Lee Anne Pope has always been an enthusiastic supporter of her husband, Mark Pope, and his Kentucky basketball team and was again in Madison Square Garden Tuesday. (Vicky Graff Photo)
Cameron Mills remembers having a conversation with Lee Anne Pope last season asking her how UK coach Mark Pope, her husband and Mills’ former teammate at UK, was doing after a Kentucky loss.
“I told her I would text him like all of our teammates do to constantly encourage him but what should I say and do after a loss and ask if he is okay or not,” Mills said. “I knew what to say when I was with him all the time when we were teammates (on the UK basketball team) but now I am not with him so what does he need to hear from me and what can we say to encourage him..
“I loved her response. I showed her what I wrote to him. At one point, she said, ‘That’s good.’ But then she said, ‘Cameron, just remember that’s the biggest shoulders in the world out there on that court right now, and this is out at practice.’ I think that’s the thing that for her to understand that, and for her to allow him to dedicate so much time to these players, for her to make these players her boys too, it’s just it’s a situation where the two of them together are more powerful than one of them, and I think both of them would admit that.”
They would. Mark Pope often admits she’s perfect for him — and he obviously needs her support after UK’s losses to Louisville and Michigan have left him searching for answers.
His four daughters often are at games and UK functions. He had his youngest daughter come to a postgame press conference, sit on the podium and talk to the media after a win this season.
“It’s just special to watch them work together as a mom and a dad, as a husband and a wife, for the good of this program,” Mills said. “Mark talks non stop about this program to his girls, to his wife. When he was in the NBA, when he was at Columbia Medical School, he talked about Kentucky.
“When I first met his daughters, they knew who I was. They knew my name. I don’t look like I used to look right, and yet they recognized me and came up to me, and said, ‘Oh, you’re Cameron.’ And I got hugs from all four of them. And I’m like, ‘’Do I know you all?’ But he talks non stop about his time here and I doubt that will ever change.
One Response
I personally feel sorry for Coach Pope. He is stuck with a lot of selfish individuals wearing UK on their jersey.
I was glad to see Moreno join Chandler in the starting lineup. Hopefully Noah will get back to playing like he did before the injury and Dioubate will get recovered and those 2 will start along with Garrison. Those 5 need to play together several games to begin to click and build good chemistry.
Just use the ANE values to determine how many minutes others get. Oweh & Lowe have very LOW ANE values around 0.00. Maybe Coach Pope can connect with The Professor and parlay his analysis into better selection of players who get the most minutes. Maybe Larry V can make that connection take place before it’s too late for Pope to rebound from the early season disappointments.