Kentucky players cheered when WKYT-TV sports anchor Lee K. Howard’s 9-year-old daughter hit a shot at Wednesday’s open practice that kept them from having to do extra running. (Vicky Graff Photo)
Kentucky coach Mark Pope is unique in the way he coaches but also in the way he embraces college basketball.
He’s always positive. He wants more games. He wants to play the best schedule possible. He wants his players involved in the community any chance they get.
But Wednesday he did something no University of Kentucky coach in any sport has done during my 51 years of covering UK sports. He not only held a press conference to preview Thursday night’s exhibition game against Georgetown and opened practice to the media, but he also invited media members to bring family members with them.
The special guests included everything from infant children to some even a bit older than me. You had sons, daughters, spouses, parents and other relatives of media members attending and Pope made it even better by having family members — not regular UK media members — ask the press conference questions.
“I have a good sense of the sacrifices everybody in sports makes to do what we do and the sacrifices families make. I know what it is like to be gone from family multiple nights of the week,” Pope said.
Pope has a wife, Lee Anne, who attended the open practice and press conference, along with four daughters who have to deal with his long coaching hours and travel schedule. Trust me, media members spend a lot of nights away from family and often have to miss family events because of their jobs.
Pope was not doing this to generate positive stories for his program. He’s just not that. It was a genuine interest by Pope to let media members know he appreciated the sacrifices they make time-wise to cover University of Kentucky basketball.
One of the family members asked Pope why he wanted to host a press conference/open practice that included family members.
“We all make sacrifices to make this product that brings us all together,” Pope said. “I appreciate that maybe more deeply than you would understand. It is something about husbands and wives gone from 4 in the afternoon to maybe 1 in the morning. That is a big sacrifice and sacrifice we all make.
“All of us are serving the game and state well. I appreciate this (media) crew. I am happy to have families here. I think family is the most important thing. I think the world would be a better place the more stable families are.
“This is fun. I am loving it.”
UK MBB Family Media Day
Photos by Vicky Graff
5 Responses
It's halftime of the Georgetown game. The Cats act like they don't want to be there. They are not showing the Hoyas any respect and the Hoyas are spanking them. No offense, just one on one crap. Ole` defense; no fighting through screens. No rotation defense. Piss poor free throw shooting…that's a sign that their heads are not in this game. It is like they were expecting Georgetown to come in afraid of the team that just beat the No. 1 team in the nation. All they have proven so far is they can beat ANYONE and ANYONE can beat them! They need to lose this game to teach them a lesson…come ready to play EVERYONE because EVERYONE is going to come ready to give them a beatdown!
Not a great first half at all Barry
What an EMBARRASSMENT! The Hoyas are the 6th ranked team in the Big East…not even a conference contender, but Ed Cooley had his team ready to play; Coach Pope DID NOT! Purdue played white boy basketball and we dominated. Georgetown played jungle ball and we got BITCHSLAPPED on our home floor! Chandler and Noah got USED AND ABUSED all night long! The black kids will come at them hard after watching this game. The Hoyas overplayed everything and we weren't ready for it, but worse yet, made no adjustments for it in the second half. Too much one on one hero play, half hearted defense, and horrendous free throw shooting will get you beat every time. Our 3 point shooting in the second half was under 20% and our 2 point shooting was less than 35% in the second half. We showed no heart and no pride in this game period; we got out toughed and gave up! Thank God this abortion was an exhibition game.
Louisville will get in our faces in the Yum Center. Michigan State and St. John will do the same. Hell, everyone is going mug us after seeing how we shrank away from it. We have 2 cupcake games to get ready for it; and they are not guaranteed wins based on what we saw tonight. We really missed Aberdeen and Lowe not playing tonight, but it was more than that. Now we will see how much heart and toughness we really have. Everybody we play now will try to murder us until we show that we can play through it; shooting under 70% from the foul line won't cut it. Coach Pope, you have your work cut out for you! DAMN! I hope I wake up in the morning and realize that this was just a BAD DREAM! The Kentucky haters will be heehawing their asses off screaming that we are OVERRATED! We are better than this, but we have to do a whole lot more than just show up! From now on, the games count; it's time to get serious about every single game! There will be no more MULLIGANS! Take this BITCHSLAPPING like men and resolve to NEVER let it happen again! I used to say go win No. 9; now all I am going to say is go win the next game.
Settle down Barry
You are right Larry. I have such high hopes for this team, but I can't want it more than they do.