Kentucky coach Mark Pope shared insights on his first year at UK with BBN Tonight host Maggie Davis. (BBN Tonight/WLEX-TV Photo)
Kentucky coach Mark Pope offered insights on his first year as UK’s head coach during an exclusive interview with BBN Tonight’s Maggie Davis on WLEX-TV on the one-year anniversary of his hire and historical press conference in Rupp Arena.
“BBN gave us the greatest kickoff gift ever, and then these players gave us the greatest bounce this year. It’s been the easiest conversations ever right now, recruiting in the portal,” Pope told Davis. “It’s been two pronged. One, for our freshmen that are coming in, it’s been the greatest confirmation of their decision to come because they got to witness it over the course of the season, right?
“Then for the guys that we were recruiting, that we have already signed in the portal, and the guys that we’re still recruiting, it’s the easiest sell in the world. When you have your guys after a devastating loss in the Sweet 16 at the postgame press conference going out on their own saying, ‘All you transfer portal guys, you don’t understand. If you’re trying to choose a school, this is the place to go.’”
Pope was glad his players “didn’t miss the experience of being a Kentucky basketball player” even though most of last year’s team only had one year of eligibility remaining when they arrived. He was proud that his team performed almost 400 hours of community service.
“It meant something to them to represent Kentucky,” the coach said.
Pope still believes the overflow crowd in Rupp Arena for his introductory press conference had a lasting impact on his players.
“Guys understood this would be the most incredible experience of their sports career and they understood it was way bigger than just themselves,” Pope told Davis. “Wearing Kentucky across the chest means something different than any other name in college basketball.”
3 Responses
I wish that were the case, but more often they are just looking for more money and more playing time. Haggerty is leaving Memphis and demanding $4 million in NIL. He wouldn’t make that much as a first round pick in the NBA! I hope everybody says NO! NIL and the portal are in dire need of change, yet the impotent NCAA appears to be oblivious to it. What can you expect from a bunch of Hoosiers!
The NCAA needs to put a salary cap on every team. Guys are really going to ball hog more to pad there stats to get paid more. They should only allow one transfer and every player gets from 250k-1 million should be the most a player can receive. Also you can sign contracts of 1 or 2 years. There is a way they could clean this up. It started out that a player gets to sell merchandise to make money now they are setting amounts that they want to transfer this is going to get messy in the next couple of years. I could even see a players strike like professional sports at this point anything is possible.
What will Pope do with his last scholarship? We need a stretch 4, but he is talking to guards. He says he is being selective, but he did that last year and didn’t fill his last one. Get someone Coach, even if it is a runt.