Mark Pope Loves the Redemption Story His team is writing

Vicky Graff Photo

Kentucky coach Mark Pope was counting on Jaland Lowe and Jayden Quaintance to be two of his best three players this season and for Kam Williams either to be a starter or top reserve.

Instead, Lowe was in and out of the lineup with a shoulder injury before finally needing season-ending surgery. Williams broke his foot in January and likely is out for the season. Quaintance was coming back from knee surgery, finally played four games and then went out again likely for the season.

Pope joined Seth Davis and Andy Katz on The Hoops HQ Show this week and Davis asked the UK coach if finally knowing who can play and who cannot play has made his team better despite the loss of three players.

Pope had no trouble responding in a way that probably will not surprise you.

“I would say emphatically yes only because that’s all we have left. So we’re going to own it. I’m really proud of our guys. When you’re putting a team together and you’re preparing for a season and you’re strategizing about what are going to be your strengths and weaknesses and what are you going to look like and how are you going to attack and how are you going to win — we don’t look anything like we imagined. Not at all,” Pope said.

He was blunt with his answer, too.

“This was not the plan. This was not the scheme,” the Kentucky coach said. “This was not how this was conceived at all. But that’s the beauty of a season. That’s the beauty of a journey. It’s adjusting and figuring things out and guys stepping up and guys maturing and guys leaning on each other.

“I’ve said this a lot over the last several weeks, that we don’t look anything like what we plan to look like. We’re not doing this the traditional Kentucky way. This is probably not the traditional Kentucky season. 

“With all that said, I feel bad for you if you’re missing what’s happening here right now cause it’s awesome. I love stories. I love redemption. I love overcoming and what these guys are doing right now. I wouldn’t trade it for anything.”

He was just getting warmed up with his answer as his love for his team poured out. Remember Kentucky got destroyed by Michigan State and Gonzaga and then started SEC play 0-2. The Cats are now 8-3 in league play going into Saturday afternoon’s game at Florida.

“I told them before the game against Tennessee (won by UK). There was so much hype for us last Saturday because we had ‘96 (national championship team) in the house, we had denim in the house, it was a rival, it was the second game (against Tennessee). We had had an epic comeback against them on the road,” Pope said.

“I told the guys there’s all this stuff floating around, but really this is only about us. This is the story you guys are writing right now. And it’s a great story. I don’t want to put the book down. I’m loving every second of this. It’s not traditional, it’s different, but it’s pretty special.

“I’m proud of our guys because they keep raising up and doing things that people don’t think they can do and shouldn’t be able to do. It’s not the way we expected to do it. We’ve had to recreate everything, but it’s pretty cool.”