UK HealthCare Mark Pope Show December 23rd 2024

Hosted by the Voice of the Wildcats, Tom Leach. Coach Pope will take questions via X (@UKSportsNetwork) or Facebook.
The show is broadcast in Lexington on 630 WLAP, online at UKathletics.com, on UK Sports Network affiliates,
Fans can also download the show as a podcast through iTunes, Spotify and iHeart by searching “UK Sports Network Radio.” Additionally, you can locate the podcast at UKAthletics.com/audio.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
That's a that's apply. Yes, come on, stay, let go,
Let's go back.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
Three Street forever.

Speaker 1 (00:18):
Free balls can fuck it?

Speaker 2 (00:22):
Good guy.

Speaker 1 (00:23):
What makes us different than everybody else? Is you?

Speaker 3 (00:27):
From the UK Sports Network. This is the UK Healthcare
Mark Pope Show.

Speaker 4 (00:34):
To talk to Coach.

Speaker 3 (00:35):
Pope called the Clark's Pumping Shop phone line at eight
five nine two eight zero cats, that's A five nine
two eight.

Speaker 1 (00:42):
Zero to two eight seven, or state wide at.

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hundred and six O six four.

Speaker 5 (00:50):
Two six three.

Speaker 1 (00:53):
Guys, guys, or you.

Speaker 4 (00:55):
Can tweet questions to at the UK of Course Network.

Speaker 3 (01:01):
Ty UK Healthcare Mark Pope Show begins now a long
time to coach, here's no point ton A Cat, Tom Leach.

Speaker 4 (01:12):
Hello everybody, and welcome in to our show for this Monday,
Christmas week edition, and we are here to talk Kentucky basketball.
For the rest of this hour. Coach Pope will be
alongside shortly. You can give us a call, or you
can post on the social media network on Facebook or
on x and you can get us your questions about

(01:34):
Kentucky basketball. Wild Cats took one on the chin up
in New York to Ohio State on Saturday, and they
will not return to the court until a week from tomorrow,
so there's a little time off here. Players get a
chance to be with their families for a couple of
days for the Christmas holiday, and then back at it
to prepare for the final non conference game of the season,

(01:55):
which will be a week from tomorrow against Brown, and
then a week from Saturday it starts SEC play and boy,
that is going to be a challenge this season, as
everybody following college basketball knows, and we'll talk about all
that with Coach Pope when we come back. You can
dial us up on the Clark's Pumping Shop phone line
at one eight hundred and six oh six four two

(02:16):
sixty three, or inside Lexington it's two eight o cats.
That's two eight zero two two eight seven. On social media,
it's at UK Sports Network on x or the Kentucky
Basketball Facebook page. It's the UK Healthcare Mark Pope Show
and this is the UK Sports Network.

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You are listening answer to the UK Healthcare Mark Cope
Show on the UK Sports that's work. Mark Cope Show
is brought to you by Coca Cola, Appalachian Regional Healthcare,
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And by UK Healthcare, Tell me who's.

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By every single day, every.

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Speaker 4 (05:40):
Welcome back into the show, and the new college basketball
rankings came out today. Kentucky dropped to number ten in
the Associated Press poll, same in the coaches poll. In
the AP Pole Tennessee, which is playing Middle Tennessee tonight,
is still number one, Auburn is two, Iowa State Duke
Alabama round out the top five. Florida is sixth, and
then it's Kansas, Marquette, Oregon and the Wildcats. So for

(06:03):
SEC teams among the top ten in the country. As
we welcome in, Coach Mark Pope back from New York.
And you've had a couple of days to stew on
the game and do the autopsy and all of that.
So where's your head today? Uh?

Speaker 15 (06:19):
Well, I'm really excited, Like you know, Wes, what a
bad night, I mean, just devastating. It was just a
gut wrenching. In fact, that's part of the reason why I
had to come back and do the show live, because
I couldn't dare to let you play that tape that
we recorded. But so, yeah, it just was the worst, right,

(06:42):
it was the worst, the worst ever to do it
in that venue. You know, we're in this Jersey and
and and for us to you know, to kind of
have that outcome was was devastating. But it's also you
know it there's nothing you can do with it but
help but but dig in and help it make you better,
right and uh, in long conversation with our guys and

(07:03):
our staff and and digging into the numbers and the
nuts and bolts.

Speaker 10 (07:07):
Uh, you know, it's it's.

Speaker 15 (07:09):
Also exciting to grow and get better and and uh
to move forward. And the guys have you know, they've
we still have a ton of faith in our team
and what we can become. And this is gonna actually
help us do it. It's gonna help us. Super painful
part of the process, but you know it's it's uh,
you know, the only choice we have right now is
to use it to make us much better, and it will.

Speaker 10 (07:28):
We're actually good at.

Speaker 4 (07:29):
That when you see where when you watched the tape
or looked at any of the analytics, did you see
anything that was different than what you saw in real time?

Speaker 15 (07:38):
Well, just confirming things, there was there was a lot
that was confirmed.

Speaker 10 (07:42):
You know, we I mean, you just you know, you
kind of.

Speaker 15 (07:46):
Just dump into you know, the very specific numbers of
the weeds like we had you know, uh, we earned
twenty three power plays in the game where we had
you know, two feet opportunities just all of the things
brand under two feet opportunities, and our just decision making
was poor. We were five out of twenty three. Actually
we had five really good decision making power play outcomes

(08:09):
and we had you know, the rest were not, you know,
we kind of we're eighteen were not and it was
just it was just, you know, the the what gets
really interesting is all the reasons why, right, Why was that?
And And so that's that's been what we've been delving
into as a staff and with our guys and trying
to figure that out. And you know, defensively, we gave
up fifteen points on rejects alone, right, and.

Speaker 10 (08:31):
It's just so uncharacteristic for us.

Speaker 4 (08:33):
And and when you say reject, you're trying about rejecting
the ball screen.

Speaker 10 (08:36):
Yeah, just just.

Speaker 15 (08:37):
Going away from where we're leading the ball screen right,
And and we talked about that after the show, after
the game, just you know, we you know, I had
made a huge emphasis about pushing our bigs up to
try and get a little bit more of a you know,
a presence at the point of the screen. And you
know when you let teams reject, it's exactly the you know,
it's the worst thing to do, be pushed up the bigs.

(08:58):
And and so at a seven pace, that's it was.
You know, it was fifteen points. Uh, you know, all
twos and end one and perfect field goal percentage and
so it was just a lot that you know, we
didn't do well, but a lot of a lot of
things that are to help us get better. And this
will help us get better faster, and and so you know,
we can't wait to get get to work.

Speaker 4 (09:19):
And in fairness, Thornton was tremendous.

Speaker 15 (09:22):
No, no, no, and please, when I say all this,
I'm not taking anything away from Ohio State. Yeah, you know,
they they earned the win and and uh and and
you know had some guys step up and make big
place for sure, Like please, don't please, don't mistake anything
I'm saying for that. But we just it's it's you know,
we're always super introspective, uh, you know, regardless the outfens
of game, but this was highly motivating for us to

(09:45):
to really dig in much deeper. I know there's been
a you know, a lot of sleepless nights, which is
exactly what the moment demands.

Speaker 4 (09:54):
Yeah, that's that. Yeah, as you you know as well
as anybody goes with the territory at or place like this.
But yes, it is while it is I'm sure in
your mind there's a definite sense of urgency, but it's
still there's a long way between now and when you
get to the most serious time in March. So there
is time to get what you want, yes, where you want.

Speaker 15 (10:16):
And you know, it's interesting as you look back on seasons,
you know there's always moments where they're just galvanizing moments, right,
and so the championship teams have those moments to foresure
whether they show up in practice or in a game,
or whether they show up because you overcame something you know,
exceptional in a moment or you failed to do it.

(10:38):
There's just a series of galvanizing moments, and what championship
teams do is whatever they have as they go along,
they make it. You know, the story is still being written, right,
and so you know that's what you do through the
course of the season.

Speaker 10 (10:51):
You keep writing and keep writing and keep writing.

Speaker 15 (10:53):
This won't be our last, you know, difficult moment that
we have this season, for sure. The question is where
does it take us? And and and that's the part
of this that we've talked about since the beginning, where
we feel like this group of guys has unbelievable resilience
and staying power. I think I think they're there. Their
their insides are right. I think the inside of them

(11:14):
is a group in the locker room or right. I
think I know the insides of our staff is right,
and and.

Speaker 10 (11:19):
I also know it is with our guys.

Speaker 15 (11:21):
And so this will definitely be one of the moments
this season that will really bring us together and really
fires uh you know, uh, you know, we're gonna learn
so much from this. Even things that this game didn't
upfront teach us, we'll still be able to dig into
and kind of steal some things from And it's gonna
you know, it'll continue to motivate us move forward.

Speaker 4 (11:41):
All right, we need to get to break. We'll continue
this discussion. We'll get to your questions. If you have
a question for Coach Pope, go ahead and dial us
up on the Clark's Pumping Shop phone line or post
it on social media on x at UK Sports Network
or on the Facebook page for Kentucky Men's basketball and
make sure to join Dave Baker and Cameron Mills or
the Jack Burford Chevrolet count down to tip off and

(12:03):
the next game will be on New Year's Eve at
two Eastern time against Browns. So a week from tomorrow
will be the next game for the Wildcats. We'll be
right back on the UK Sports Network.

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Speaker 21 (15:12):
Bb In Game Day, we are back on the UK
Healthcare Mark Pope Show and we're taking your questions.

Speaker 4 (15:31):
And uh, we're just sitting here chatting coming out of
the break, and I know you're going through in your head.
You're asking you about one play and you're replaying three
or four more. That's the way it is when you're
a coach player two. When you lose one, you go back.
And if we've done this, if this had happened, we
had a chance here, et cetera.

Speaker 15 (15:46):
Yep, and and just to you know, digging into the
wys and house and and and how you can do
it better and how it can be more consistent.

Speaker 10 (15:52):
That's that's that's the process. It's the process of the season.

Speaker 15 (15:55):
And so you know, like like I said, this has
just got to be a you know, every moment it's
got to be a catalyst, but this's got to be
a special one for us.

Speaker 4 (16:02):
All right, go ahead to post your questions on social
media or give us a call. We'll start on the
Clark's Pumping Shop phone line. Vinnie and Tennessee. You have
a question for us?

Speaker 10 (16:11):
What is it?

Speaker 22 (16:14):
N Then the hope going on?

Speaker 23 (16:16):
Ya, I'm having a little trouble hearting you guys, but
I just wanted to try to ask a couple of
quick ones like Madison if possible.

Speaker 22 (16:27):
I know he's the king of that.

Speaker 4 (16:28):
Because that's okay, you go for it, Vinnie. We have
plenty of time, all right.

Speaker 22 (16:35):
My first question, Look, I've noticed it, so I know
you guys noticed it.

Speaker 24 (16:39):
But with BG.

Speaker 22 (16:40):
Coach, a lot of times when guys, you know, form
him in the in the low block, or you know,
kind of get a little handsy with him and he
likes to smack the hands away. Are you guys maybe
working with him on that, because I think if if
teams see that bothers him, more teams are going to
want to try to do that to him to kind
of bait him into some stuff. Tacond question. You know,

(17:01):
I'm sure you've heard how everybody has talked about what
a Brendon French yah you are, and how good it
is to have you, and how open and honest and
transparent you are with the way you talk to the
media and answer questions. Now that you're doing that here
at Kentucky on the biggest stage. They say that imitation
is the sincerest form of flattery. So do you expect

(17:21):
of the coaches to maybe be at referees conferences like
you or be more quiet and positive in the way
they coach going forward?

Speaker 15 (17:29):
Thank you, Vinnie, many great questions. First with Brandon Garrison. So,
Brand's really interesting. You know what we've seen in him
that's been so Spectacular's he's just becoming more and more
patient in the post, even you know, even in a
game that certainly didn't feel right, he made a couple
of great plays out of the post where he really

(17:50):
really kind of allowed kind of actions that happen away
from him, had an unbelievable die backdoor passed to Annsley
alman or cutting down the in late in a late
split cut in the first half. And so he's he's
doing that more and more, and what we'd like him
to do, we actually we're actually encouraging him to be

(18:11):
more hips and shoulders than hands, So you know, we
we we talk about big shoulders in the post where
you're this is gonna get very detailed, Vinnie, So forgive me,
but where where your axis is actually not your shoulder.
It's not your shoulder that you're turning on axis, but
your axis is straight down through the middle core of

(18:32):
your body, which allows your shoulder to actually create space
when you turn. It's a little bit of a nuanced thing.
But we're we're trying to get him away from hands
and forums and more into big shoulders, center access turns
where he creates space that way. He's got a ton
in the tank. He he is gonna grow into an

(18:52):
extraordinary player. He's learning a lot with us right now.
What he's done into a protecting the ball through the
course of the season so far. Uh, his assistant turnover
is still really, really solid. He's gaining a sense of there.
But yes, with his physicality, we're we're trying to work
on him and shoulders more than hands.

Speaker 10 (19:12):
And then second question was was about our approach.

Speaker 15 (19:17):
And and and and uh, people mid making some way
we'll see. I mean, I think every coach has to
coach themselves. I think that authenticity is the most important part.
And for me that the path in coaching is is
uh that I get to I get to witness these
young these young men grow like in extraordinary ways under

(19:40):
all the pressure they are and that we you know,
we get to be a connecting point between you know,
our players and our team and this university and every
single person in the state and every single person in BBN.
And so that's that's that's what feeds us and and
and that's how we operate. Every coach kind of you know,
functions of you know, for their own reason, but that's
their And I do think there's some good parts of

(20:03):
that that I hope we all emulate. And there's just
like there's things I'm trying to steal from other coaches.

Speaker 4 (20:08):
Benny appreciate the call. We're gonna get to a break.
If you have a question, dial us up on the
Clark's Pumping Shop phone line or post it on x
at UK Sports Network or on the Facebook page for
Kentucky men's basketball. It's the UK Healthcare Bark Pope Show,
and we remind you to subscribe to the Behind Kentucky
Basketball podcast, presented by UK Federal Credit Union. It's available

(20:29):
for free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart, and the official
UK Athletics app. This is the UK Sports Network Skyline.

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Speaker 4 (22:47):
All right, we are back with Coach Pope, and we're
taking your questions on Kentucky basketball. No game this week
for the Wildcats. Players have a couple of days off
and then you guys will get back to practice and
start working. I guess this week you probably can work
on yourself more than you get into game planning for
the opponent at this point, right.

Speaker 10 (23:04):
Yeah, we're really grateful.

Speaker 15 (23:05):
We got a couple of days where it's just gonna
be us and we'll be way ahead on Brown, which
is actually a terrific team which the tournament last year.
There's gonna be a good challenge coming here. But so
so we're doing that in the background, but really really
important right now, we get a couple days to work
on us. There's, man, there's so much growing that we
need to do, and we're excited to get to it.

Speaker 4 (23:24):
All Right, let's go to a call on Clark's Pumping
Shop phone line. It's Andrew and Louisville. What's your question
for Coach Pope? Hey, Andrew, Andrew, are you there?

Speaker 10 (23:37):
Hey?

Speaker 24 (23:37):
Can you gotta hear me? I?

Speaker 4 (23:39):
There we go, there we go. We have little phone
is year to apologize for that, but we do have you.

Speaker 24 (23:43):
Yes, Oh no, I got a back connection, Andrew.

Speaker 10 (23:47):
We can hear you, fine, brother, all right, Tay, what Billy?

Speaker 4 (23:50):
If you would just kind of reset Andrew, Let's move
on to the next call. Then we'll get come back
to Andrew. Get that worked out. Let's go to Bob
and Jamestown. You're up with the co Hey, Bob, are
you there? All right? Let's like we're having some technical issues.
I tell you what. Let me just go to a
couple of social media questions and then we can maybe

(24:12):
get back to the phones and get that straightened out.
This was one that came in last week. We didn't
get to it before the end of the show. Question
that actually someone emailed to me, Gene, why doesn't Andrew
Carr shoot more threes?

Speaker 10 (24:25):
Yeah? Great question.

Speaker 15 (24:27):
Uh, It's that is something we're working on. So we
would like him to be more aggressive three point line.
Right now, we're kind of leaning into either catch and
shoot or stam Peter mcgetty more than shot fake right now.

Speaker 10 (24:40):
You know, he's a terrific shooter.

Speaker 15 (24:42):
It's it's a part of his game that's going to
continue to grow and expand, and he's incredibly capable.

Speaker 10 (24:49):
So that's a that's a work in progress.

Speaker 15 (24:51):
It's just it's just, you know, is he gets more
comfortable with how we're playing and what we're doing and
how we are and how we approach this game, he'll
continue to be more and more aggress.

Speaker 4 (25:00):
The last two games, I think it was twenty two
attempts Saturday from three to twenty one the week before
against Louisville. Is that more a factor of how teams
are playing you or something your guys aren't doing to
the level you want them to do it.

Speaker 15 (25:12):
Yeah, Louisville was a much different deal than Ohio State.
Louisville was really really doing unbelievable work trying to stay
spaced and take away threes. You know, in all honesty,
Ohio State, you had a great game plan also, but
it was more self inflicted when it was like I said,
we're just if you just take that number alone five

(25:34):
for twenty three on power play opportunities in terms of
us making the right read, kind of making the decision
that we're accustomed to making, and so a lot of
that was a little bit self inflicted, where we just
we had opportunities to earn earn ourselves great catch and
shoot shots and we turned them down for tougher shots.

Speaker 4 (25:52):
Okay, we have our Alumni Hall Fan question of the
week and it comes from Chris. And if you have
your question chose, you can get a twenty five dollars
gift card from Alumni Hall. So Chris's question was chosen
this week. He says, I am intrigued by Coach Pope's
practice of gratitude. What would he recommend to someone who

(26:15):
wants to be more positive and more grateful?

Speaker 10 (26:18):
Well, that's a correct I mean you shouldn't.

Speaker 15 (26:21):
That's a terrible question because I'm talking about it for
the next five hours.

Speaker 10 (26:24):
They're gonna cut us off again. They cut us off
last time.

Speaker 4 (26:27):
I was still talking nasty nasty computer.

Speaker 10 (26:29):
Yeah, I'm such a believer.

Speaker 15 (26:31):
I just think, you know, you've heard me say this
over and over, but you can't be more happy than
you are grateful. I actually think that's really really true.
And I think that, you know, and entitled life leads
to kind of frustration and misery, and a grateful life
leads to joy.

Speaker 10 (26:45):
It just does. And so I think it's actually something
that we practice.

Speaker 15 (26:49):
We actually, you know, people take keep gratitude journals every
every night, you know, before you go to bed, you know,
just write down three things that you're grateful for. You know,
if you get if you're blessed enough to sit around
at a dinner table with your family at night, go
around the table and just have everybody say what they're
grateful for. Do it once a week, do it once
a month.

Speaker 10 (27:09):
You know.

Speaker 15 (27:09):
If if you're a prayerful person, you know, make sure
include uh start start, start your prayers with all the
things that you're grateful for. You know, there's so much
for us to be so insanely grateful for. We just
actually have to look. We just have to see it.
And if we don't consciously see it, we can go
days and days and days missing it.

Speaker 10 (27:29):
And and and it's it's it's where joy comes from.

Speaker 15 (27:32):
And and so I mean, like I said, I could,
I could advocate on this for for the rest of forever,
because I just think it's we all are so blessed
in our lives. And that doesn't mean lives are easy,
that doesn't mean we're not in the middle of the storm.
It just means that if you look, you could find
so many incredible things to be grateful for, from the
simplest things to to the most intensely complicated yea, and a.

Speaker 4 (27:53):
Lot of families are gonna be gathering together here in
the next couple of days, so it's a perfect.

Speaker 15 (27:56):
Take a minute. You know, it's fun. I'm telling you.
I love hearing my guys when we get a gratitude circle.
I love hearing what they're grateful for. I love hearing
what they're thinking about. And it's you know, it might
seem like it's forced, and it might seem a little uncomfortable,
but it's worth it, and it's magic, and it's it's
really important.

Speaker 4 (28:15):
Now, Curtis has a question that kind of takes us
in another direction on that. He said, ask coach Pope
if he ever feels the need to quote rip into
his team when things aren't going well, to light a fire.

Speaker 15 (28:27):
Yes, yes, And you know we try and we try
and save our voice as much as we can. It's
you know, one of the things about burning white hot
is it doesn't have a ton of staying power and
so but it's as necessary and it's important, and so
we try and choose those moments really wisely. But the

(28:50):
most important part of it is what is the intention.
If the intention is for me to to outlet all
of my frustration and anger. Then that's going to be
a miss and a fail every single time. If it's
really intentional to help my guys get out of their
own heads, to get out of their own worries and

(29:12):
bring them back to the present moment, that's when it's
super functional. And and that's hard because I'm emotional. All
of us are emotional in this In this business, everybody
is emotional, right, So so it's a matter of like
being super intentional rather being like emotionally reactive. And it's
incredibly effective to burn white hot, to rip into your guys,
to like, you know, to to put guys on notice

(29:35):
in a moment when it's super intentional and it's received different,
Actually it's super important. It's you know, it's it's kind
of like I like to use this example all the time.
It's kind of like if you have an infant that's
crying that that is super emotional and they're kind of
having an emotional outburst at some point, it's just cycles
and they don't know why. One of the things that

(29:56):
can be helpful sometimes is just take their hand and
put it in a really cold glass of water. And
it's issuing because what it does is it kind of
gets them out of the cycle of being withdrawn in
their own head and their own emotions that it brings
them back present. They actually start to feel something in
the moment and notice something in the moment, and the
psychology behind that is pretty sound in the sense of
like when you choose to burn white hot. There's also

(30:19):
times when there's also times when guys are feeling the pain,
Like you know, when a guy is really struggling, or
a guy is really uncertain, or you know, you don't
want to bail them out in the moment all the time.
Sometimes it's effective to just let them sit in that
space to see what answers they can find first for

(30:39):
themselves before you artificially start giving an answer. So there's
there's times when you know, when all of this is
really important, we just do it different. We don't burn
white hot all the time. It used to be that
you burn white hot all the time, and it was
exposure therapy, and so you just became numb to it,
and so it didn't matter how big the moment, how
much pressure you were, just like, I have no feelings whatsoever.

(31:01):
I'm just gonna go crush it, right. That's the way
I was that's so as raised. But we're doing a
little different now here.

Speaker 4 (31:06):
We're gonna get to a break and we'll come back
and continue with the UK Healthcare of bark Folk show
just a minute. Here are the UK Sports Network.

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Speaker 4 (34:24):
All right, we are back into the UK Healthcare Mark
Pope Show and for complete coverage of the Cats, like
UK Sports Network on Facebook or follow on Instagram at
UK Underscore Sports Network or on x It's at UK
Sports Network and on x's where you can send us questions,
and I will suggest right now that you try that route.

(34:46):
We're having some issues with the phone. We're going to
try to go back to it here in just a
second and see if we can get it to work.
But be sure to use the option of sending in
to X at UK Sports Network and you can get
questions to us that way. Let's go to the Clark's
PAPACHEP phone line and give us a try. Michael in Washington,

(35:06):
you're up, Hey, Michael.

Speaker 29 (35:09):
Hey, you have' a going gentlemen.

Speaker 4 (35:10):
Can you guys doing well? Michael, I just say go
ahead with your question if you can hear us. Awesome.

Speaker 29 (35:17):
Hey, I just wanted to take a moment to say.
It took me thirty years. I'm thirty years old. I
left Kentucky in twenty sixteen when the military brought me here.
My lifelong dream came true when I was able to
watch the Kentucky Wildcats go into overtime and beat Gonzaga
by one point. So I just want you guys to

(35:39):
coach Pope. You're doing exactly what UK needs, what VbN needs.
It truly was one of the greatest moments I was
ever able to experience in my life, and so I'm
so grateful for Kentucky basketball. I'm grateful for the foundation
that you are building it on. And as a thirty
year old man, I'm never scared to cry the side

(36:00):
of a basketball court like I did when the Cats
defeated Gonzaga. So keep doing what you're doing, coach. I
appreciate it. I'm grateful. I'm thankful, uh, and I can't
wait to see you guys again in the future, whenever
my wife allows me to make a big financial investment
like that again. So again, super thankful. Just love the team,

(36:21):
Go Cats, and appreciate you guys.

Speaker 15 (36:23):
Michael, thank you so much. Hey, Hey, what Armed Forces
are you in?

Speaker 4 (36:32):
Go ahead, Michael, what branch are you in in the Army?

Speaker 10 (36:37):
Good for you? Man?

Speaker 15 (36:38):
Hey, can I just say thank you for your service?
I'm telling you, uh, it's we can't be We can't
thank you all enough for all you do to kind
of serve this country and keep everybody safe and just
insanely grateful. I have a brother in law who's in
the in the been serving in the Armed forces, and
I have an inside look at the sacrifices you guys

(36:59):
make super super grateful man.

Speaker 4 (37:01):
Keep it up. Brother, Thank you, Michael, thank you for
the call. You can reach us on the Clark's Pumping
Shop phone line. And that one seemed to go well,
so we'll be able to try a couple more. Here
it's eight hundred and six oh six four two sixty
three inside Lexington two eight zero two two eight seven
this two eight oh cats. This question comes on social
media at UK Sports Network from Darryl. It's a tough one.

(37:22):
How would you rate your holiday gift wrapping skills? Oh?

Speaker 10 (37:25):
Man?

Speaker 15 (37:25):
So you know what, so if we're talking about the
Ohio State game, I'd rank them as an f.

Speaker 10 (37:32):
Man paying me to leave BBN. Was that gift? Uh?
That was not that was not we intended.

Speaker 15 (37:38):
But but uh, I think the girls would probably grate
me as an a gift wrapper. I have insane gift
wrapping skills. They're creative. Sometimes it employs uh several more
rolls of tape than Leanne would use. But but I
get the job done.

Speaker 10 (37:57):
Baby.

Speaker 4 (37:58):
All right, Daryl, there's your question. One more on social media.
This one's from Robbie. Will you be adding any new
offensive plays before SEC competition begins?

Speaker 15 (38:09):
Yes, Yeah, we're constantly under construction. We'll be under construction
all season long. And it's a balance, right, So so
we don't want to chase our own tail in the
sense of just you know, adding so much new stuff
that we never become good at anything, because we're such
a decision making based team, but we always want to

(38:30):
introduce just enough new to kind of keep teams off balance.
And so so we go back and forth in that
we'd like to continue getting better at the basic principles
of what we do at our basic decision making, but
we'll keep extending the repertoire.

Speaker 4 (38:45):
Do you have things along those lines that you have
used before and you may pull in or do you
get leads from other games you watch?

Speaker 10 (38:54):
Yeah?

Speaker 15 (38:54):
Both, So, so you know, we've been sitting on some
stuff that will start to introduce as we go in
the league, kind of knowing from the beginning the season like, hey,
we'll kind of save this.

Speaker 10 (39:02):
Let's go go, go, go, go get there.

Speaker 15 (39:03):
And they're also watching the game too to be like,
oh man, you know this actually is is or or
watching ourselves and be like, ah, this is not functioning.
But if we make this adjustment, it could go well,
we'll do both all the time.

Speaker 4 (39:15):
And a question this is one I wondered about it
because I've seen coaches here and other places do it
different ways. When you're scouting an opponent for a given game,
does that rotate through staff members or is there one
guy who is maybe your best scout and so he
does all the scouting. How does that work?

Speaker 15 (39:30):
Yeah, we we rotate through. We rotate through the staff.
We have a tandem on every scout. Some of that's
kind of lead on the scout and then and then
some of that is lead on the personnel. And you know,
we'll we'll actually continue to kind of modify that processes
as we get to know each other better as the staff.
You know, go back, I'm gonna sure this little nuggets.

Speaker 10 (39:49):
So going back.

Speaker 15 (39:49):
You know, one of my best friends, uh in all
of basketball is Fred Hoiberg. And so so fred and
I swap ideas from time to time, and I actually
installed in action into our offense called Freddie. And now
we have Freddy and Freddie one and friend I had

(40:12):
a little deal going. Actually, uh, it's just been five
or six games ago. First play of the game, the
very first play of the game off the tip was
Freddy straight, Freddy not, Freddie won and Freddy two, and
we had a little deal that if it worked, I
was gonna buy him dinner. We got a wide open layup,

(40:33):
but we missed it. So I'm a hook But but
you know, there's also that part of it too, where
you're just swapping new ideas as the game goes with friends.

Speaker 4 (40:42):
All Right, we're gonna get to a break. Couple of
segments left. Listen to Clark's pumping shot BB and Radio
coming up at the top of the hour. On many
of these stations, Darren Headrick is the host, and he'll
be joined by Christy Thomas Cutty and Dane Bradshaw, analysts
for women's and men's basketball respectively in the SEC and
Brutal League. Schedules for both Kentucky teams coming up in
conference play this season. And we'll get to more of

(41:04):
your questions for Coach Pope when we come right back.
It's the UK Healthcare Mark Pope Show on the UK
Sports Network.

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Speaker 4 (43:05):
Go Cats, Welcome back into the show for this Monday,
and we'll be back here next Monday ahead of the
next Kentucky game, which will be Kentucky and Brown on

(43:29):
New Year's Eve, and pretty much from here on out,
it's going to be every Monday night. The only difference
will be if the Cats are playing a Tuesday road game. Thus,
they'll travel on Monday, so the show will be on
Wednesdays on those weeks. Ask you this after the game
and we'll get right back to calls. Here a second,
you didn't understandably we're inclined to chat about at the end,
but are there any special traditions things do you guys

(43:50):
do for Christmas?

Speaker 10 (43:51):
Yeah, that's the part I was like, we got to
burn that part of the day.

Speaker 4 (43:54):
Just ask you that, and he's out and think about
that right now. Yeah.

Speaker 10 (43:58):
It usually takes me like.

Speaker 15 (44:01):
I'm trying to be better in those moments, but boy,
those are hard for me.

Speaker 4 (44:05):
Man.

Speaker 15 (44:05):
It's just like, oh, you're just heart's ripped out. But yes, so,
uh yeah, we'll.

Speaker 10 (44:12):
We'll all spend Christmas Eve together.

Speaker 15 (44:14):
We have all three of our girls here and our
son in law and and the only one missing is Avery.
She's uh, she's an l Salvador now. But we'll have
the whole family together. It's quiet Christmas Eve. Occasually, when
things work out like they sometimes do, we'll have uh,
some of the guys over if if there wasn't a

(44:35):
way for them to get home, and we do kind
of very very traditional things. Have a nice Christmas Eve. Dinner,
read the Christmas Story from Luke chapter two, and and
uh and and share some uh some some good times,
play some games. Uh and then uh you know, open
one traditional president and and send everybody off the bed.

Speaker 4 (44:59):
All right, well, let's get back to the Clark's Pumping
Shop phone line. Eugene is next up from Irvin. Go ahead, Eugene.

Speaker 5 (45:06):
Yeah, can y'all hear me? They're good?

Speaker 4 (45:08):
We got you go for Eugene.

Speaker 5 (45:11):
First of all, Coach polk Fair, We we're glad you
accepted the job. We're a true supporter. Win or lose,
do or die. Were with you all the way.

Speaker 10 (45:22):
Gene. I know you. I know you really mean win
or win and I love that.

Speaker 4 (45:26):
Man.

Speaker 10 (45:26):
That's the way it is. Baby. Let's win.

Speaker 5 (45:29):
Yeah. Okay, here's a big question amongst Big Blue Nations. Yes,
three time defensive player of the Year, when Marii Williams
compared to what we've seen several several games here lately.
Can you comment on that and which direction is that
moving forward to maybe being more aggressive and just or

(45:51):
is it just sec play?

Speaker 32 (45:53):
You know?

Speaker 24 (45:54):
Yeah?

Speaker 15 (45:54):
So you know Maris actually, you know, you can take
numbers all day long, but his defensive remounting percentage is
off the charts. He's one of the best in the country.
Is full rim protection numbers when you evaluate all the
things together have been really good. And he still has
so much more in the tank to offer, and and

(46:15):
we're learning each other, we're learning how we function together
and learning each other. But certainly he has a lot
more in the tank. I'm telling you, he's a he's
a beautiful human being, and he's a terrific, terrific talent,
and and you know, we're we're learning how we function
in this system and learn how we function with each other.

(46:37):
So I still think there's massive, massive upside, uh for
him playing for us at the university kateegic the way
we're playing. So I'm proud of what he's done so
far and incredibly excited about what he's gonna do moving forward.
And actually that's just really genuine truth, Like I just think, uh,
you know, I just think we're seeing the beginnings of
what he can be.

Speaker 10 (46:57):
Thanks for the question.

Speaker 4 (46:59):
We'll move on to bondb in Jamestown. You're next up
on the Clark's Pumping Shop phone line, Bob, what do
you have?

Speaker 33 (47:05):
Season? Greetings, guys, that was tough breakup. Tough break up
there in New York. How do you look at your
when you go back and reflect on the game tape?
Where was the big breakdown on our defense? Gamehow they
jumped out?

Speaker 10 (47:26):
Oh, go ahead, go ahead, continue.

Speaker 4 (47:28):
Bob's still there. All right, we may it'd be a
few phone Okay, Bob back. What was the last part
of your questions? All right, we're having an issue there
with Bob, but he wanted he was asking about defense
and breakdowns.

Speaker 10 (47:43):
Bob, I'm gonna do my best to answer your question. So,
you know, Uh, it was interesting.

Speaker 15 (47:48):
You know, I thought we started the game well, we
gave up an early three and uh, but but we
were pretty solid ish, uh in the first ten minutes,
and then it started to get away from us. There
were there were a couple real issues that we were
struggling with. We were really struggling with with, you know,
and it was very uncharacteristic us. But we talked about

(48:11):
early in the show, we give fifteen points on rejects
of high ball screens, which is which is exactly the
opposite of what our defense is designed to do. That
was really surprising, and we kind of tried. We we
took a bunch of different paths. But some of that, Listen,
some of that's on me, like some of that's my
responsibility trying to solve some other things and pushed up

(48:33):
our bigs. It gave us less security. And I was
really surprised that we were having the issue we did.
We we were getting beat going under also on ball
screens as the game went on, we threw out some zone,
we blit some some ball screens. But I was really
surprised by that. You're just very much surprised that we
actually did that issue actually arose. And it's probably a

(48:53):
bunch of stuff. It's a little bit personnel, it's a
little bit uh, you know, us getting a little extended,
it's a little bit maybe being distracted by other things,
maybe some foul issues. But that was clearly in ball streams,
was an issue for us throughout the night. And Thornton
was a major issue for us for sure. And so

(49:14):
those are two things that you know, we were trying
to address personnel wise and dedication wise and scheme wise.

Speaker 10 (49:21):
We just can't.

Speaker 15 (49:22):
We just didn't come up with the right answers in
the right amount of time.

Speaker 4 (49:26):
Bob, We thank you for the question. We're going to
get to a break and come back with one good
long segment left, and we'll get to more of your
questions when we return with Coach Pope here on the
UK Sports Network.

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(51:32):
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Speaker 4 (52:48):
All right, one segment left. We'll get to as many
questions as we can. We'll go to the lightning round.
We'll go next to the Clark's Papa Shop phone line
to Paduca and Nathan. What do you have for Mark?

Speaker 24 (52:58):
Popo?

Speaker 4 (53:00):
Good? What go ahead? David?

Speaker 24 (53:01):
Yeah, I'm not sure if young can really hear me?
He gets really choppy coming from you guys to me.

Speaker 4 (53:07):
Can you hear me loud and clear?

Speaker 24 (53:12):
All right? So my question really has to do with
the zoom offense. Like Cala Perry's offense was totally different.
We're having to adapt to a new system a lot
of times, like when like say, Otago will run to
the left corner and then somebody comes like up the
side of him, and Amari comes up with the ball

(53:34):
when he sets and puts that ball over his head.
Are the cutters supposed to be cutting at that point
or should they just be stay in feel because it
seems like sometimes they'll both cut to the rim when
I think one of them is supposed to go up
over Amari trying to break away from his defender and
maybe come off of that into a curl shoot it,

(53:56):
or you know, Amari has the option to dish it
down when Otaga cuts, I'm not really sure. I don't
know if that's just a tactic to reverse the ball
to get it back to the other side and make
the defense collapse from the other side that come in,
And I'm not sure.

Speaker 4 (54:12):
All right, we'll let coach Pope.

Speaker 15 (54:14):
That's a great question. So it's it's very much rebased.
So what we see as teams tend to try and
guard this a bunch of different ways. Some teams will
go under, some teams will uh, we'll try and go
over and blow up and stay with their own. Some
teams will switch shoulders shoulders, some teams will aggie switch right.

Speaker 12 (54:33):
Uh.

Speaker 15 (54:33):
Some teams will just stay with their own and then
zone up with the five and try and tag hard with.

Speaker 10 (54:38):
The lift guy. Right.

Speaker 15 (54:39):
So, so, as a long answer to your question, you
should see us actually making different reads based on how
the defense is guarding us. So sometimes you'll see it.
You know, it sounded like you were maybe making reference
to a double back door where we'll lift the corner
and back door and then pause and then back door
the second defender. You can do that against the aggie switch.

(55:01):
Sometimes that's super effective. A high cut might be super
effective against aggie switch. So it's just a process of
our guys doing their best to read it and see
if they can beat the defense what the defense is
showing them. But in short answer, your question was, yes,
guys should be cutting. That is the most important part.

(55:21):
And so that's a place where as this becomes more
intuitive for our guys you'll see that happening faster and
more efficiently as they see different changing defenses. And there's
a ton of different variations where you can run out
of it and stack it and do all kinds of things.
But yes, we have that on our board every single day.

(55:42):
Is finish hard cuts, Finish hard cuts, Finish hard cuts,
finish hard cuts. It's massively important to the way we play.
Great observation, Nathan, thank you for the question. Let's go
to Russell County, Kentucky and Jake. You're on with coach.

Speaker 4 (55:55):
Jake.

Speaker 2 (55:55):
Are you there.

Speaker 15 (55:58):
All right?

Speaker 4 (55:59):
Jake?

Speaker 32 (56:01):
Anything there?

Speaker 4 (56:02):
We go go ahead, Jake. We didn't catch the first
part of your question. Hey coach, Hey.

Speaker 32 (56:06):
Jake, Yeah, I just I'm concerned about our three points
you more than anything anything. It's in our head or
is it just what's going on there? I think Matt
said this morning we're a hundred and fourteenth of the
night and proficiously so, yeah, Jake, and I've played our
Kentucky boys score forty or fifty at night with two
or three people hanging on them, so I don't know.

Speaker 15 (56:26):
Thank you, Jake, Jake. It's a great question. And really
where I am is I'm just concerned about the volume.
You know, we we we we've been trending down. We're
now we're in the mid to low twenties, and it's
not where we're supposed to be. But most of that
is creating shots for each other and and and that's
a space where you know, you were seeing different game plans.
I was most disappointed with the Ohio State performance offensively

(56:49):
in the sense of like they were giving us opportunities
to earn Uh, we could have earned twenty more threes
in that game and and we didn't. We we for
a number of reasons, we did it. So for me,
the biggest thing is the volume. The volume of three
point field goal attempts is really the marker for us,
and it's a place where we've got to make progress
and we will. Uh you know, you'll see we go

(57:12):
through throughout this season and continue to get better and
better and better. And we do have a couple of
kids from Kentucky that can really shoot it. Also, we're
super excited about those guys and they're gonna have a
huge impact. Also, great question, Jake.

Speaker 4 (57:23):
Thank you, Uh, Merry Christmas to all of our listeners.
Merry Christmas, Mark to you and your staff and you're
all your players and uh we will be back here
next Monday.

Speaker 10 (57:31):
Merry Christmas, BBN.

Speaker 4 (57:33):
Enjoy Kentucky Basketball back in action a week from tomorrow
against Brown. We'll be back next Monday here on this
show on the UK.

Speaker 3 (57:41):
Sports This has been the UK Healthcare Mark Pope Show
on the UK Sports Network. The Mark Hope Show was
brought to you by Coca Cola, Appalachian Regional Healthcare.

Speaker 1 (57:54):
Little Caesars and by UK Healthcare.

Speaker 3 (57:57):
We are here to win, Ben Kentucky Basketball is a
presentation of the UK Sports Network Let's Go Cast powered
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