Vicky Graff Photo
While finals are a priority, a CBS Sports Classic encounter against Ohio State at Madison Square Garden awaits Kentucky coach Mark Pope and the Wildcats on Saturday.
Pope’s attitude toward lengthy trips as opposed to a one-day excursion has changed since his playing days and early on in his career as a head coach. He credits psychology, investigations, studies, and criticism” for helping with adjusting his approach.
“It just changed the whole way that I actually approached this,” Poe said. “Instead of trying to live in that space, of like, being absolute, unfettered and laser-focused every second, emotionally and mentally on the game and being intense and getting our team ready to go, we kind of flipped — flipped to a totally different philosophy.”
That philosophy, Pope said “is brilliant.”
“It fits us better now,” Pope said. “The fact that we’re going on a trip to go play a game at Madison Square Garden and we’re going to do anything that’s not only grit your teeth, full sweat basketball. It was really foreign to me three or four years ago, but our guys respond to it great now. It’s been new for me and the upside is massive.”
That upside, Pope said, includes team bonding.
“When you get to put guys in different scenarios and different moments in different environments with new experiences where everybody has a new experience, and they get to share and it just builds this collective cohesiveness in a brilliantly unique way,” Pope said.
