Trent Noah signed autographs for UK fans after Tuesday's win. (Vicky Graff Photo)
Question Mark Pope’s coaching strategy and decisions all you want. Wonder about his roster construction and recruiting all you want.
However, don’t ever question whether he understands Kentucky basketball fans.
The Kentucky coach once again proved how connected he is with UK fans after Tuesday afternoon’s win over Bellarmine when he basically gave a lot of fans unexpected Christmas gifts.
Pope was court side doing his postgame show on the UK Radio Network with Tom Leach like he does after each game when he announced his surprises.
The first surprise was when he had the “Pope girls” — his three daughters — had out books commemorating Pope’s fist season to random fans. Next some fans got T-shirts with $100 cash gift certificates attached.
However, Pope was not finished. He told fans who had stayed for his postgame show they had special access to all Kentucky plates for autographs and pictures.
“For anybody who needs to get something signed for Christmas or for another reason, the players are waiting in Suite C, and they’re going to sit and sign until you guys are done,” Pope said. “As our players’ Christmas gift to you, our guys understand what this means, and so we’ll finish up this (radio) segment right now, and we’ll all walk out there together. You don’t have to, clearly, but if you want to, all the guys are stationed there, ready to sign.”
What UK fan would not want to go? Pope surprised fans at a postgame show last year when he bought ice cream for each fan because he had to leave early. He also provided gas cards for some lucky fans heading to last year’s NCAA Tournament to watch the Cats to use.
But this gesture of Christmas spirit and goodwill was a perfect touch for Pope and his players, who had also signed numerous autographs for fans in the arena after the win.
Maybe Pope was motivated to get back on his wife Lee Anne’s good side. The players have a three-day break before returning to campus to prepare for the SEC opener Jan. 3 at Alabama.
“I think the break is important for us and is really good for us right now. I’m really grateful for it. Mostly not so much for the guys, but mostly for Lee Anne. Lee Anne is so fed up with me right now, and I just need to be better — I need to do a better job as a husband for a couple of days. I’m going to crush it. It’s going to be amazing. Lee Anne has no idea what’s in store for her,” Pope said at his postgame press conference.
He said his players had been “through a lot emotionally” recently and taken some hits they have responded well, too.
“I’m really proud of this group in the sense of how they responded over the last three weeks. We got better and we reoriented some things and kinda found some new mentality and I think we have enough of a base that’s going to filter through our guys over the course of the next 10 days where we get to really, really get some work done on the practice floor and try to find and embrace what we have and we have a little vision of what we can be in the short time and I think we are excited about it,” the Kentucky coach said.
3 Responses
The team is still trying to find its identity; not what you want coming into SEC play. January will require them to do that under fire. They have the chance to either man up or implode. Playing time plays a big part in role identification as long as you don't try to keep everyone happy. We need 5 starters and 5 support players and that's the problem. Our 5 support players think they should be starters.
I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas and I wanted to extend special thanks to Larry for making this site available to all of us.
thank you Barry
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