UK HealthCare Mark Pope Show January 13th 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 of the four.

Speaker 2 (00:06):
Let's apply, Yes, come on, stay, let's go, Let's go remounted.

Speaker 3 (00:11):
Click back up, Oh, proficio, this three ball, pare ball
right count.

Speaker 4 (00:25):
The fucking draft?

Speaker 5 (00:27):
What makes us different than everybody else?

Speaker 6 (00:30):
Is U 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 nine two
eight zero two two eight seven, or state wide at
one eight hundred six oh six game that's one eight

(00:53):
hundred and six oh six four two sixty three.

Speaker 4 (00:58):
Cats. Guys, guy, You.

Speaker 6 (01:00):
Can tweet questions too at UK Sports Network. For Kentucky,
the UK Healthcare Mark Pope Show begins now. Alongside the coach,
here's the voice of the Cats, Tom Leach.

Speaker 2 (01:16):
Good evening, everybody, and welcome in all around the Commonwealth
and everywhere else around the world from which you might
be listening to our show tonight. It is the UK
Healthcare Mark Pope Show and we're going to talk Kentucky
basketball for the next hour. Big win on Saturday night
in Starkville, Kentucky's fourth top fifteen win of the season.

(01:38):
Wildcats number eight in the polls this week, so just
a slight drop after the loss to Georgia on Tuesday
and then gaining the split with the victory at Starkville
on Saturday. We'll talk about all of that with Coach
Pope and then we'll got to a lot of your questions.
You can go ahead and jump on board with your questions.
You can send them to at UK Sports Network. You
can on x or Twitter, you can post on the

(01:59):
Kentucky Basket All Facebook page or give us a shout
on the Clark's Pumping Shop phone line. We'll be right
back here on the UK Sports Network.

Speaker 6 (02:09):
You are listening to the UK Healthcare Mark Pope Show
on the UK Sports Network. The Mark Pope Show is
brought to you by Coca Cola, Appalachian Regional Healthcare, Little
Caesars and by UK Healthcare. Tell me Who's in that
house tonight, UK.

Speaker 7 (02:31):
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Speaker 6 (02:36):
The Mark Pope Collins Show is brought to you locally
in Lexington by Baptist Health, Chick fil A, Skyline Chili
and by Toyota.

Speaker 1 (02:46):
Hey Beautiful of Firey God.

Speaker 6 (02:53):
Catch the wild Cats in Lexington all season long. On
your home for Kentucky Basketball the UK Sports Network.

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(04:25):
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Speaker 4 (04:31):
Go Cats.

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Speaker 2 (05:14):
Welcome back into our show for this Monday. Two games
this week for the Wildcats, both of them at Rapperina
and both against top fifteen opponents Texas A and M
Coming up Tomorrow night, seven Eastern time. We'll get it
started with the Countdown to tip Off show with Dave
Baker Cameron Mills at five thirty Eastern Time, and then
on Saturday, Alabama comes in and that'll be a noon

(05:37):
Eastern time tip Watch BBN Game Day presented by Republic Bank,
and watch all season long. The show airs on Saturday
mornings at nine on the official UK station here at
Lexington wl e X. Check Ukathletics dot com Slash UK
Sports Network for TV affiliates and times in your area.
If you're outside the state, you can watch at Ukathletics

(05:59):
dot com, Slash Videos or on the Facebook page for
Kentucky Basketball. Jackson Robinson was one of the led the
Parade of Stars. Maybe He's the best way to put
it on Saturday night down in Starkville, twenty seven points
one off his career high seven threes as the Wildcats
got the win in Starkville, and I think that's now

(06:21):
ten in a row, but the last five have all
been decided by five points or fewer. Ansley Almanor had
one of his best games, three threes on the way
to eleven points, and he had the shot that gave
Kentucky the lead for good after Mississippi State had rallied
to go in front eighty to seventy eight. Coach Pope
will join us when we come right back. This is

(06:43):
the UK sports sad work.

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Speaker 16 (07:16):
Athlet UK Athletics would like to thank our official cornerstone partners,
Central Bank, the official bank of UK Athletics, Kentucky Farm
Bual Insurance, Big On Commitment and UK Healthcare, official healthcare
partner of Big Blue Nations JO Kentucky.

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Speaker 16 (07:38):
Once again, Thank you to our official cornerstone partners who
play a vital role in the success of the University
of Kentucky Athletics program.

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Speaker 4 (09:57):
Coming up.

Speaker 2 (09:57):
After the Bark Pub Show stick around for Bluegrass Hearing
Clinic Kenny Brooks Show from seven to seven thirty. The
Kentucky Women are off to a four and oh start
in league play, up to number twelve in the country.
That only followed by Clark's Pumping Shop BBN Radio with
Darren Hendrick. That all is coming up between seven and
eight Eastern time here on these UK Sports Network stations

(10:19):
as coach Mark Pope moves in alongside the talk Kentucky Hoops.

Speaker 4 (10:22):
Boy, that was fun Saturday night? That it was.

Speaker 15 (10:24):
It was, man, what a great environment, and how great
is this league? And and uh man, how fun to
see our guys kind of raise up and and make
big plays and compete and and uh you know, we
just it's it's gonna be every night, right, It's gonna
be just a battle every single night.

Speaker 4 (10:40):
Sure is fun. It just doesn't get any better.

Speaker 2 (10:42):
You know, nobody's gonna play their best every night. I
said to Goose at one point late in the game,
I said, I really hope they can pull this out
because they're playing really well, and you hate to lose
one on a night when you're playing really well, and
your guys did I thought, Yeah, I mean we we
I mean, listen, we still we have so much crolling
to do that we get so much better.

Speaker 15 (10:59):
But you know, it was one of those nights where
we made a lot of shots and and that makes
really fun and and we earned a lot of shots.
That was the best part. It was probably our best
cutting night. Our guys were unbelievably committed to it. Uh,
it was probably our best night getting to a second
side and get to a third side. Our guys were
really willing and super forceful about making place for each other.

(11:23):
And so in those senses, you know that that slice
of the offensive game was great for us.

Speaker 2 (11:28):
You talked in our perview about one thing in particular
that the Mississippi State does well is trying to keep
the ball on one side of the floor once you
maybe make your first pass, and that it would take
a lot of hard work to get the ball reversed.

Speaker 4 (11:40):
But it could pay off if you did. And that's
what your guys were able to do.

Speaker 15 (11:44):
Yeah, and they did it with pace and and they
did it with physicality, and and they did it with
you know, by by being folcus on making place for teammates.
You know, we did it edit so We talk about
protecting the ball all the time. It's one of our
major emphasis. In fact, I think we're you know, we've
been number one in the country and protecting the ball.
I think maybe now we're number two or number one
the best ball protection team in the country. And the

(12:07):
way we do it is we talk about the things
that we're trying to do. We don't talk about not
turning it over. We talk about what we're trying to
do to keep the ball safe, and we talk about
two feet and two hands, and we talk about we
have three wins. We want to win catches, we want
to win gaps, and we want to win fifty to
fifty balls. And so when you play a team, it
was super fun to put together the edit afterwards because

(12:29):
you're always trying to grab the stuff that you do
well so the guys can see it and internalize it
and kind of and really solidify those neuron pathways right
of how they think about the game. And so this
game we had, I think we ended up having thirteen
clips that were just elite level ball strong. They were

(12:51):
either win catch or win gap, or win fifty to
fifty balls. A lot of times it's on offense a
ball gets slapped away and you have to go win it.
And it was such uh, you know, our guys played
with so much force and physicality in terms of protecting
the ball, and that's going to be required even more
tomorrow night. But it's it's fun to be able to
grab those clips and our guys to be able to
see and feel it.

Speaker 2 (13:11):
Jackson Robinson was such a neat story Saturday night to
play as well as he did shoot the ball so well,
and Goose and I had talked about this. I think
in the previous game he looked like he kind of
had a little bit of the weight of the.

Speaker 4 (13:24):
World on his shoulders.

Speaker 2 (13:26):
But if you look at his numbers other than his
three point shooting, I think everything was tracking at an
all time best for his college career. So he was
doing a lot of things. Well, how did he get
to that point where on Saturday at shoot around he
looked like.

Speaker 4 (13:38):
He just was oozing confidence? Yeah?

Speaker 15 (13:41):
Well, one, he had been playing, he'd been playing really
well on the defensive end, he'd been playing well on
the glass, he'd been playing well as a leader in
our locker room and in huddles, and and it's just
a lesson that sports teaches you over and over and
over again that you know and life teaches over and
over and over again.

Speaker 4 (14:00):
It's one of the great things that sports can teach
us to apply to life.

Speaker 15 (14:03):
But you know, when we get too worried about what's
happened before, or what could happen in the future, or
where things could lead, by definition, we are taking some
percentage of our brain power and our focus off of
what's happening right now. And one of the great things
that we learn in sports that's so applicable to life

(14:26):
is to be where our feet are, to be present,
to lift where you stand, not thinking about the project
that's coming up, with the project that was before, but
the projects that's right now. Not thinking about the conversation
that you're gonna have with someone in the future or
some one you had before, but just my conversation I'm
having with Tom Leachs right now, right and when we

(14:48):
can be dialed into right now, we're super effective. And
Jack's what's carrying the way to the world. Using when
we carry the way to the world, usually when we suffer,
we're suffering about something that happened before or something that
may or may not happened in the future. We're wasting
our mental capacity and our emotional capacity, because the only
thing our mental capacity and emotional capacity can actually have

(15:09):
a impact on is what's happening right now. And Jackson's uh,
he did an unbelievable job man the last four or
five days about putting all the other stuff away and
just like, hey, I'm gonna be really present and I'm
just gonna focus on what I can do right now,
and I'm not gonna worry and and uh or fret
about what happened and and uh, he he was brilliant

(15:30):
in the game. And you see, you felt it. You
felt like he was fully engaged at the moment the
entire game. And and that's the type of performance he's
capable of.

Speaker 2 (15:36):
Yeah, good for him. I mean, that's easier said than done,
probably to make that kind of a transformation.

Speaker 4 (15:42):
It's really hard, right and the guys that yeah, well
ye uh.

Speaker 2 (15:48):
Another guy I want to talk about is uh Annesley.

Speaker 4 (15:50):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (15:51):
He hadn't made a lot of shots in the last
several games, but he steps out there and I think
it was two games ago he had the best plus minus.

Speaker 4 (16:01):
Against Florida. He was amazing. So again, a guy.

Speaker 2 (16:04):
Who's doing something positive even if he wasn't making shots,
but he goes in and he hits his first one.
And you talked after the game about something you can
kind of for folks that didn't hear it on our
post game, I thought it was just a cool comment
about how this is a moment, no matter how life
turns out business wise or you know, all those kinds
of things personal wise, this is a moment to you

(16:26):
where you get to savor doing something special a place
like the University of Kentucky.

Speaker 15 (16:30):
Yeah, first of all, how fun was Ansley in the
last ten minutes that game?

Speaker 6 (16:35):
Guys?

Speaker 15 (16:35):
He was just unbelievable, wasn't he? Ansley is he's a
unique soul on our team. He's he's a finance major.
He's he's he's a high high IQ player. He's tough,
and he knows exactly who he is and got a
lot of confidence in what he can do, and and

(16:55):
for him to step up and make those plays, clearly
we don't win without him doing that. And he's he's
just such a terrific fit for us and such a
terrific piece and such a terrific person. But you take
a moment like that, it was it was really special.
You know, a year ago, Annsley Almanor would have never

(17:17):
in his wildest dreams imagining that he was hitting three
after three down the stretch in a top twenty five verse,
top twenty five road game, wearing a Kentucky jersey, and
then afterwards he's going to be able to celebrate by
holding up a newspaper from their student section that says
beat Kentucky in celebration. And you can't buy it. You

(17:41):
just can't buy that. You can't buy it, you can't
ran it, you can't borrow it.

Speaker 18 (17:46):
You have to earn it.

Speaker 15 (17:47):
And you know, you think about you think about a
moment like that, and you think about not just the
hours and hours and days and days and years and
years of him working and sacrificing and suffering in the gym,
but you also think about the courage and the commitment
and the self belief that it took for him to
actually make this jump to the University Kentucky with a
brand new program, brand new staff, knowing that he was

(18:09):
going to come in and play behind Andrew Carr and
and for him to have moments like that, it's.

Speaker 4 (18:16):
Just it's beautiful. It just doesn't get any better our sport.

Speaker 2 (18:18):
Let's go to our Alumni Hall fan question of the
week before we hit the next break. This one comes
from Kenny, who'll get a twenty five dollars gift card
from Alumni Hall. What is your game day routine or
game day superstition? Well, I used to have so many
superstitions and the squad, you know, my guys. I have

(18:39):
four guys that still to this day that drive me
crazy because even from across the country, they call me
and they're like, ah, man, you really mess this up.

Speaker 4 (18:46):
You got to fix this.

Speaker 15 (18:48):
But they they have, they have weaned me off of
my superstitions, even to the point of we had a
we had a little fashion show today of some prospective
uniforms that we might break out this season, and they
they the uh, you know, Mark Evans brought him in
with a ton of sensitivity about like I don't want
to jinx anything. I'm like, I don't believe in that.
I don't you know, I'm not into any of that.

(19:11):
So I don't really have any game day superstitions. I
do have some old habits that I have to remind
myself as like, you know, it actually has no impact
on whether we win or lose today. Uh, the the
you know, my my my game day is pretty normal.
You know, It'll be Uh, I'll do a ton of
I'll do a ton of last minute film review just

(19:33):
to get my mind fresh. And then I'll step away,
uh you know around for a seven o'clock game. Uh,
usually around you and I'll kind of step away from
anything and just do something different. Mean I'll be in
the office, but I'll I'll I'll get away from basketball
and then uh go do go through shoot around and
pregame and and then come back and and kind of

(19:54):
uh do all the work on the board. And then
I I've since since I was a little since I
was a player in high school, I've always done a
little pregame nap. So I'll take half an hour pregame
nap and and then uh, you know, go back and
finish the.

Speaker 4 (20:09):
Board and go through the presentation of the team.

Speaker 15 (20:10):
And and you know, I'm a I'm a super faithful person,
and I spend a lot of time in prayer before
the games and and just that I can just that
I can be focused and that I can be really
present and and uh then we go to work and
then after the games, uh, you know, hopefully we win,
we get to go celebrate with BBN and that's a
great day.

Speaker 2 (20:28):
Put it in the books, Kentucky, Texas, A and M's
presented by First Watch and Skyline Chili and we'll be
right back to get to your questions for Mark Pope.

Speaker 4 (20:36):
Here are the UK Sports Network.

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Speaker 2 (22:47):
For complete coverage of the Cats, like UK Sports Network
on Facebook, you can follow on Instagram at UK Underscore
Sports Network and on x it's at UK Sports Network.

Speaker 4 (23:00):
Get to your.

Speaker 2 (23:00):
Questions on the Clark's Pumping Shop phone line. That is
where we will start, and our first caller is Omar
from right here in Lexington.

Speaker 4 (23:07):
Go ahead, Omar, Hey coach.

Speaker 18 (23:11):
How you doing, Omar?

Speaker 4 (23:13):
I'm doing great, brother, Thanks for calling in man.

Speaker 7 (23:17):
Hey man, I really appreciate the call and me be
number one. So I've been waiting to do this for
a really long time. I want to first off, apologize
for some of the actions that I put out when
they hired you to be the new leader of this program.

Speaker 4 (23:31):
I I it was you. I've been trying to fight one.

Speaker 3 (23:39):
I swear man.

Speaker 7 (23:41):
I'm a man that tries to teach my students and
my players that if you do wrong, to make it right.
So I'm making sure I make it right. And what
a way to do it over the radio. But you
are the right man for the job. I always tell
my players to be great, and you are the literal
example what being great is. You've changed everything about basketball.

(24:01):
I I honestly can't believe that I'm able to talk
to you and actually apologize to you. I jokingly tell
one of my friends, Sewn Smith, I'm sure you know
he put me in my place when I was getting
out of hand when they when they brought you in.
So you know, I'm just I'm excited to see what
you've done with our program. And I can finally say
to all of my friends and everybody that knows me,

(24:21):
I got talked to the boss, told him he's.

Speaker 18 (24:23):
The boss and he keeps doing great things.

Speaker 15 (24:25):
Man.

Speaker 4 (24:26):
Oh well, a couple of things for you, my friend. First,
thank you for calling.

Speaker 15 (24:30):
Second, you know I'm a I'm a member of BBN
two and I was probably just as upset about you
about the hire.

Speaker 4 (24:35):
I'm like, how could they hire him? And so I
get it, man, but I am super guy.

Speaker 7 (24:43):
Yeah, you're the guy. Man, I'm telling you what you've done.
My wife is understanding what Kentucky Basket was about. Man,
When what you did with Duke in that game, they've
given that back to the way you did it. Man,
that just solidify when you packed all of a mareena
to come and rally behind this this program. Man, you
you're the guy, and I'm just I'm grateful hopefully I

(25:04):
get to meet you in person and you understand all
this passion. I'm a very passionate guy born and raised
here in Lexington, and I'm just I'm happy.

Speaker 15 (25:12):
Man.

Speaker 7 (25:12):
I know so many people are gonna be happy when
I tell you you're the right man for the job.
And we're excited for number nine.

Speaker 15 (25:18):
Man, oh me, Hey listen, that's super kind and and uh,
we're all in this together, brother, Yeah, that's why this
that's what makes Kentucky basketball different than everybody else is
is we're just all doing this together. So thank you
for thank you for being a part of it. Let's go,
Let's keep going.

Speaker 4 (25:31):
Appreciate it.

Speaker 2 (25:32):
Omar one more call here from Louisville this time, Ryan,
what do you have for coach Pope?

Speaker 21 (25:39):
I got a couple of things to saying, and I
got a couple of questions. First of all, one thing
I like about you mowing anything is you're positive. You
don't run down the other coaches, you don't run down
your players. You're a positive guy. You're a Christian guy,
and I was the same way. I didn't know how

(26:00):
good the coach you are, and you're a great coach,
but I didn't know that. I think, oh it goes
for a lot of Kentucky fan But my questions are,
you know, we're gonna get a lot of slow down
games playing in the SEC. What can we do to,
you know, against these slow down teams that want to

(26:22):
make us play slow, you know, and their physical and
they are summer players not blocking out. Is there any
way we could bring a like Perry and some of
them young guys. I've loved the press a couple of
minutes going there in a slowdown game with that help
for I'm just I'm just taking aways and one two two,

(26:42):
one's breast and you know, coach trip started at one
three one. I loved that when you played that out
seventy one. I go all the way back to Coach Trump,
I go to Roughs Runts, I go to Cotton Ash.
But thanks for taking my call, sir, Thank.

Speaker 4 (26:57):
You, thank you. R Hey right right, thanks for calling.
And you're exactly right.

Speaker 15 (27:02):
There are teams that play a much slower pace than
us and that can be problematic for us at times.
It could be a problem just because it's it's such
a different way to approach the game than us. So
there are some things we can do. I love how
you backdoor getting Travis Perry and Trent Noah, the Kentucky
kids some more time by getting.

Speaker 4 (27:20):
The press going.

Speaker 15 (27:21):
I love it, Hey, Ryan, I love the fact that
you're thinking that way and we actually spend the time
on that today in practice. Actually, there's a couple of
things that are really important for us. One is the
way we practice is because we're practicing against ourselves. It's
a frantic pace all the time. It's where our guys.

(27:41):
The reason our guys are really good at it is
because they're incredibly comfortable playing that way. And sometimes when
the game slows down, it almost takes away our energy.

Speaker 4 (27:51):
Inexplicably, you would think that you'd.

Speaker 15 (27:53):
Be less fatigued and more energetic, but that happens sometimes
with teams that play, you know, at a really high pace.
If you really really slow the game, kind of energy
seeps from the game. It's something that we're actually very
intentional about working on right now. In practices. I think
we'll we'll continue to get better at that I think
our guys are. You know, we're taking different shots skill

(28:14):
wise and education wise and focus wise on our work
on the glass. That's going to be a progress, work
in progress all year long. Partly just because every single
night we're playing against the top thirty rebounding team. Tomorrow
night we're playing against the number one offensive rebounding team
in the entire country, and a couple of days later,

(28:35):
you know, and what's interesting is, you know, they just
played Alabama and they had twenty three offensive rebounds against
Alabama I think, and Alabama had.

Speaker 4 (28:45):
Twenty four offensive rebounds against them.

Speaker 15 (28:47):
So it's every single night in this league you're playing
a teams that are top twenty five everything.

Speaker 4 (28:52):
But so we're trying to grow in the glass.

Speaker 15 (28:53):
That's something to help with with our pace, and even
though we might get stuck sometimes in a little bit
of a defensive grinder in terms of another team's offensive pace,
we can still force the issue on a stop or
a make. That's something we're trying to be intentional about.
And then we will try and use some more changing
defenses for sure, just to try and keep a little

(29:17):
bit of energy in the game. But great observation and
we're working on the same things and it's something we'd
like to get better and better at Ryan.

Speaker 2 (29:23):
Thank you for the call. Watch BBN Tonight, presented by
UK Healthcare, every weeknight at seven thirty Eastern. It's on
WLAX here at Lexington. Fans can also watch archived shows
at bbntonight dot Com.

Speaker 4 (29:34):
It's the UK Healthcare Mark Pope Show.

Speaker 2 (29:36):
We'll be right back on the UK Sports Network.

Speaker 10 (29:39):
BBN game Day.

Speaker 22 (29:40):
It's your weekly look inside UK Athletics Senturdays at nine
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Check uk Athletics dot com Slash UK Sports Network for
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Speaker 10 (32:40):
BBN Game Day.

Speaker 2 (32:53):
Make sure you subscribe to the Behind Kentucky Basketball podcast.
It is presented by UK Federal Credit Union. You can
get it for free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeartRadio, and
the official UK Athletics app. We're into the second half
of our show for this Monday Texas A and M.
The opponent Tomorrow night's seven Eastern pregame will start at

(33:14):
five point thirty with countdown to tip off on these
UK Sports networkstations. Let us go back to a call
on the Clark's Pumping Shop phone line from Jared in London. Jared,
what do you have?

Speaker 3 (33:26):
Hi?

Speaker 23 (33:27):
Hope you guys are having a great new year so far,
Coach Folk. I didn't really much have a question for you,
more of just wanting to say thank you, like some
others has said, for putting some life back into this
program that's not had in a while, and as difficult
as the schedule is going forward, I think at this
point you have, at least in my case, you far
exceeded expectations. I'm not saying let off the gas or anything,

(33:49):
but you guys have done great so far. I think
if if the other night was the last one you
have for the rest of the season. I still think
I'd be satisfied with what you've done given the circumstances.
It's been fantastic. Uh So, kudos to.

Speaker 5 (34:02):
You and the guys.

Speaker 23 (34:03):
And and hey, you know, shout out. I'm from London,
love Itt born and raised in Kentucky. Shout out to
Travis Perry and Trent Noah and you know you those
guys they should know. I mean it's great and rough. Yeah,
people cheer, but even around here, you know, sports bars,
just places people are watching. Just them getting on the
court makes people stand up and clap and cheer. It's
like we we are behind you guys one hundred percent

(34:24):
of the way.

Speaker 13 (34:25):
You know.

Speaker 23 (34:25):
We love seeing our own up there. And all the
guys are fantastic. And yeah, thank you for all you do.

Speaker 15 (34:30):
Jared, and thank you so much. Uh I really appreciate
the call. And and I I believe you one that
you would be satisfied with the season if we don't
win a game again until we don't win a game again,
and then we're not gonna be satisfied, because that's what
makes bbon special, man, It's what makes it great. And
and that's why we're here and and and you know what,

(34:52):
we have these uh, these these two guys representing the
state of Kentucky, and they're incredibly special. I mean, I
I'm telling you, Uh, I was right along with everybody
in the state that lost my mind when when TP
grabbed that offensive rebound, ran all the way across the
court to grab that offensive rebound and just did two
reverse dribbles and banged a three. That was such a

(35:13):
beautiful moment for us and really solidified uh, kind of
our our feel in the first ten minutes of that game.
And and Travis has been playing a bigger and bigger
role and he's he's moving into it really well. And
and this Trent no is, Uh, my goodness, he's going
to be a special, special player. And so we're blessed
to have those guys representing us.

Speaker 2 (35:34):
Jared, thank you to our social media feed at UK
Sports Network. Brooks asks any update on Kerr's return. How's
he doing and how are those pregame speeches going?

Speaker 15 (35:45):
Yeah, Kurr is Kerr is out of the boot for
at least little segments of the day, which he's excited about.
It's not full time and and so he'll he'll go
to begin uh some rehab here in the next couple
of weeks, and then it's just a matter of just

(36:06):
seeing how how fast and cleanly he can progress. So
we still don't really have a time frame, but we're
making progress on that. And then remind me of the
second part of pregame speeches, Oh, pregame series.

Speaker 4 (36:20):
How's you done? Pregame speeches?

Speaker 15 (36:21):
So uh Kerr has been incredibly vocal on our team,
which we love so much. He's he's he's taken on
a great role for us, and he's one of the
things he's doing is he's organizing and as signing out
pregame speeches.

Speaker 4 (36:36):
He he uh.

Speaker 15 (36:38):
So he was one of the key uh people in
convincing Mario Williams to give the pregame speech before the
Mississippi State game, and it was one of the greatest
pregame speeches I've ever been.

Speaker 4 (36:51):
A part of.

Speaker 15 (36:53):
I'll give you a little background. We we have we
have a we have another twenty four minutes, so I
could take some time. So I'm gonna throw I'm gonna
throw Fits under the bus. So so Fits is is
one of our gas was a terrific college and professional
player in his own right. He's he's he's working on
our staff as a graduate assistant. So he had a
chance to do the pregame speech before the We was

(37:17):
before the Florida game, maybe, and Fitz rolled in with
a whole sheet type written of thoughts that he wanted
to expound upon on his pregame speech.

Speaker 4 (37:28):
It was the long I thought we weren't going to
make it out for.

Speaker 15 (37:30):
Tip and so that was that served as a great
bet he he killed it. It was just it was
he's clearly going to be a great coach because he
talks a lot. So that was that was our first
view of fits. And so with that as the backdrop
of Mario, William stepped up to give a really important
pregame speech. Was it just last night or two nights ago?

(37:51):
Two nights ago at the at Missippi State? And it
was only two sentences long, and it was one of
the it was one of the eight most moving pregame
speeches I've ever had because of who Amari is and
how much our guys love him and how much he
loves us. And and so I'm giving Curse some credit
for that because he's helping organize Who's up next?

Speaker 2 (38:11):
A question from Bush at UK Sports Network. Was the
Mississippi State game the best yet as far as flowing
into the offense and off ball cuts.

Speaker 15 (38:19):
Yeah, it was our best off ball cuts. And part
of it was because we're playing against such an aggressive defense.
You know, Mississippi State is you know, coach Jans does
an incredible job.

Speaker 4 (38:30):
I've known it for a long time.

Speaker 15 (38:32):
I've played against him coaching at other universities, and and
he's a he's a little bit of a defensive savant.
They're a great, great defensive team, and his team is
really really first side heavy, taking away drives. And then
their rotations are as clean as anybody's in the country.
Their top twenty five defense and their rotations are like

(38:54):
they are pristine. There is no wasted movement. Guys know
if they're you know, they come help and they they
there's no like feeling out the first or second rotation.
They know exactly they're going third rotation or second rotation
or first rotation. It's really it's really actually beautiful to
watch on film the way they guard and our guys.
This was for sure our best game, our most committed

(39:15):
game in terms of continuing cuts and continuing cuts, and
it was our most committed game in terms of working
the second side, and so hopefully that's something we'll continue
to grow in. We're playing another elite, elite defensive team,
really physical, big long, strong defensive team tomorrow night, and
so we're gonna need to run that type of offensive
effort back to have a good showing.

Speaker 2 (39:36):
Joy Day Baker and Cameron Mills for our Jack Burford
Chevrolet count Down to tip off coverage with the Cats
and the Aggiest tomorrow. It'll get started at five thirty
Eastern time and we'll be right back. A couple of
segments left for your questions on the UK Healthcare Mark
Pope Show. This is the UK Sports Network.

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Pope is here. Phone lines are full, We'll go back
to them Clark's Pump and Shop. Phone line headed up
to the Great State of Ohio. Ibraham, what do you
have for Coach Pope?

Speaker 26 (42:22):
Hey, Coach Pope, how are you doing today? So I
have I had a couple of questions. My first out
of questions were, at this point in time, what do
you like about your team and what do you want
to see going forward? And also what are some flaws
if any do you think this team has and if so,
how do you plan on fixing them?

Speaker 15 (42:39):
Great question, Thanks for calling. Uh So, some things I
like about the team all start in the locker room.
I think we have a group of guys that that
are really working hard to know each other, love each other,
take care of each other, work for each other, lift
each other up, make each other look better on the court,
celebrate with each other. And that is, you know, interesting

(43:02):
enough that that's not a common commodity in athletics, and
it's not a common common commodity in college basketball. So
we have great young men in this program that are
really special. These are special kids. So I love starting
with that foundation.

Speaker 18 (43:16):
I like.

Speaker 15 (43:17):
I like our guys skill level. I love the ability
to make decisions on the court. We really ask an
enormous amount of our guys to be able to make
reads and make decisions on the court, and we have
guys that are really capable of doing that. We have
guys that can make shots, We have guys that could
make place for each other and willing to do it.

(43:38):
We have guys that want to show up every day
and work, and we have guys that are hungry to
get better. So I love all those aspects of our game,
things that we're working on clearly, you know, you'll hear
this like a drum beat for me till the end
of the season. We'd like to become, you know, a
great rebounding team on both sides of the ball. It's
really important. It's it's it's a you know, of the

(44:00):
four factors that we always talk about. It might be
elevating itself to number one ish type status. It's really
really important. We'd like to get better there. We'd like
to get better with you know, one of the things
we've been focused on is perfect possessions, where you know,
a lot of times on the defensive end, you have
to guard two or three or four actions before you're
done and with a possession, and so we've had some

(44:22):
space where we might perfectly guard a first and a
second action and have a breakdown on a third. And
we'd like to have a higher percentage of perfect possessions defensively,
we'd like to find some ways to be a little
more disruptive defensively. We'd like to keep pushing the envelope
on the offensive side to get more creative and kind
of stack actions even more than we do.

Speaker 4 (44:41):
Right now.

Speaker 15 (44:42):
I mean I could go on for days about how
we want to get better, but just to give you
kind of a little bit of insight in some of
the things we're focusing on right now.

Speaker 4 (44:48):
Thanks so much for the call.

Speaker 2 (44:51):
When we were here last Wednesday after the Georgia game,
one of the things you talked about as far as
the rebounding was the ones, choos and threes doing a
better job of reading where the shot was going to
come off and positioning themselves accordingly.

Speaker 4 (45:03):
Did you see improvement there? Yeah?

Speaker 15 (45:05):
I mean, how great We'll take away coming up with
eight rebounds, Like that number is really important. Like if
he can be a ten rebounded game guy, it changes us.
Right if Jackson Robins Robinson could be a six or
an eight rebound guy, a game guy. If if Kobe
Bray can get to six or eight, you know, that
makes a massive difference for us. Uh you know, uh

(45:27):
TP is a relentless physical rebounder. Lamat Butler rassum you
used to do so much. But if he can, you know,
have a bigger and bigger presence on the glass, that's
gonna make a really huge difference and it will bode
well for.

Speaker 4 (45:38):
Us head to Kansas for our next call. Mark, you're
up with coach Pope.

Speaker 27 (45:43):
But even gentlemen, how are we doing tonight?

Speaker 4 (45:46):
Doing well? Mark?

Speaker 15 (45:47):
What do you have?

Speaker 27 (45:49):
Hey, mister Leach, I just wanted to call and tell
you I appreciate you. Sometimes we can't get to the
to the big screen to watch what's going on. You
call the game as you see it and with such enthusiasm.
Appreciate you, mister Leach. Coach, I noticed the second half
of the Mississippi State game they were getting hot on
the three. What do we do defensively to shut that down?

Speaker 6 (46:11):
Yeah?

Speaker 15 (46:12):
So it was interesting, you know it a couple of
a few things were calculated, so just calculated risks. So
we actually went to a little bit of a throwback
tryangle into defense, uh, just trying to give a little
change to the vibe and with with some mixed results
where we were trying to take away their best uh

(46:34):
most you know, quality three point threats and kind of
uh induce some other guys to shoot the ball. And
that had a little bit of mixed results for us,
and they made ships outs that are a little bit
uncharacteristic out of the scout you know, for Bang twenty
in from the top of the key, which you don't
see all the time. And and so, you know, a
lot of this game is we are one of the

(46:55):
best three points in fact to almost overkill, we're one
of the best three point percentage defenses in the country.
But those numbers kind of work themselves out at times,
and so you know, a lot of times you go zone,
or you go to a blitz of ball screen, or
you go to a more aggressive defense. It can it

(47:16):
can it can end up, it can result in a
in a in a you know, a three point opportunity.
You're hoping that it ends up in the hands of
you know, a big part of Garden the three is
having the guys shoot it that you want to shoot
it right, kind of designating shooters.

Speaker 4 (47:30):
And so that's one thing.

Speaker 15 (47:32):
The other thing is, you know, we also got some
you know, we're in a down week in the second
half when we weren't in the Trivulin two and and
one of the things that we could do is we
can move our our you know, so we're basically icing
the ball screen and moving our bigs up to the
point of the screen. But that also comes with a
little bit of a complication because the farther you push

(47:54):
those two defenders out, the more spacers to work on
the floor behind it. But that would have been one
of the answers specif for twelve and zero in that
Mississippi State game, was getting those bigs more to the
point of the screen, being more aggressive and kind of
forcing guys to get inside the three. And those are
all adjustments that we're making in the game and trying
to play the numbers game the best we can.

Speaker 4 (48:13):
Great question, I'm thinking, coach.

Speaker 2 (48:15):
When Coach Bettina was here, you guys, the goal was
a difference of ten percentage points of what you shot
versus what the opponent's shot. Now the game is different
now in terms of numbers of threes that people are taking.
Is that still a goal you shoot for?

Speaker 4 (48:29):
Well?

Speaker 15 (48:29):
I think what's interesting is the game has changed because
the shooting has become so elite. You know, we were
a little bit of a unique commodity when we played
because one through five shot the ball for us, and
now it's you're hard pressed to find a team that
one through four doesn't shoot it, and a lot of
teams you play one through five shoots like we just

(48:51):
played Florida, and you know, aside from their starting center,
when they get into their rotation one through five on
the floor shoots it really, really well. And so it's
you know, it's become a bigger and bigger and bigger part.

Speaker 4 (49:03):
Of the game.

Speaker 15 (49:04):
That skill set is certainly it's if it hasn't gotten
better at the top, it's certainly gotten better one through five.
And so it's a challenge, it's a challenge for everybody
around the garden three point line. And and that's been
a dictating factor.

Speaker 4 (49:20):
In the game.

Speaker 15 (49:21):
You're headed to that one through five with Brandon. Yeah,
how great I mean Brandon is you know, he's so beautiful.
He got a little bit of a sense of like
when he shoots it, he is fully present, like you
can just see it, and he finishes every shot. It's
almost like he you know, we talk about finishing shots.
Finishing shots is so important to the psychology of shooting,
which I could talk about for an hour right now.

(49:43):
But but Brandon Garrison has a nice little vibe where
he does not get russ shooting and he finishes shots.
And and I'm telling you he's got an elite level
future as a shot maker. And he's he's he's dipping
his tone in it right now, and you know it
won't be a year or two or three from now
where he's He's not one of those guys. Is like yep,

(50:03):
that dude makes shots. Man, he's dangerous from beyond the arc.
That's where he's headed.

Speaker 2 (50:07):
One segment left on the UK Healthcare Mark Pope Show.
We'll get to it when we return on the UK
Sports Network.

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more for Appalachia.

Speaker 9 (51:16):
Hey Wildcat Fans, Little Caesars, the home of Hot and
Ready Pizza, invites you to try our world famous crazy
Bread with crazy sauce Caesar wins Itallian cheese bread and
our new cookie old browning dessert a Little Caesar's. We
begin each day with dough made fresh from scratch, fresh
never frozen cheese, and the tastiest topping. Little Caesars is

(51:38):
also a proud partner of UK Athletics and an enthusiastic
member of Big Blue Nation.

Speaker 6 (51:44):
So go Cat Pizza Pizza.

Speaker 17 (51:46):
This is coke. C Heyroo sugar. Could I be the
best coke ever? Try and taste with your ears. Cure
those bubbles, Imagine that tangling on your top. Fusy deliciousness.
Listen to that cascading liquid, a mouthwatering waterfall. Here is
sisterly tasty zero sugar Chris Refreshing and ice gold is

(52:12):
Coke zero sugar the best coke effort try and decidelines.

Speaker 16 (52:16):
Tip Athlete UK Athletics would like to bank our official
cornerstone partners, Central Bank, the official bank of UK Athletics,
Kentucky Farmed your Insurance, Big On Commitment and UK Healthcare,
official healthcare partner of Big Blue Nations STO Kentucky.

Speaker 27 (52:33):
Hold.

Speaker 1 (52:33):
Okay, take the morning, track Walker and Kentucky go some
seven to two.

Speaker 16 (52:39):
Once again, thank you to our official Cornerstone partners who
play a vital role in the success of the University
of Kentucky Athletics program.

Speaker 4 (52:48):
Whoa whoa, whoa.

Speaker 10 (52:49):
Dave before you use that post hole digger, where's your
gas line? And where's your wallet? Because you hit the
gas line and it's going to costume, not to mention
that it's also very dangerous. Okay, now, where's your phone?
Good call eight one to one before you dig. One
call and you'll know where to dig every time. It's

(53:10):
a call eight one to one, No problems, no accident,
no fines.

Speaker 4 (53:14):
Oh and it's the law.

Speaker 21 (53:27):
All right.

Speaker 2 (53:27):
Time to get a few more questions in before we
turn for the evening and Coach Pope can get back
to preparing for the big game tomorrow night against A
and M. From Doc at UK Sports Network, what is
the status of Andrew Carr in any worry about him
going up against a super physical Aggie team.

Speaker 15 (53:42):
Yes, Drew is you know, I mean, he is, he is,
he is. You know, he didn't practice with us today.
He was kind of in full rehab. I expect, you know,
I anticipate that he's gonna be able to play, but
it'll be another game time decision and we're gonna kind

(54:03):
of We're going to kind of keep nursing him back
the best we can. He's a warrior, so it's hard
to keep him off the court. But he's he's you know,
he's he's fighting this right now.

Speaker 7 (54:13):
Uh.

Speaker 15 (54:14):
We do feel like there's a good chance he'll be
on upward swing health wise, but we just are managing
this right now.

Speaker 2 (54:20):
All right, Let's go back to the Clark's Pumping Shop
phone line. John and Jackson County. What do you have
for Coach Pope? Hey, John, I.

Speaker 28 (54:28):
Coach, thanks for the great season so far. It's been
a lot of fun. And I have a question concerning
your red shirt season. I think that was like four year,
and I'm just wondering what you learned during that season
of kind of waiting to play in games but still
being part of that culture and practice and maybe some

(54:50):
things you learn just in that season of waiting.

Speaker 4 (54:54):
Yeah, John experienced. Yeah, thank you for the question.

Speaker 15 (54:56):
And you know, Red Shirts years are a little bit
of a bygone thing, but for me it was massively important.
Do you think about the things I learned? First, I
learned what it felt like to be in rupp Arena,
which is was a whole new world. I had been
playing out of the University of Washington, you know, mostly
my fault. We weren't a very good team, and we

(55:19):
probably averaged a good twelve hundred fans per game. And
so the first time I walked in the erupt, the
first time midnight mans I was my head was spending.

Speaker 4 (55:27):
I was like, this is the greatest thing I've ever seen.

Speaker 15 (55:29):
So being able to like live a year where I
got to appreciate what that felt like, and also having
a year where there you weren't under the duress of
having to perform in games. To get to know this state,
get to know BBN, get to know what basketball means here,

(55:49):
it was it was such a blessing for me.

Speaker 4 (55:51):
It was really incredible.

Speaker 15 (55:53):
You know, I think minus the red shirt years, sometimes
you know when you're playing, when you're playing in games,
it's almost like the whole two years are a blur
and you don't have a chance to take things in.
So I'll forever be grateful for that redche're And the
third thing was, you know, what Rupp was was shocking,
and and BBN's relationship to Kentucky basketball was overwhelming. And

(56:16):
then coach Patino was absolutely terrifying.

Speaker 4 (56:19):
And so it was nice to.

Speaker 15 (56:21):
Get a year under my belt where where I started
to understand uh Coach p before you know, I was
fully under his gun on the floor.

Speaker 4 (56:31):
So it was a it was a gift of a
year for me. I'll always be grateful for it. And
and and I learned so much. Thanks the question.

Speaker 2 (56:40):
Thank you all right, Sean from Richmond. We're gonna put
you in the game, very specific role for you though.
We have about a minute on the show, so we
need your question in like fifteen seconds.

Speaker 18 (56:50):
I can do it. First, thank you for for loving
on Jackson. What you did after the game that would
break the city. And I'm so proud of that. Kid
for for getting past the mental aspect of the middle
block and just worrying about the future because we all
do that. My question, coach is, uh, what when you
come when our guys are on the offensive end, do

(57:13):
you call plays most of the time? Does Lamont had
the ability to call what he wants?

Speaker 1 (57:18):
Uh?

Speaker 15 (57:18):
Sean, we got to get him answer. We'll let him
answer that so I do do a significant play calling.
Lamont can also play calls, and Lamont can also choose
sides of the floor and actions where all the guys
know the play call without him communicating anything verbally.

Speaker 4 (57:33):
We got a question, Thank you, Sean.

Speaker 2 (57:35):
Good luck tomorrow, Cats and the Aggies and it'll tip
at seven Eastern time. Count out a tip off gets
us started at five point thirty right here on the
UK Sports Network.

Speaker 6 (57:47):
This has been the UK Healthcare Mark Tope Show on
the UK Sports Network.

Speaker 9 (57:53):
The mark Top Show was brought to you.

Speaker 6 (57:55):
By Coca Cola, Appalachian Regional Healthcare.

Speaker 13 (57:59):
Little Zzers and by UK Healthcare.

Speaker 9 (58:02):
We are here to win Banners.

Speaker 6 (58:05):
Kentucky Basketball is a presentation of the UK Sports Network
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