Mark Pope “riding or dying” With His Guys

Lamont Butler (Vicky Graff Photo)

Kentucky coach Mark Pope talked to point guard Lamont Butler one-on-one before the second half started against Duke Tuesday night and did the same thing toward the end of UK’s 77-72 win.

What did he tell him?

“Lamont is the foundation of this team. If you get to know Lamont Butler, he’s one of the best people I ever met. That’s not an overstatement. And he is a winner. He is a winner. So we just talked about we’re riding or dying together. That’s how this team is,” said Pope.

But he’s not just “riding and dying” with Butler.

“I feel the same way about Otega (Oweh). I feel the same way about Drew (Andrew Carr). We’re our guys. We’re each other’s guys, and we’re not going away from each other,” the UK coach said.

“If we have a bad half or a bad play or a bad game, we’re running back to each other. That was the conversation we had with Lamont. He doesn’t need much. He has a winner’s heart. He had an unbelievable second half. He really gave us a massive lift in the second half.”

The Cats tried not to let the Duke hype or promotions for Duke freshman Cooper Flagg distract them going into the game.

“I wouldn’t say extra motivation (from the Duke hype) because we try and just look at every game like it’s a normal game. We prepare the same way. We trust in the work that we do every single day, but we also know the history behind this rivalry,” Oweh said after the win. “Obviously we want to put on and do well for the Big Blue Nation.

“We really just want to go out there and do the things we know we can do, stay solid, stay to our principles, and if we do that, we know we’re going to get a win, which was the outcome. Obviously the rivalry is huge, but we didn’t look at it just as let’s go out there and try to do stuff we don’t usually do. Just be calm and composed and play the way we know we have to.”

Carr said the veteran Wildcats learned to trust each other after arriving in Lexington even though none had played together before and that trust showed against Duke, especially late in the game.

“We really learned each other off the court. A lot of people, a lot of teams are able to say that, but it’s really cool being a part of a brand new team just because everybody didn’t know anybody else,” the Wake Forest transfer said.  “Everybody had to have the same amount of effort to get to know and love and serve and care for your teammates in the same way because you didn’t know any of them.

“I feel like just because everybody had a concerted effort on it, it allowed us to really connect super quickly and get to know each other super quickly, and it translated right to the court.”