UK HealthCare Mark Pope Show January 8th 2025

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 (00:01):
There is no old locks.

Speaker 2 (00:06):
Let's apply.

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

Speaker 2 (00:10):
Let's go remounted.

Speaker 4 (00:11):
Block back, oh pertition, this three small.

Speaker 5 (00:20):
Bayball's count the fucking draft?

Speaker 2 (00:28):
What makes us different than everybody else?

Speaker 3 (00:30):
Is you?

Speaker 4 (00:32):
From the UK Sports Network. This is the UK Healthcare
Mark Pope Show. To talk to Coach Pope called the
Clark's Pumping Shop phone line at eight five nine two
eight zero Cats that's eight five to nine two eight
zero two two eight seven, or state wide at one
eight hundred six oh six game that's one eight hundred

(00:54):
and six oh six four two sixty three.

Speaker 6 (00:58):
Cats guys, guys, or.

Speaker 4 (01:00):
You can tweet questions too at UK's Sports Network for Kentucky,
The UK Healthcare Mark Pulpe Show begins now alongside the coach,
here's the voice of the Cats, Tom Leach.

Speaker 7 (01:17):
Well, we all knew that life in the SEC this
season was going to be rugged, especially away from home,
and the Cats came out on the short end last
night at Georgia in their first conference road game.

Speaker 2 (01:29):
Eighty two to sixty nine was the final.

Speaker 7 (01:31):
And we're gonna talk about that and more with Coach
Pope coming up here on the course of the next
hour on the show. You can reach us with your questions.
You can tweet them to k or senden via x
at UK Sports Network. You can post on the Kentucky
Basketball Facebook page for men's basketball, or you can give
us a call on the Clark's Pumping Shop phone line.

(01:52):
It's one eight hundred and six oh six four two
sixty three unless you happen to be inside Lexington and
then it's two eight oh cats two eight zero two
two eighty seven. Coach Pope is here and we're getting
to your questions a little bit later, right, and now
we'll come back and start our chat with the coach
here on the UK Healthcare Mark Pope Show on the
UK Sports Network.

Speaker 4 (02:13):
You are listening to the UK Healthcare Mark Pope Show
on the UK Sports Network.

Speaker 1 (02:20):
The Mark Pope Show is brought to you.

Speaker 4 (02:22):
By Coca Cola, Appalachian Regional Healthcare, Little Caesars and by
UK Healthcare. Tell me who's in that house tonight, UK
fight every single day for every single one. The Mark
Pope Collins Show is brought to you locally in Lexington

(02:43):
by Baptist Health, Chick fil A, Skyline Chili and by Toyota.

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Speaker 7 (05:17):
Welcome back into the UK healthcare of Mark Pope show
as the Wildcats. We'll be back out on the road
on Saturday to take on a very good Mississippi State team.
But you say very good about every team in this
league this year. Is we welcome in, Coach Pope. By
this time, you've done what you call the autopsy and
watch the tape, So anything that any thoughts you came

(05:38):
away with that were different from what you had in
real time.

Speaker 2 (05:42):
I can't remember what I had in real time. We've
been through so many iterations of our review of the game,
but just just so many places for us to grow,
so many places for us to get better, and and
and and some signs of progress also on some things
where we knew what we need to do some work
and but but I think we have a really clear
picture picture of of specifically in that game areas where

(06:06):
we needed to perform at a much higher level with
much more consistency. I think was the biggest part.

Speaker 3 (06:11):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (06:12):
Some of the numbers were really disappointing to us, but
it's uh, you know, it's just this a fun group, man,
and and and they're they're hungry to get better, and
we're certainly giving ourselves some some some data to get
better from.

Speaker 7 (06:26):
How does it work in terms of your your prep
for the next opponent? In other words, it was today
and off day.

Speaker 2 (06:33):
Today was a mandatory off day because we have to
buy NCAA rules and so you know, you have to
have one day off every single week, and and so
this is this is our one day off. And and so, uh,
it was mostly a staff day, which actually works out. Okay,
it's a big time rehab i'm a day for our guys.
So our guys were in the training room from one

(06:53):
thirty to five thirty, you know, going on shifts, doing
rehab stuff and rehab stuff with Randy and and and
you know, we had some guys doing you know, regularly
scheduled appointments. And then and then we'll get together tomorrow
morning and do our autopsy film with the team and
then put that behind us and come back in the
afternoon and do our first prep on Mississippi State.

Speaker 7 (07:15):
This is a Georgia team that had been playing very
well shot it better than they did in their conference opener.
The rebounding, it felt like it It was kind of
odd that you look at the end of the game
and it wasn't a great disparity, but it felt like
it was greater than it was in watching it. It
seemed like they got some of the key rebounds.

Speaker 2 (07:33):
Yeah, we were. We were a little frustrated today because
we had we had final statuets. We had a final
stat sheet it says final on it, and then we
had the book and on the final statuet it said
that that Georgia had fifteen offensive rebounds, they had eleven
offensive rebounds and four team rebounds. And then on the
official book it says that they have eleven offensive rebounds

(07:57):
and two team rebounds, both of them mark five. So,
you know, we don't exactly know what happened on the glass.
When you go back and look at the film, there
are some things you could argue about, but at any
at any rate, not only was it was there an
abundance of offensive rebounds that we gave up, but also
they were timely, especially in a game that degraded to

(08:20):
a game that was going at a snails pace on
their offensive end and kind of taking the energy out
of the game. You give up a series of offensive
rebounds in a row, and it's really really it's really
really difficult, and it's a space where we have to grow.

Speaker 13 (08:34):
You know.

Speaker 2 (08:34):
It's back to back games that we've been giving up
significant double figure rebounds, and it's something we're focused on
every day. And sometimes these aren't a one day fixed.
Sometimes this is a this is a hit it hard
at every single day and then a month from now
we see tremendous progress. And that might be the case
with this, but but it's something that we're spending a
lot of time.

Speaker 7 (08:54):
On and just looking at number of us as they're
looking at some numbers today for Mississippi State profile just
on some of the Ken Pomp things look similar to Georgia.

Speaker 2 (09:03):
Yep, it's you know, you know why because every team
in the league does. Because every team in the league
is a top team. It's a great offensive, rebounding team,
it's a great defensive team. It's a team that's you know,
capable of putting up huge numbers because it's a top
twenty five team. And that's basically what you could say
about every single top twenty five team. Well, let's get
to some questions.

Speaker 7 (09:22):
We're gonna get to a break, come back and we'll
get to some of your calls, some of your tweets,
some of your posts on Facebook. It's all coming up
on the UK Healthcare Mark Pope Show. Make sure you
watch BBN Tonight, presented by UK Healthcare, every weeknight at
seven thirty. It's on WLAX right here in Lexington. Fans
can also watch archive shows at bbntnight dot com. This

(09:44):
is the UK Sports Network.

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Speaker 7 (12:59):
It is the UK healthcare Mark Pope Show count Down
to tip Off Dave Baker and Cameron Mills gets out
coverage started from Starkville on Saturday. Seven pm is when
they will tip off with countdown to tip off and
then the game is elate when a thirty start down
at Humphrey Coliseum for Kentucky and Mississippi State. State went
in and got a road win at Vandy last night.

(13:20):
Those have been hard to come by, so tune in
the Jack Burford Schevley Countdown to tip Off show coming
up on Saturday. If you have questions for us, send
them in to at UK Sports Network on x or Twitter.
You can call us on the Clark's Pumping Shop phone line,
or you can post on the Kentucky Football or Kentucky
Basketball Facebook page a question from Sean to get us

(13:42):
started at UK Sports Network. Amari seems to make himself
smaller by playing with his hands down defensively.

Speaker 2 (13:48):
Have you guys talked about that? Yeah, So there's all
timing when you use your hands. So a lot of
times when you're really you know, you'll see us really
emphaside eagles is the term we use in transition defense.
We're trying to show the width of our defense. So
there will be times will really really spread. But there's

(14:09):
times when you're trying to catch a move when you
really focus on moving your feet to recover that that
really high hands or really wide hands actually make you
less mobile and they actually can impact your balance where
arm bar is going to be much more effective. Also,
you know there's a lot of times in a post
where a lot of people kind of think in a

(14:30):
post you want to get high, high hands guarding the post.
But what that does is it makes you really skinny.
It makes you easy to pivot around. I used to
love when people would go high hands on me in
the post because I knew I was going to get
right around them, just kind of get an in the
chest and be able to spin off. And so hands
are they're wildly important. Length is wildly important. But also

(14:53):
understanding when to use your length and when to focus
on your foot mobility. There's, like everything, there's a little
tension between the two, and using your length at the
right time and focusing on your your your mobility on
the right times are both crucial to the game.

Speaker 7 (15:09):
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Week comes from Eli and if you send in a
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Speaker 2 (15:22):
Twenty five thousand dollars gift card. I think it's just
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Speaker 7 (15:32):
Eli says, how do you feel about the development of
Trendoah and Travis Berry.

Speaker 2 (15:37):
I'm really proud of those guys. Man. It's they're they're
they're working hard every day, They're super focused. I had
left the gym today and and you know, and I
had a bunch of guys walking into the gym today
get work done. And those names are usually on that list,
and and so I'm really proud of those guys. You know,

(16:00):
Travis has been playing really crucial spot minutes for us
right now, and he's made some big plays and it
actually his leverage numbers are are actually pretty impressive. And
in the limited time that he's he's been in the game,
and Trent seems to have a good impact every time
he walks on the floor. And so those guys those
guys are doing well now in their future is great.

(16:22):
I'm not mistaken the last three games when you've called
on him to play more minutes at that backup point
guard role. I don't think he has a turnover yet. Yeah,
he's he's he's been really positive, made a shot actually,
you know against pressure, handled pressure pretty well yesterday. You know,
he is getting more and more comfortable kind of getting
us into kind of limited play call. Action is is

(16:44):
finding a way to be as physical as he can
on defense without without you know, doing it legally and
and and not giving up anything. So you know, those
guys are really important to what we're building here and
what we're going to be.

Speaker 7 (16:57):
I think it was just the second time this season
that you were up side down on assist to turnover
last night. What did you see in terms of those numbers? Yeah,
it was interesting.

Speaker 2 (17:06):
So you know, sometimes assists can be a fickle friend, right,
Sometimes it's a bad storyteller. And so what we really
trust is we trust our assist opportunities. So assists assists
depend on if you make shots right, and so you know,
you could have a guy that's an unbelievable playmaker on

(17:26):
any given night, that's that's that's making place for his teammates,
and no shots go down, and he walks out of
the game as a one assist guy, and and you
might make a false read on how he played. You
also might have a guy that just turned the ball
three times and it happened to be that he turned
into someone of the made unbelievable shots and he gets
credit as a three assist guy when he really didn't

(17:47):
do any playmaking. So we actually grade out assist opportunities,
which is a much more accurate vibe of how you're playing,
and then high value assist opportunities, unfortunately for us in
this game, where at twenty three assist opportunities, which is
which is you know, about seventeen under where we like
to be, which is significantly above our goal, by the way.

(18:09):
But and then our high value cist opportunity, I'm sorry,
our assist opportunities was at twenty nine and our high
value cist opportunities was only twenty three. That's very, very
uncommon for us, and it was a little bit of
a tell about how we were functioning last night, and
there were a lot of reasons led to that, but
it wasn't it wasn't the performance that we're looking for.

Speaker 7 (18:30):
To your point about making the shot, can you obviously
just contributes to where you actually get the assist or not? Yeah, late,
somewhere late, you ran a perfectly executed out of bounds
play to get Kobe a shot in the left corner,
and it looked like it was dead on and it's
rattled and popped out. I mean, it does happen sometimes,
but the play was executed well, and he you know,
he had two or three of those last night.

Speaker 2 (18:51):
Yep, room wasn't super kind to us last night. But
you know that's for us that should be never, never
be a determining factor in the game. You know, we
have so many built ins that that that you know,
when we're when we're as we grow and as we
play better and better and as we're more consistent with
our effort and execution. Uh, those those you know, balls

(19:13):
that rattle in and out or whether they go in,
it has less of an impact, just like the lesson
of impact on the game as we continue to grow
into team that we're going into being. And you know,
we man, I want that to happen faster and it is.
But our guys are making great strides. You know, we've
we've we've grown in some areas that I was really

(19:34):
proud of and now it's just a matter of being
more consistent in them and all those things. You know,
this game is going to come down. It never comes
down to the whistle. It rarely should ever come down
and making our missing shots. It should come down to
the heart of the game, which is the stuff that
we excel out and and uh, you know, we'll continue
to grow there.

Speaker 7 (19:53):
And by the way, on with respect to Kobe Bred
co SEC Player of the Week. This was announced on Monday,
but we're on Wednesday this week with the show, but
Kobe got that honor for his performance in Kentucky's win
over Florida. So congrats to Kobe for that. We're going
to get to a break and come back with more
of your questions on the UK Healthcare Mark Pope Show.

(20:14):
For complete coverage of the Cats, like UK Sports Network
on Facebook, follow us on Instagram. It's at UK Underscore
Sports Network on x forget the Underscore, It's just at
UK Sports Network and this is the UK Sports Network.

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Welcome back in to the UK Healthcare of Mark Pope
Show Watch BBN Game Day presented by Republic Bank and
watch it all season long.

Speaker 2 (22:45):
Show airs Saturday mornings.

Speaker 7 (22:47):
At nine on WLX. Here at Lexington, you can check
Ukathletics dot com Slash UK Sports Network for TV affiliates
and times in your area. Fans outside the state can
watch at ukathletics dot com, Slash Videos.

Speaker 2 (22:59):
Or the Kentucky Wildcats Facebook page. Let's go to the
clerks pump and shot phone line. Boyce, what is your
question for coach Mark Pope?

Speaker 21 (23:08):
I missed, Mark, Uh Pope.

Speaker 3 (23:11):
I mean I'm miss wondering in the in the future,
we're gonna be back going back to the fifteen schlarships
and this roster because I mean the walk ons. We
got about the third what's going on with the third
walk on on the roster?

Speaker 2 (23:32):
Hey, listen, Uh, I appreciate your question. So we're we're
actually in the process of of potentially going through massive
changes in the way the nsable A is structured, in
the way roster limits are structured. So there's a settlement
in the war in the works that you probably heard

(23:54):
when of that would that would open the door and
and give some structure to profit revenue sharing where student
athletes would be compensated based on media rights and ticket
sales of the program, which makes a lot of sense.
And attached to that, if that actually, if that settlement

(24:18):
is actually finalized, there will be roster limits imposed, maximum
roster limits, and so for men's basketball right now, there
would be fifteen. Now that doesn't mean that fifteen players
would be all be scholarship, but it just means that
that would be the max. You actually can't have any
more players than that on your roster at all. So

(24:40):
we'll see, we're gonna know about that more by the
end of this year. April seventh is a big day.
June thirtieth is a big day, and we'll have a
much better sense of how all of this new rule,
all these new rules are gonna work. With that said,
I couldn't be more grateful than I am for our
three walk ons. Walker horn Man, This this guy is

(25:01):
is not just great in the locker room, but he's
been he's been working like crazy on the court. He
helps us a lot. Uh. This Grant Derbyshire has been
unbelievable teammate to our guys. And and Zach toe is
Is is on the court, Uh, just taking a beating
every day, going through every rep, working so hard. And
so these three guys have been great for us. Our

(25:23):
walk ons are really really important the program. They're great
young man.

Speaker 22 (25:27):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (25:27):
They sacrifice a lot for our team and they're helping
us win. And Zach came through the student Yeah, so
Zach was a late ad. You know. We we uh
we actually had open walk on tryouts, cutthroat and it
was pretty fun. And so Zach rolled in and fought
for two early morning practices and then got a and

(25:49):
then got a chance to come spend a few days
with the team and it functioned okay, and he was
he was good in the locker room. And so he
is currently on a one day contract every single day
and he is he is surviving. Like I'm incredibly proud
of him. He's he's here in his January eighth and
that's amazing. And uh, you know, we'll see if he

(26:10):
makes it to January ninth. Zach, I'm kidding you, definitely
will be here in January ninth. He's doing a great
job for us. Let's go back to the Clark's Pumping
Shop phone line. Chris in Louisville, what do you have
for coach Pope?

Speaker 23 (26:23):
Yeah, you know, I watched the game ode of the
weekend and the in the game last night, and it
seems fouls is a very big part of what you know,
the the score right, So you know, if you took
out the fouls from last night's game, you know be

(26:43):
very competitive. So how do you how do you see that?
How do you soctor it in? It seemed like we're
getting a lot of falls against us on the foul side.

Speaker 2 (26:56):
Thank you, Chris. Yeah, hey, Chris, thank you. Thanks for
the question. So I'm actually pausing myself because I want
to make sure that I don't get myself in trouble.
And Leanna's over here shaking her head saying, don't go there,
don't go there. Whatever you do. So and this is
the only part that's going to get me in trouble.
For our part, we want to learn the whistle. Okay,

(27:17):
the whistle is an arbitrary thing. It's not ethical. There's
no ethical part of the whistle. The whistle is what
it is. It's like the rules. So what you want
to do is you want to take the rules that
you want to make them as advantageous for your team
as you can. So based on our whistle in our
first two SEC games. We're doing in depth study right

(27:40):
now on We're not interested in what the rules are.
We're interested in the rules that are being cold and
so we want to push the envelope as far as
we can towards the rules that are being called more
than just following the rules that are written, because the
rules that are written don't actually matter and there's no

(28:01):
emotion in that. That's actually just a very arbitrary thing.
And so we're learning the whistle right now. We gotta
we got a massive education on the whistle. Uh last
was it just last night? Man? It seems like it
was a week ago on the game last night. We've
actually are engaged in some real correspondence with the league

(28:22):
trying to learn about the whistle. The whistle is a
dynamic thing. It's constantly changing. But we would like to
be on the advantageous end of of playing this game
the best we can to have the whistle function for
us the best it can. Now, that's that's that's the
slice that I feel super confident about. The whistle is

(28:44):
not gonna win us or lose us games, but we
can use it to our advantage for for our fans.
I'm fine if you guys, uh do all the work
you can on these beautiful referees. So you guys have
at it very diplomatically put which I would also so
say this. I would also say this. One of the
things I remind myself about all the time is that

(29:05):
referring is a really, really hard job. And the truth
is is that most of the time, I don't know
if anybody spends as much time on film as I do.
Most of the time, a call that may be wildly
upsetting that goes against us. When I'm really honest with myself,
I can find a few calls that are wildly egregiously

(29:27):
probably not what I would have imagined the rules would
have been interpreted as that go for us. And so
I always take a deep breath, Like I said, the
whistle and when we're good, the whistle won't determine wins
or losses will determine wins or losses. And I always
want my players to know that is that at the
end of the day, this game will never be taken
out of our hands. We can find a way to

(29:48):
win this game regardless of how the whistle sounds, and
sometimes that's by using the whistle.

Speaker 7 (29:52):
It is the UK Healthcare, Mark Pope Show, and we'll
be right back here on the UK Sports Network.

Speaker 5 (29:57):
BBN game Day, Nature Weekly Look in Psyche. UK Athletics
Saturdays at nine am on l exaighteen and stations across
the state. Check Ukathletics dot com Slash UK Sports Network
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BBN Game Day.

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Sports Network for stations and times in your area.

Speaker 1 (32:57):
BBN Game Day.

Speaker 7 (33:00):
Wow, we are halfway home on this edition of the
UK Healthcare Mark Pope Show. Subscribe to the Behind Kentucky
Basketball podcast. It's presented by UK Federal Credit Union. Available
for free on Apple Podcasts, iHeartRadio, Spotify, and the official

(33:23):
UK Athletics app.

Speaker 2 (33:25):
It's back in action.

Speaker 7 (33:26):
Saturday at Mississippi State on the SEC network eight thirty
Eastern Time, Tips seven o'clock when we'll get started with
the pregame and you can catch the action on the
UK Radio network. Starting with the pregame at seven. Let's
go to a question off the social media feed at
UK Sports Network. This is from Garrett. How do you

(33:48):
coach your big guys? He says, really the rest of
the team to embrace contact.

Speaker 2 (33:54):
Yeah, so interesting, interesting story. So going back and watching
a film, for example, on Amari Williams last night, he
came to this game one hundred percent ready, like he
was so physically engaged. He was brilliant, he was going
to get a hit. Uh, he he was. He was

(34:14):
as engaged. He was kind of like approached this game, uh,
physically on the glass exactly like we've wanted him to.
It was actually beautiful and the game just didn't treat
him great. Non related he had unrelated to that physicality. Uh,
you know, three fouls pretty ear and then a fourth

(34:35):
foul in limited minutes. And so sometimes just because of
how this game is, you need to know when to
stay the course, to keep going the same direction you're going,
Like somehow I need to help Amari come out with
the same physical presence that he had in this Georgia

(35:00):
game and trust that it was other factors in the
game that didn't really serve him well. So, so those
are the type of conversations you have with your guys
all the time, and and so our guys embracing the physicality, uh,
you know, it's it's it's it's super interesting. You know.

(35:21):
We have some of our guys dealing with some health things. Uh,
some of our guys uh, dealing with some other issues,
some of our guys jumping in. But as a team,
it's really not our bigs. I actually have a little
bit more concern right now about our ones, twos and
threes and they're smashed down on short shots almost than

(35:43):
I do about the physicality of our bigs. To to
solve this physicality and rebounding issue right now, which is
solidly in my mind, it's a short shot smash and
a long shot clean fifteen and it's got to be
all five guys engaged in the process physically every single possession.

(36:03):
And that's where we had some slippage in this Georgia game.
Uh that that was pretty detrimental to us. Was was
was having full engagement on every single possession and kind
of holding ourselves to that standard. And that's that's something
we're going to continue.

Speaker 7 (36:16):
To work elaborate on those terms a little bit. As
far as what you looked for were your ones, twos
and threes.

Speaker 2 (36:21):
Well, you know, we're one of those teams that feast
on long shot long rebounds, and so you know, so
a lot of times when you're you have teams that
are shooting a three and you have five guys running
inside the paint, you get these long ring bounds that
bounce every head. So on long shots, we're talking about
our perimeter guys I checking and then cleaning up at
fifteen feet. But on short shots, on shots they're attacking

(36:41):
the ram post shots, layups, hooks, runners, you know, pull
up jumpers from ten feet. You you you never see
rebounds that go outside of the of the shooting point,
very very rarely, and so that's the point where it
becomes the scrumming side, and we need our guards actually
going to putting my body on some of these bigs

(37:02):
and and so it's it's it's you know, we do
everything together as a team. That's one of the things
that that gives our team the potential to be great,
to grow to a great teams that we do everything
together and and right now, solving this issue on the
glass is something that's really important that we do all together.
That we have all five guys engaged doing our job,

(37:22):
which is different based on what shots are taken every
single time.

Speaker 7 (37:26):
What you're talking about though, about how that ball, the
ball comes off. That's what great rebounders understand. Guys that
you know, know where the know how to play the
ball is how they become great rebounders.

Speaker 2 (37:37):
Yeah, of course, you know there's a legendary you know
stories about Dennis Rodman where he would actually just he
wanted to have guys come out and shoot so he
could just he could just get to know their misses.
And and that's kind of next level stuff. We're still
on this very simple, simple side about Hey, let's let's
let's make sure all five guys are engaged and we
have a team that that's built to do this. We

(37:58):
have guys that that are capable to doing this, and
and and we just want to do it with them
with the incredible consistency. We want it to be an
every time thing. And and you know, after the game,
we talked a little bit about being distracted about the
weight of the game getting to you and and or
or the whistle or missshots, or the fans or something

(38:20):
someone said or anything kind of distracting from your focus.
And and and those are all the things that you
battle with, you know, or I just got beat for example,
or I missed an assignment or whatever happens on the court,
and still being able to be present enough to do
your job in that moment when a shot is taking

(38:43):
that all five guys are doing their job on the
glass every single time, and not being distracted by what
just happened or what might happen, or what happened two
plays ago. But we can be exactly in that moment,
do it exactly what we're supposed to do. That's that's
actually how we define toughness. Toughness is being able to
do exactly what you're supposed to do every single Toughness,
not bit out a patchiata face. Toughness is having the

(39:06):
discipline to do exactly your job with a whole fresh
heeart every single second of every single minute of a
forty minute game. That's that's a lead level toughness and
that's what we're striving to grow.

Speaker 7 (39:18):
If you have a question, you can send it in
via X or Twitter. It's at UK Sports Network. You
can post it on the Kentucky Men's basketball Facebook page.
You also give us a call on the Clark's Pumping
Chop phone line eight hundred and six oh six four
to two sixty three. If you're inside Lexington Direct call
two eight oh cats two eight oh two two eight seven.

(39:39):
You're listening to the UK Healthcare Mark Pope Show on
the UK Sports Network.

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from Tyler at UK Sports Network. Do you think upcoming
opponents will try to play more physically, especially with your
big guys and also any thoughts on Mississippi State this

(42:16):
a couple of days out.

Speaker 2 (42:18):
I think I think every team is gonna play physically
because that's this league. I mean, it's just it's it's awesome, right,
you know, we just faced the you know, two of
the best rebounded teams in the country, and we're going
to face one of the best rebounded teams in the
country and so one of the one of the things
that's nice is that the scout gets really simple because

(42:39):
everybody's the same. Everybody's really good. So I expect that
this these games are just gonna get more and more
physical as we get through. You know, we think this
is physical. I think you know, in a month, we're
gonna feel like, you know, this was this was just
chilling out. I think it's gonna get more and more physical.
That's the way it usually works in league play. So
we expect that to increase every single game. And this

(43:01):
Mississippi State team is really really good. They have an
unbelievably dynamic point guard who just is an elite level
three three level score, is wildly aggressive is a is
A is an incredible talent.

Speaker 3 (43:17):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (43:17):
They have a two guard that's also an aggressive scorer.
They have a starting four that is uh like an
elite level ball handler, penetrator, passer, off the bounce, every
which way. He's probably the best passing four man, the
most mobile. He's very much of a Draymond Green type.

(43:38):
Feel really really special in terms of his offensive contribution.
Is only averaging maybe give or take eight points a game,
but it's just coming off a game against Vanderbilt was
sixteen and is super mobile and super creative and and
is it really really makes plays for his team, a
team that uh you know is again a typic offensive

(44:00):
rebounding team, really really physical, plays really fast in the
half court. They have great pace. So this Mississippi State
team is really good. They'd be some great teams. I mean,
you know, you watch the film and they kind of
ran after They've run a bunch of teams out of
the gym. And so there's gonna be a great challenge
for us. It's is every game in this league, and

(44:21):
our guys can't wait to get to it. I just
can't wait to get to it. Can't wait to get there.
And and I'm you know, so I'm bite my time,
but it'll be fun. Let's go to the Clark's Pumping
Shop phone line. Sean and Richmond. What do you have
for coach Pope?

Speaker 21 (44:37):
Hey? Tom, Hey, coach, how are you.

Speaker 2 (44:39):
Not doing well? Sean? Thank? Sean?

Speaker 21 (44:42):
Uh hey, coach. So a couple of things. One have
you guys talked about? It seems like a mari actually
makes himself a little bit smaller. Now I realize I'm
saying that about the three time Defensive Player of the
Year from the other conference.

Speaker 13 (44:57):
He was in.

Speaker 21 (44:58):
But he plays it seems like he plays d with
his hands down a lot. And I, honestly, it just
seems to me like as a you know, a six
foot four post guy like I was, who wasn't very athletic,
if I had to take advantage of every inch I had,
so I had to keep my hands up the whole
time to try to rebound, and it seems like Amari
plays with his hands down a lot. I was just

(45:18):
wondering your thoughts on that. And then two with Jackson
seems to be struggling a little bit right now, and
I know he's your guy, and I was just wondering,
you know, I know he came off the bench at
b YU last year, and I just wondered what you
thought as far as him coming off the bench versus

(45:40):
starting and if that's getting in his head a little
bit or something, because you can see the kid's got
all the talent in the world.

Speaker 2 (45:47):
Thank you, Sean, Sean great questions. Appreciate you man. So
first of tomorrow, we talked AboutUs a little bit earlier,
but you know, we want Amar to play as big
and physical as he possibly can in terms of in
terms of kind of using your length, using your length,
there are times when you want to use your length
to your benefit, and there's times when you really want

(46:09):
to focus on your mobility. And so Amari is is
is figuring out when each of those really comes into
play in the game. We can go into unbelievable depth
in that conversation. But but I'm really I'm really pleased
with you know, we had a little bit set back
kind of on turnovers, but a couple of offensive fouls.
But I'm really pleased with the progress that Amori's making

(46:31):
and he is he is feeling bigger and bigger and
more physical every game. I'm really proud of that. And
he's going to continue to get better and better. And
Jackson Robinson is proven that he can be elite level
starting games, and he can be elite level coming off
the bench. And so it's justesting with players. You know,
you're you're you know you you you are always trying

(46:55):
to figure out where you can find a comfort space
for all of your guys. Uh And and I'm fortunate
to coach unbelievable roster of of great, great, great young
man and so you know, there's there's when you when
you make changes, whatever they may be, you're always trying

(47:16):
to consider how it's gonna benefit, uh, the individual player,
and how it's gonnaffect the rest of the team around,
and just kind of take all those things into account.
But I do think, uh, this Jackson Robinson that we've
just barely begin to see what he's going to contribute
to Kentucky basketball, and it's I do think this team
has a huge upside. So I'm excited to watch him

(47:37):
continue to grow.

Speaker 7 (47:38):
Thank you, Sean. One more from the Clark's Pumping Shot
phone line before our next break. It's Andrew and Louisville.

Speaker 2 (47:44):
What do you have for the coach?

Speaker 22 (47:48):
Hey, guys, that's how about it? Just uh, yeah, I'm here.

Speaker 2 (47:51):
Can you hear me? Yes? Can you hear me loud
and clear? You sound beautiful? Drew?

Speaker 22 (47:58):
Okay?

Speaker 25 (47:59):
Uh?

Speaker 22 (48:00):
Hey, coach pabb was an honor man. Just curious. I
don't want to hop on the old Jackson Robinson thing,
but I've noticed at the beginning of the year he
shot looks a little different now. Is he trying to
get that thing off a little quicker? It seemed like
in the past as he lowered his legs, the ball
would kind of drop. I didn't want to call him
a set shooter, but it was kind of that. But
it seems like he's catching it and getting it off quicker,

(48:22):
and I think it's kind of affecting his timing a
little bit. But I mean it's it's the next level.
That's what he needs to do. I could be way
off on that, but is that something he's working on
right now?

Speaker 2 (48:31):
Yeah. First of all, I love it. How observe it?
Everybody is. It's pretty awesome. So thank you so much
for Sharon Jackson's Jackson is one of the hardest workers
on You know, Jackson's a little bit like a Tiger Woods.
Tiger Woods is relentless about trying to reinvent his stroke,

(48:52):
right you hear him. I mean, he's the greatest golfer
in the world, and he's trying to actually find a
way to do it better. And Jackson is one of
those guys that is absolutely relentless in terms of, you know,
trying to grow his stroke and trying to and trying
to perfect the craft of being a great shooter. And
so he's always trying to find ways where he can
get a little bit better and a little bit better,

(49:13):
and and so certainly he's trying to explore where he
can go as a shooter. What I'm really proud of
him about is the emphasis that he's placed on all
the other game, right. You know, he's he's he's really
focused on trying to guard. He's trying to bring some
physic guy to rebound. He's trying to be a leader
on the court in terms of his communication, and and

(49:37):
that's where we build the game around. So we we
of course, guys, listen, please don't misunderstand me. There's nobody
that loves a shot going in more than I do.
It makes my job really easy. But but what we
focus on is we focus every day on the things
that are fully controllable the most. And what's fully controllable
is the shots we earn, what we do with them,

(49:59):
how we get to him, and how we respond to
the shots going in and going not or not going
in terms of hitting the offensive glass, being creative after
offensive rebounds, going working on transition defense. And so those
are the places where we spend the vast majority of
our focus. It's kind of like the whistle, like we're

(50:19):
going to control, we're gonna spend all of our energy
focusing on things that we can control one hundred percent
of the time the most, and the things that are
a little less controllable, we'll kind of try and find
work arounds. The one thing we know about Jackson Robinson
and Kobe Bray and La Mott Butler and Otega Away
and go down the roster with all these guys, Brandon Garrison,
who had a really creative three point shot in the

(50:41):
game against Georgia. We got guys that are gonna make
a bunch of shots, and so we believe in that.
One of the things that we do every every day
in practice, just to give a sense, is we do
a Bucks drill and it's a two minute shooting drill,
and our goal is to get one hundred and forty
a score of one hundred and forty, and we get
it every day. This is the best team I've ever

(51:01):
had at getting that score. It's kind of like a
warm up drill, and we we get over one hundred
and forty every single day. I think one time in
all the times we've done this drill, we got under
one forty. But what's interesting is after the first minute
sometimes we're at fifty, and sometimes we're not making any shots,
and sometimes after the first minute we're at one hundred,
and then we don't make many shots, so we end

(51:22):
up in one hundred and fifty. So the trick for
this is that is that you know, if we start,
if we start a drill and we're at fifty, I'm
not gonna blow the whistle after a minute, I'm not
gonna blow the whistle and stop it and steal our
opportunity to score one hundred in the second minute, because
that happens all the time. That's the beauty of this game.

(51:43):
And so that's the case with Jackson, all of our guys.
We do everything we can around making shots to make
sure that we're playing great in all those other areas,
and then we trust that this game is going to
work itself out because we have great shooters. Got to
get to a break. We'll be right back on the
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where's your gas line and where's your wallet? Because you
hit a gas line and it's going to cost you.
Not to mention that it's also very dangerous. Okay, now,
where's your phone? Good call eight one one before you dig.
One call and you'll know where to dig every time.

(53:55):
So call eight one one. No problems, no accident, no fines.

Speaker 2 (53:59):
Oh, it's the law.

Speaker 10 (54:02):
What keeps you going, your love for the game, your
teammates of victory. At arch Orthopedics, our goal is to
keep you paying free so your body can keep going.
There's no time for discomfort in your joints or ligaments
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from nonsurgical and surgical options, so your care is entirely

(54:23):
centered around you. Visit ARH dot org slash ortho to
define an orthopedic provider near you. ARH more for Appalachia.

Speaker 17 (54:31):
You've heard the term buy local. How about play local?
When you play Keno and other games from the Kentucky Lottery,
your dollars are going directly to fund scholarships and grants
for Kentucky students.

Speaker 12 (54:42):
Play Keyno anywhere Kentucky lottery is sold, convenience stores, bars,
on your laptop or on your mobile device. Visit kylottery
dot com to play Keno online, or go to your
favorite Kentucky lottery retailer.

Speaker 17 (54:55):
Please play local, have fun, and help Kentucky students too.
Play responsibly memory, it's just a game.

Speaker 7 (55:14):
We are back with a couple more minutes here with
Coach Pope, so we'll get to a couple of questions
off social media at UK sports network Roun asks the
press looked pretty good, an he plans to use more
of that.

Speaker 2 (55:27):
Yes, I mean I would love to. Right now, we're
trying to. We're trying to. It's a it's a little
bit of a mixed bag for us because we're trying
to manage h health a little bit, uh and we're
trying to manage fatigue a little bit. But the pressure
makes things interesting and fun and dramatic. So, uh what,

(55:49):
We'll keep using it as a as a spot uh deal. Uh,
maybe get a little more aggressive with it in some
moments earlier in the game, but probably won't be uh
every possession thing for a while for us.

Speaker 7 (56:02):
Georgia used their press and at first half to slow
you guys down. Yeah, what can your guys do, if anything,
to attack that differently or better to speed it up?

Speaker 2 (56:12):
Well, it's it's it's you know, what we'd like to
do is we'd like to take advantage of so and
we did, you know, Andrew carr uh and Brandon Garrison
actually uh, you know we kind of broke down the
press early really well, ended up with the with the
with the Andrew car dunk, who's like a pass had
to beg and then you know, behind the pack bats
over you and so uh in those moments we can

(56:35):
sack the press. Our guys are super comps doing that.
What I'd like to get better at is transitioning from
the press, uh when it kind of breaks down to
getting across half court and then getting all of our
pace alive in the half court. And that's uh, that's
an energy feel that our guys are still learning and

(56:55):
trying to emphasize more. But it's this idea of like, hey,
we're okay, we'll walk it up, We'll figured out, we'll
get through this stuff. Handle the now, get it in,
turn it to our point card, let's go and then
once we get a half across half court, we're going
to explode with with the newfound pace and that's a
skill that our guys have a sense of. But we
can get better and better.

Speaker 7 (57:14):
I'm working one more question from Daniel, but I've only
got about thirty seconds, but I think you can answer
this one quickly. Have you ever gotten a technical foul?

Speaker 2 (57:21):
Yes? More than one? Uh yep. I got to last
year at one at Kansas and a win. I got
one at Baylor involving some water and a loss.

Speaker 7 (57:33):
Well, that sounds like an interesting story, but we only
have ten seconds left, so we'll get to that another time.

Speaker 2 (57:37):
Thank you and good luck.

Speaker 7 (57:38):
Thanks brother Kentucky and Mississippi State on Saturday coverage. We'll
start at seven Easter time. We count down a tip off.
Here are the UK Sports Network.

Speaker 4 (57:47):
This said has been the UK Healthcare Mark Pomp Show
on the UK Sports Network, The Mark Top Show. What's
brought to you by Coca Cola, Appalachian Regional Healthcare, Little
Season and by UK Healthcare.

Speaker 1 (58:02):
We are here to win Banners.

Speaker 4 (58:05):
Kentucky Basketball is a presentation of the UK Sports Network
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