anytime you earn a second defender that means
the rest of the floor is it is in some
degree you have a four on three on the rest
of the floor. Sometimes if you can earn two and
a half bodies, you might have a four on two
and a half, Or if if you earn three bodies
you have a four on two, and so it's it's
earning that it takes a lot to earn that you
have to have find some way. When people talk about

(21:00):
pain touches, usually that's what you're ending up with. Is
earning up with a power play is in a really classic,
non complicated way, and then delivering to your teammates to
go capitalize on their numbers game is the second part
of that, and it makes the game really simple when
you think about it. Actually executing it can be very
complicated and nuanced, but teams that do that well are

(21:24):
really hard to guard.

Speaker 8 (21:25):
We will head to the next break with our Alumni
Hall Fan Question of the Week and you can send
in your answer to at Alumni Hall UK on X
and get a chance to win an Alumni Hall gift card.
What Kentucky player, which Kentucky player more grammatically correct would
you think is most important to Kentucky having great success

(21:46):
at the SEC tournament this week? Who's going to be
the key player for the Cats? So answer at Alumni
Hall UK. We'll be right back on the UK Sports Network.

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(24:19):
affiliates and times in your area. Outside the state, you
can watch at UK athletics dot com, Slash Videos or
on the Kentucky Wildcats Facebook page. Otega Oway named second
Team All SEC today and he has had a tremendous
second year for you, particularly in SEC play.

Speaker 14 (24:36):
Yeah, he's been really phenomenal, and he's carried a huge
load and he's been incredibly consistent, really proud of it,
and even more important, it's been fun to watch him
grow as a as a young man. He's he's made
great strides and so happy for him, and I know
what he's really hungry.

Speaker 8 (24:51):
For is in the coming days, let us talk about
coaches going from being the assistant to being a head coach.
When that move happens. For players, it's a thing where
if you're the second third guy on the scouting report
and to being overwhelmingly that got at the top of
everybody's scouting report.

Speaker 2 (25:07):
That's a challenge.

Speaker 14 (25:07):
Yeah, it is. It changes the whole dynamic of the game,
and you have to kind of come up with the
new answers as a player. You have to come up
with new answers in a system as a coach, and
you have to deal with new pressures and new expectations
and new responsibilities. You know, as you grow in your
profile on a team, you can go from being the

(25:28):
recipient of leadership and an example follower to being now
the guy that's got to set the example and has
got to actually manage and governing the emotions of his
teammates and kind of lead out all those things. It
is a massive, massive change in coaching. You say, there's
a you know, there's a there's a mile long journey
the eighteen inches you go from the head assistant to

(25:51):
the to the head coach on the bench right, and
as a player is very similar.

Speaker 8 (25:55):
And then Malachi Moreno named of the All Freshman team
and not a guy that he probably didn't know if
he how much he would play when the season started
and people weren't expecting a lot, but just because he
was a freshman and he has been a rock.

Speaker 14 (26:09):
For you, Yeah, well deserved for him. I think he's been.
He's been so steady, and he's gotten better and better
every game, and he got a really incredible future.

Speaker 8 (26:19):
Yeah, he's it is exciting to look at his skill set.
I mean, you talked to the first time I asked
you a question about him in one of our pregames.
You said, the first thing that drew you guys to
him as a staff was his passing a bill us
And you know we've talked about this. Not many freshman
bigs have a healthy positive assistant turnover ratios.

Speaker 14 (26:37):
Yeah, and you know, he's He's had a little bit
of misfortune recently over the last four or five games,
but for most of the season, he's been incredibly solid
in terms of protecting the ball. Uh, he's been a
force at the rim. He's you know, he's been a
terrific rebounder on both ends of the floor. His rim
protection has been good, his communication has been good. Uh.

(27:00):
And like I said, he just is. He just has
such a great future. It's gonna be fun to watch
him grow.

Speaker 8 (27:05):
Back to more questions from fans this one off X
at UK Sports Network. Two questions from Brad one, why
do you like analytics? Rely on analytics?

Speaker 14 (27:16):
Well, I don't know if I like analytics. I think
they drive you crazy sometimes, but you know, as we
pursue being better in this game, you're trying to uncover
every stone, and so analytics are useful when they challenge
what you're seeing. That's when they're really useful. Sometimes they

(27:38):
can be useful confirming what you see. But where where
the numbers really get interesting is when you're surprised by
what they tell you and then you have to do
the deep dive. You know, there's no analytical formula that
actually is a tell all. They're just all little slices.
They're like glancing blows at kind of trying to discover
the truth and and how to you know, what you

(28:00):
should do as a coach and player in terms of
decision making. So you have to interpret everything that you get.
But it's most fun when you find things that are
really really surprising. When you find the anomalous numbers and
you get to kind of dig in deeper to find
out is that anomaly or is that really a trend?

(28:20):
And and so I think it's something that allows you
to you know, I think probably before we had as
much access to film and numbers and everything else, coaches
were spending a lot more time just coaching on their
gut and coaching with their eyes and with their experience,

(28:42):
because that's really all they had to rely on.

Speaker 3 (28:45):
Uh.

Speaker 14 (28:46):
And there's still incredible functionality to that, to coaching that way.
But you know, also addressing the numbers, paying attention to them,
trying to understand what they're telling you, and trying to
interpret where they could take you. It just gives you.
It just gives you another pair of glasses to look

(29:08):
at what you're doing through and evaluate how things are working.

Speaker 8 (29:11):
Along those lines, you told an interesting story when you
were chatting with the TV guys Saturday morning about relative
to analytics, there's a measure of offensive production offensive efficiency,
and you said, there are two of the different analytical services,
and one of them treats an offensive rebound as the
continuation of one possession and the other one treats it

(29:32):
as a separate new possession, and that shows up in
two different ratings for a team's offensive efficiency.

Speaker 2 (29:39):
So you have to know that context.

Speaker 15 (29:41):
Yeah.

Speaker 14 (29:41):
So for example, if you look at Florida, FLOORA is
a great, great example of this. So they're a plus,
they're forty one percent, give or take a couple tenth
of a percent offensive rebounding percentage, and so they're the
number one or one of the top two or three
offensive rebu bounding percentage teams in the country. Is actually

(30:03):
a very much better measure than just raw offensive rebounds.
And so if you look at them in Synergy, which
is one platform doing analytics, they look like a very
pedestrian offensive team. They're under a one in points per possession.
You know, they're somewhere in the mid nines, and they
look like a very average team. If you look on

(30:23):
ken pom, they're the number one offensive team in our
league and I think probably in the top five in
the country offensively in terms of their efficiency, and it's
just that judgment. In Synergy, they treat offensive rebounds like
a brand new possession, so you're denominated or grows by
two every time you have offensive rebound and ken Pom
they treat it as one singular possession, and so it's

(30:45):
ken pum is for a team like Florida, Ken Pom
is a much better storyteller of their overall offensive efficiency than.

Speaker 8 (30:55):
Synergy because they're so good at rebounding is what they do.
The misshot of the offense to do. Halfway Home on
this edition, of the Mark Pope Show presented by UK Healthcare,
and we'll be right back on the UK Sports Network.

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Oh right, all right, it's a beautiful day for football
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Speaker 8 (34:12):
Welcome back into the Bark Pope Show. And each week
we connect with a wildcat legend and this week it
is Kenny sky Walker from the thriving metropolis of Roberta, Georgia.

Speaker 3 (34:26):
Right, Kenny, You're exactly right, Tom, and it's good to
be on.

Speaker 15 (34:33):
With you and Coach Pope tonight.

Speaker 3 (34:36):
It's hard to believe that it's been forty years since
I've graduated from the University of Kentucky.

Speaker 15 (34:43):
So it's honored to be with you guys tonight.

Speaker 8 (34:46):
Second all time leading scorer two thousand and eighty points
and nine hundred and forty two rebounds, which is seventh
all time, two time All American, two time SEC Player
of the Year, played on a team that made it
to a Final four in nineteen eighty four, fifth overall
draft pick by the New York Knicks. What a slam

(35:07):
dunk competition when.

Speaker 2 (35:09):
You're in the NBA.

Speaker 8 (35:10):
But I got to ask you about something that happened
in Nashville at the SEC Tournament, not at Bridgestone, but
at Vanderbilt's gym in eighty four.

Speaker 2 (35:20):
You broke Charles Barkley's heart.

Speaker 3 (35:24):
My best memory, and I've done you read off all
of the accomplishments, but my best memory, and a lot
of UK fans remember exactly what you're talking about. Tom
almost went to Auburn. It was down to Auburn, the
University of Georgia and Kentucky.

Speaker 15 (35:42):
Wow. When I was coming out of high school.

Speaker 3 (35:45):
So Charles Barklay recruited me really, really heavily, and he
was trying hard to get me to go to Auburn.
And when I came to visit UK and I saw
Sam Boye, Melbourne, Turpin and all of these guys, I'm like, sorry, Charles,
I'm going the UK.

Speaker 15 (36:01):
And he would always tell me that's gonna be the
biggest regret that you've ever had going to the UK.
We're gonna kick you all but and everything when we
see you.

Speaker 3 (36:10):
And to be a sophomore in nineteen eighty four, like
I said, I mentioned Bowie and Turpey and Turpen and Dickieville,
Jim Masters who was.

Speaker 15 (36:20):
The seniors on that team.

Speaker 3 (36:22):
I could not believe my coach Joby Hall drew up
a play for a sophomore to take the last second
shot against a.

Speaker 15 (36:33):
Great Auburn team.

Speaker 3 (36:34):
The player Charles Barkley, was the play of the Year
in the SEC that year. And for him to trust
me as a sophomore to make probably the biggest shot
in my career of while I was at UK. I mean,
my hat's off to Joeby Hall for trusting me to
do that.

Speaker 8 (36:53):
It's right about the same spot Malachai Moreno made his
shot down at Baton Rouge and Charles Barkley drops to
the court and weeped.

Speaker 3 (37:01):
The only guy, the only guy in Kentucky history to
make Charles Barkley cross.

Speaker 15 (37:07):
So I'll take grace solace in that.

Speaker 14 (37:10):
So that's great, Kenny, thanks for jumping on man. So,
I mean, Kenny knows this. But when I first got
here to the University of Kentucky, one of the most
fun things was was we would hoop every single day.
He was either in Memorial or if Memorial was full,
it was an alumni, and so it was all the

(37:32):
guys on the team, uh. And then the four guys
that I remember. Of course Mash was there, uh. And
you know, Mash would call every single foul, call a foul.
And Dale Brown was there still hooping and running down
the four literally patting himself on the back after he
made a three pointer. And then it was Rex Chapman

(37:55):
and the great Kenny Skywalker that that was the crew
of of the first Kentucky alumni that I got to
hoop with. And it was so fun to have Rex
and Kenny there because they were obviously incredibly successful NBA
players at the time. Of course, Mash was on his way,
but it was and it was so fun because we

(38:16):
would play and then you know, especially Rex and Kenny,
they would just sit there with us after and just
tell stories about Kentucky and about their experience in the league.
And I just remember, I mean, Kenny, I look back
so fondly on that first summer. Just getting acquainted with
Kentucky through the eyes of you guys was really special
for me. Man. I'm grateful for that.

Speaker 3 (38:36):
Yeah, And I appreciate you saying that, Coach, because the
one thing that you and I have in common, you know,
outside of we both playing, you know, at the University
of Kentucky. And I'm not taking credit for this, but
we both played for Rick Patino, and I played for
Coach Latino with the New York Knicks before he came

(38:59):
to go to the University of Kentucky. So when UK
was reaching out to talk to Coach Patino, we had
a lot of conversations even before he left the Knicks
to come to the Kentucky and Coach Patino had a great,
you know relationship, you know, with us there in New York,

(39:20):
and really I hated to see him go. But when
Kentucky came calling, I said to myself, look, this guy's
having a lot of success.

Speaker 15 (39:29):
And I really do believe this.

Speaker 3 (39:31):
If coach Patino would have stayed with us with the Knicks,
I think he probably could have gotten us to the
championship at that time in the NBA. But if he's
going to go to my alma mater, and I'm proud
that he did, and to recruit guys like you know
you and Tony Dell, Walter McCarty and Twine Walker. I

(39:54):
mean I can go on and on and on about
the guys that he bought in from the time that
he got here. You know, you guys represented the program
in the right way. And you said in your in
your introductory you know, a press conference being introduced UH
to Kentucky. You know what it's like as a player,

(40:15):
the high expectation, the pride that we fill in this program.
And I'm so proud of you for taking on this
job at the University of Kentucky. We all know that
it's a tough job, but you're doing a great job,
and you representing this program really well. And if I
had a small part in, you know, helping you along

(40:36):
your way in and playing against you in the summertime,
I mean I did my job, but I would do
that today, if I can step out on that accord
and play you represent the University of Kentucky really well.

Speaker 14 (40:48):
I would take you.

Speaker 15 (40:49):
Man.

Speaker 14 (40:49):
You still look healthy like you fly.

Speaker 3 (40:54):
Yeah, well, we're gonna be serious about that, and I
appreciate that. I'm gonna look the part, but just don't
ask me to fly.

Speaker 2 (41:03):
I was gonna say the.

Speaker 3 (41:06):
Last time that I dun't coach somebody. They asked me
this all the time because I wanted to dunk contest.
The last time I dunk was probably about nine years ago.
That's last time that I tried to dunk. And I mean,
I still feel pretty good that I can get up there.
I think getting up there is not a problem. It's
the coming down.

Speaker 25 (41:28):
On the ns.

Speaker 3 (41:29):
And if we can have a trampoline or some kind
of pillows of cushions there to kind of, you know,
to pad the fall a little bit, I think I'll
be I think I'll be in good shape.

Speaker 14 (41:42):
Okay, Kenny, let's do this live. We have not talked
about this before. This is what I'd like to sell.

Speaker 6 (41:46):
Okay, next fall at Big Blue Madness, you make a
return and dunk for the first time in ten years.

Speaker 14 (41:58):
We will slide out a gymnastics pad for you to
land on.

Speaker 2 (42:02):
I go.

Speaker 14 (42:04):
It would be elite man. So there's the deal. I
don't know if you have a performance team in Roberta, Georgia,
but you can come train here. We'll put you on
a six month training deal. It'd be the comeback of
all time.

Speaker 15 (42:16):
Okay, Now, I like how you're thinking. You're giving me
six months to do it. Now.

Speaker 3 (42:23):
To help you out, coach, I'm doing the dancing with
the Lexington Stars this year, so and I've been trying
to promote this this year.

Speaker 15 (42:32):
So I've been doing my little.

Speaker 3 (42:33):
Practices and getting in shape and all of that stuff.
So I'm starting to get in shape. So once I
get in shape, you know, after I get finished doing
with the Lexington's Stars, if you let me go come
by to Joe Craft Center and do a couple of
lead press and some leg extensions and stuff like that

(42:55):
before we do Big Blue Madness.

Speaker 15 (42:58):
Hey, well, you know we probably can work something out.

Speaker 14 (43:02):
Hey, this is aside. This dancing is no joke, isn't it?
Like this is hard work?

Speaker 3 (43:06):
Yes, coach, you know this is out of my comfort zone.
They always think that because that you're you know, you're
a basketball player, and you you're a great athlete that
you can just jump out.

Speaker 15 (43:19):
There and do all of this thing. And I'm confident.

Speaker 3 (43:23):
I mean, I got a lot of more practices to go,
but I'm going, well, what did I get myself?

Speaker 15 (43:31):
You know? But all of that.

Speaker 3 (43:32):
But but I'm dancing with Rosie. She's a great teacher,
she's a great instructor. We're having a ball and I'm
confident by the time that we get to May the thirtieth,
when we're going to do this, we will have fun
and we'll do a lot of good things because we're
working with the Lexington Rotary Club and the Child the

(43:57):
Children Benefit Service to raise money for a lot of
different things.

Speaker 15 (44:02):
It's gonna be a great call.

Speaker 3 (44:04):
And we got great instructors and people that's helping us
alloud to make us look good because they know that,
you know, it's difficult to get out in front of
a big crowd like you guys do. Coach in basketball,
that's a natural place for me. Dancing is a little
bit out of my element. But I'm gonna use all

(44:25):
of the same principles that I use in basketball. Work hard,
have a good attitude, listen to my coach, and everything
is gonna be okay.

Speaker 8 (44:35):
Sky will look forward to that and also the return
of Kenny Skywalker at Big Blue Manness.

Speaker 3 (44:41):
Thank you Kenny, Okay, guys, I appreciate It's always good
to talk to you.

Speaker 15 (44:45):
Guys. Good luck in the SEC Tournament Coach.

Speaker 8 (44:48):
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to some fan questions. The second one that Brad had
sent in, and this goes along with a question that
Ben had sent in on X and also Jim are
all asking about when you talk about fatigue. Some of

(47:33):
these fans are saying they don't quite understand how players
are tired when other teams have a similar number of
players that are playing, but what are you seeing.

Speaker 14 (47:43):
Well, our guys load has been really high. You know,
we've been kind of when you're approaching this thirty four,
thirty six, thirty eight minutes, it gets high and the
durest they're under is a lot. You know, Otega is
a great example. He's such an explosive, explosive physical athlete
that's just taking on contact consistently and he just is

(48:04):
he functions better in the thirty two to thirty four
minutes own right, if we can just get him there,
And it's just it's just you know, that's a place
where you rely on the numbers and kind of how
it plays out, and and so you know, he's a
guy that uh is is works incredibly hard to be
in the space he is, but the the the wear

(48:25):
and tear of the style of play that he plays
is enormous, and so it just functions better. You know,
some of our bigs the same way. Mal Choimraino is
one of the best conditions seven footers in the country.
But you know he can run for days, but just
the physical beating that he takes on the court, you
at some point you just get a little out of

(48:46):
breath and a little leg weary and you function better.
We can have a little blow. That's that's the point
of having a team. If you if you could put
five your best five players out there and play forty
minutes game, everybody would do that. But it just it
just doesn't work, and nobody actually does.

Speaker 8 (49:00):
And that's where maybe for to help fans understand it
a little better. It's not that your guys are more
tired than other guys are tired too. It's looking at
optimal performance in a certain window.

Speaker 14 (49:11):
Well, and you look at us, and you look at
the things we're really effective at. We're one of the
top transition teams. We had been you know, our transition
numbers have gone down significantly, but you know we're one
of the most efficient, effective transition offensive teams in the country.
But to keep pushing the ball, you're you're kind of
counting on the next wave of guys to come in
and help you do that. So it has impact on

(49:32):
parts of the game like that. We're gonna, you know,
we don't have a choice right now. We're gonna have
to gut through that, uh and and make great decisions
and still be effective and still be forceful when when
we have a little fatigue on the floor. That's the
challenge for us right now, and we've just got to
find an answer. There's nowhere in there there's an excuse.
It's just trying to find where your team functions and
where your individual players function at their highest level. And

(49:54):
and so that's a place that's been challenging for us
as we've we've had a really diminished roster.

Speaker 8 (49:59):
Let's get to our weekly BBN United fan question comes
from Alex in Florence, Kentucky. What's your favorite movie one
that you can watch over and over?

Speaker 15 (50:09):
Wow?

Speaker 14 (50:12):
Hm, we can take a break. You can chew on
that if you we might need to chew on that.
I'm gonna ask. I'm gonna ask for some family participation
here from the pope girl. Sit over here and see
what we come up with.

Speaker 2 (50:22):
We'll have that answer when you come right back.

Speaker 8 (50:24):
Meanwhile, you can join up for at bbnunited dot com
for the exclusive content and the premium experiences and all
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dot Com. One break to get to and our final
segment when we come back It's the Park Pope Show,

(50:46):
presented by UK Healthcare on the UK Sports Network.

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(53:40):
Flight by Yingling available wherever beer is sold DJ Yingling
and unincorporated potsviol Pennsylvania.

Speaker 14 (53:46):
Please enjoy responsibly.

Speaker 2 (54:00):
Welcome back into our final segments.

Speaker 8 (54:01):
Subscribe to the Behind Kentucky Basketball podcast, presented by UK
Federal Credit Union. It is available for free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeartRadio,
and the official UK Athletics at Brandon Hawthorne told Ben
Roberts of The Hair Leader he will return to UK
next season. I'm sure that didn't surprise you. But tell
fans what they can expect to see from Brandon.

Speaker 14 (54:21):
Brandon Hawthorne is is he's got a he's got a high,
high ceiling. He's a special young man. He got so
much joy in his heart. He's really really improved this year.
He's he's you know, he's he's we're counting his weight
game by alties and he is actually gaining weight, which

(54:42):
has been really exciting. He's getting much stronger, he's getting
much more comfortable with defensive rotations, and he's got some
offensive skills that are really fun.

Speaker 6 (54:51):
Uh.

Speaker 14 (54:52):
And he just is a he just is man. He's
just a joyful soul on the team. He's he's gonna
be special for us.

Speaker 8 (55:00):
Off the text lign the Clark's Pumping Shop text line
caller or the listener wants to know why not press
and trap the ball and full court press.

Speaker 2 (55:09):
The whole game.

Speaker 15 (55:10):
Yeah.

Speaker 14 (55:11):
Again, we come back to just just you know, we
just played a team in Texas A and M that
is that has done a terrific job. It's actually familiar
to the way we tried to play when I was
playing here at Texas A and M Bucky's doing a
nice job with that and and they're just going deep,
deep into the rotation to do that. It's it's it's

(55:33):
what we envisioned walking into the season that we would
eventually grow into and just because of circumstance, we haven't
been able to become that group. We've had to find
another identity. But we are trying to take very intentional
shots at changing the flow of the game through extending
our defense. We just can't do it full time.

Speaker 8 (55:53):
A question from Matt and Mose seems to be playing
hard when he is on the floor putting out good numbers.
What's keeping him from getting more time? Well, a couple
of things. One is fouls.

Speaker 14 (56:04):
He plays so hard. You know, he spent a lot
of Texas A and M gaming. He's had three fouls
in the first half, so that's something that we monitor.
But he has been playing great. I'm really proud of him.
He's bringing a lot to our team, and you know,
he's he's finding ways to have a bigger and bigger
impact on the game. He is, you know, like all

(56:25):
of our guys, he's a bellweather for us. When more
plays great, our team feels good. And he's he's been terrific.
We we we desperately need him to be our defensive
physicality inspiration on this team. He's taken that challenge really
seriously and and we're gonna need it to be great
in the postseason.

Speaker 8 (56:43):
He nobody battled harder on the boards especially giving away
some size like he was the other day.

Speaker 14 (56:48):
It's it's really remarkable. He's got to he's got an
incredible you know, we all players have little gifts and
skill sets. He's got an unbelievable skill set for track
and down balls.

Speaker 2 (56:58):
All right, that's gonna do it.

Speaker 8 (56:59):
For this edition of the Park Pope Show presented by
UK Healthcare, you and your guys are getting set to
head down to Nashville with the BBM and best of
luck on staying there.

Speaker 2 (57:10):
A nice long time.

Speaker 14 (57:11):
Thanks off appreciation.

Speaker 2 (57:13):
The coverage will start at eleven a m.

Speaker 8 (57:15):
Eastern with the Jack Burford Chevrolet Countdown to tip Off
Show and that'll lead you up to a twelve thirty
tip time to start the SEC tournament with Kentucky and
LSU for complete coverage of the Cats.

Speaker 2 (57:27):
This is coming tournament week and more.

Speaker 8 (57:29):
Like UK sports Network on Facebook, follow on Instagram, It's
at UK Underscore Sports Network and you can follow on
x and send in questions each week at UK Sports Network.
That will do it for now. We'll see you next
week here on the UK Sports Network.

Speaker 1 (57:44):
This that has been now 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 17 (57:57):
Little Caesars and by UK Healthcare.

Speaker 1 (58:00):
We are here to win Banners Kentucky Basketball is a
presentation of the UK sports network Let's Go CASS, powered
by JMI Sports