Pitino Knows it Will be a ‘hell of game’ With UK

Mark Pope did his best Rick Pitino stomp during UK's win over Indiana. (Vicky Graff Photo)

After St. John’s beat DePaul 79-66 earlier this week coach Rick Pitino shared some early thoughts on Kentucky, the team he will face Saturday at 12:30 p.m. in Atlanta.

“Kentucky is very big. They’re plus 10 on the glass. They rebound the ball great. They’re terrific on defense. It’ll be a hell of a game, it’ll be a tough game. We know that,” Pitino said. “When you go to Atlanta, they call it in Lexington: Catlanta.

“They’ll have about six, seven thousand of their fans. It’ll be somewhat of a road game (for St. John’s). But that’s okay. We’re playing good defense right now. I think it’ll be a good basketball game.”

St. John’s limited DePaul to 39 percent shooting from the field and just 7-for-25 from 3-point range. It was the third straight game opponents have failed to score more than 66 points against St. John’s.

Kentucky is coming off its best defensive performance as it limited Indiana to 60 points in a 12-point win. Indiana shot just 34 percent from the field and missed 20 of 24 3-pointers. The Hoosiers also had 18 turnovers.

St. John’s is ranked 15th nationally and Kentucky 16th in KenPom’s adjusted defensive efficiency stats.

Kentucky coach Mark Pope played for Pitino on Kentucky’s 1996 national championship team. Pitino was Pope’s biggest supporter when he got the Kentucky job after John Calipari left for Arkansas.

On his weekly radio show, Pope called St. John’s a “great team” who will severely test Kentucky.

“They’re incredibly big and physical and skilled. They guard and press and are one of the top defensive teams in the country. They might be a little more potent shooting the ball this year. So we’re playing against a great team. That’s the most exciting thing,” Pope said. “Getting to do it against Coach is awesome. I love him, and I’m excited about the contest.”

Radio show host Tom Leach prodded Pope to talk about playing for Pitino and how that helped him.

“I don’t know if it’s good or bad, but every day seemed like it was two years — mostly because we stuffed like 17 practices in every day.  We had so many special experiences as a team, and then the takeaways about — just in those times in life where you really grow are special,” the Kentucky coach said.

“I credit Coach with so much of that, being able to really forge a team out of a bunch of individuals. He’s got a magical capacity to do that and taught us a ton of lessons.”