Kentucky fans have enjoyed the UK-Louisville rivalry a lot more than Louisville fans the last 10 years. (Vicky Graff Photo)
Kentucky coach Mark Pope wants his players “to sell out 100 percent” every game.
“I don’t know how to live any different,” Pope said Friday.
That’s why he says he doesn’t know how to ask his players to go any harder tonight because the opponent is Louisville.
“Certainly (they) players hear the noise but we were just talking as a staff that our guys come to practice and give us all they have every day. I don’t spend a lot of time trying to juice them because they bring it all every day and we treat every game like it is the biggest game,” Pope.
The Kentucky coach believes that philosophy makes it easier for even a big game like this one to seem normal. Pope said he feels “blessed” to be part of this rivalry because it is one of the “iconic rivalries” in the nation.
Recently the rivalry has been way more “iconic” for Kentucky because the Cats have won eight of the last 10 games … and first-year Louisville coach Pat Kelsey knows that.
“You back through the history of this rivalry, our program, their program, I mean it is full of legendary coaches, iconic coaches. I’m the new guy in town. I’m not gonna speak for Mark, but he’s kind of the new guy in town too. I’m just Joe Bag of Donuts trying to figure this thing out.
“I sure hope it gets to the point, 20 years down the road, where Mark and I can be in that situation that some of those other great coaches have been in this rivalry. But in the meantime, we’re just keeping our nose down, keeping our blinders on, doing everything we can to put our teams in the best position to be successful as first-year coaches at these institutions.”
Kentucky has top 10 wins over Gonzaga and Duke. Louisville has played four top 25 teams and did beat then No. 14 Indiana 89-61. However, the Cards have losses against No. 1 Tennessee (77-55), No. 19 Ole Miss (86-63) and No. 4 Duke 76-65.
“Rivalries are what make sports awesome, make college sports great. On a lesser scale nationally, but within the I-275 loop in Greater Cincinnati, Xavier and Cincinnati in the Crosstown Shootout is a really, really big rivalry,” Kelsey said. “My father played at Xavier, and the city stands still when that game happens. Same thing in this state with U of L-UK.
“But unless you start winning one once in a while, it kind of stops being a big rivalry. I’m well aware of how much it means to our fan base and our city to win this game. And I put everything I’ve got, and our players do too, into our next opponent. And just to make everybody feel a little bit better at home, I understand. It’s big. It’s big to me. Hopefully, that will settle people down.”
5 Responses
If tonight’s game had been played in Lousyville, Lousyville would have won. Coach Pope, you’ve got work to do
A win is a win Barry. Be happy
Louisville played tough.
The problem is we been spoil with all the success we had against Louisville. The rivalry is supposed to be excited not boring with blowouts. I like the way Louisville hang tough and our cats didntt panic. It just shows the growth that cats have something we been missing last several years.
It’s always a big win when we beat LOUISVILLE, guys–come on!! Don’t forget who we are: we are KY, and we own Little Brother!! The CATS gave BBN an early XMAS present this year, and it is ALWAYS something to be excited about! We own this series, and with this win, we hit the 40-win mark in the overall series record against LOU, which, after this one, now stands at 40-17 overall in favor of BIG BLUE! And keep in mind–going back to the last half of the Tubby era 20 yrs ago, we have won 18 out of the last 23 meetings against LOU–they have only beaten us 5 times since Tubby Smith left LEXINGTON!! and all but one of those wins basically meant anything for LOU: two of them came in Billy Clyde’s two years, and the second of those was by only 3 pts on a last second 3-pointer in the last game of the series ever played in Freedom Hall. The other 3 came during CAL’s era–he only lost to LOU 3 times, and only twice to Pitino–of those 3 wins, one came during the COVID year against our worst team in a century, and that was won by only 3 points, another one came against CAL’s second-worst team at KY–the 2013 NIT team–that loss to LOU was also by 3 points as well at YUM, and then Pitino’s sole quality upset of CAL at KY came against the 2016-17 team with BAM, FOX, and MONK–and that win was also by just 3 pts, but at least that year they beat a quality team of ours. But that was the one and only time though. CAL absolutely dominated Pitino during their time at the two schools, and the two NCAA Tournament wins speak loudest on that. But just think of it: in those last 23 meetings, UofL has just 5 wins–4 of them were by only 3 points, 2 of the wins came against Gillispie, which was also the last time LOU has won at Rupp–then on top of that, 4 of their wins came against our worst teams in the modern era. They just barely squeaked by the times that they DID get us–our worst teams in history still went into Freedom Hall and YUM and gave LOU absolute wars! So it has been total and complete domination for the last 20 years. And actually,this run began with the Patrick Sparks 3 free-throws game, and this DEC is the 20-yr anniversary of that game! So it all began there: 18 out of the last 23, and 40-17 overall for Big Blue over Little Brother!! U gotta love it!!! Does this team have work to do? OF COURSE!!! Do they still have a long way to go and a lot to prove in some ways? Yes they do. I still think conference play could be a beating. But I think this team is getting itself together, slowly but surely–i think with each game, they are continuing to find themselves as a team, and continuing to learn how to play together–i think they will continue to grow as the season progresses under Pope’s leadership and energy. This guy is something off of the charts in regard to his energy and his passion. I have never seen maybe ANYBODY more passionate about KY than Mark Pope–and the amazing thing is that he has a passion for this state and this program as if he was actually FROM here–as if he was a KY native himself. U would never know this guy is from the West Coast with the badge of honor and pride that he wears in and that he shows as the head coach. It’s just so amazing and such a delight to see the KY coach ACTUALLY COACHING in ball games, and strategizing and studying elements of the game and picking apart the opponents’ info to figure out a way to win–like against a really strong Gonzaga team, and a very solid DUKE team. So far, I actually believe Gonzaga is better than DUKE. But not only the coaching, but the way that Pope treats the fans, and how he embraces them and welcomes them–he makes us feel included again in our own program, which sounds outrageous, but do we have to blame for that? THATS why ppl like me were over the"KING"—he treated the fans like garbage, all the "Basketball Bennies", and belittling us and being condescending–"yea, they go home and they watch more game tape than me"—well, yea, CAL, that’s probly true, because unlike our new coach, YOU DIDNT WATCH ANY TAPE!!! and don’t forget folks, this LOU game was an absolute MUST-WIN for Pope this year in his first year and playing it in Rupp. Pope did something that both Pitino and Tubby failed to do: beat LOU in RUPP in their inaugural season as head coach. Different circumstances, but interesting history. But yes, this game was a must-win for Pope as coach in his first year, and for this team. Think how we would be feeling right now had it been a loss. Yes, we could have easily won by more, and probly should have, at least by about 15. If LOU just hits 10 threes instead of 15 or whatever it was, there’s a 15-pt differential right there. I said before the game two things: that Butler has to play for us to be able to win, and I would take my chances with LOU jacking up a bunch of threes–because they have tried that tactic against us before…….and rebounding. Those were the 3 keys in my opinion–and only their 3-pt shooting was an issue for us out of those 3 items–so they end up hitting 15 or 16 threes, and yet we still win by 8–and seemed to keep the game pretty well in control–we would be on the verge, while up 10 or so points, of running away with it, but just never could stretch it out from there. But the effort and energy was solid–and the team stepped up and did what they had to do in order to win the game–the same way they did against DUKE and GONZAGA–the same core group came together and made winning plays down the stretch. And remember too that we are still missing Krissa, and his individual numbers might not look like alot right now, but his ENERGY–and PASSION– HE is EXACTLY the kind of dude u want for a game like yesterday. And I really hate it that he missed his chance to play in this game because I guarantee u he would have made some kind of contribution. So let’s also acknowledge the fact that our depth is still hurting right now, and we still got this win even in spite of that. We weren’t even sure going into it that Butler was going to play!!! So we not only got the gift of his presence and the gift of the game that he had, but we also shot 70% from the field in the first half as a team, and scored 93 points on them for the game. So the offense was there, and Butler, Robinson, and Otega have proven that they are the 3 most important players on this team. Still want to see more out of Amari too! He and Carr are right behind the first three in terms of importance to the team. But we definitely need some improvements defensively, and our lack of physicality inside, and our lack of depth still concerns me for SEC play and beyond. I was hoping that by this point of the season we would have seen a little more out of Chandler, and that we would have gotten more out of him at this point than we have, given that we have had plenty of "bunny games" already this season to where he has had opportunities to get in and contribute. So I hope to see more out of him going fwd. But all-in-all, this was another strong effort and another quality win for this team–and a must-have win, as I said, and we are now sitting at 10-1 on the season, and have another big test coming up this SAT! But we have a week to enjoy the celebration from this one and to get ready and prepare for what I think will be a tough Ohio St team, and another tough game from them. So the beat goes on, as always! Congrats to Coach Pope for his first win over the Dirty Birds, and congrats to the team for extending the run of dominance against the Little Brother from 80 miles to the west!!!!!!
GO CATS!!!!! L’s DOWN!!!!!!