Mark Pope met with the media last night following Kentucky’s 42-point win over Loyola (Md.).
Pope was dialed on the theme of getting better.
“We have to get better. We have to get better,” Pope said. “This is an important night for us and tomorrow is a really important practice and it’s going to be an every single day grind to get better and we are going to get better. So, we will make progress everyday and I was proud of our guys about being really intentional about that today.”
Check out his comments:
Full transcript via UK Athletics:
MARK POPE: I’m proud of our guys. It was a good game. This Loyola Maryland team is going to have a good season. Hit me with question guys, good job boys.
Q Coach, you’ve emphasized defense multiple times this season, against Michigan State. Your team allowed 83 points, tonight it was half as much. Can you say something about your teams step forward defensively in spite of the losses?
MARK POPE: I thought we were good in the gaps today. I thought we were good in the bottoms. I thought our shell principles were pretty good. We have to get better. We have to get better. This is an important night for us and tomorrow is a really important practice and it’s going to be an every single day grind to get better and we are going to get better. So, we will make progress everyday and I was proud of our guys about being really intentional about that today.
Q You have to bear with me on this one. Short question, are you all right? I asked that because losing sucks, you take losing really hard and your words in New York said, we are going to get this fixed. And your body language, which you talk about, kind of spoke differently. I actually had people call me and say, is he okay? I’m asking, are you okay?
MARK POPE: Are you asking if I’m sick? No, we need to play better and we got to get better. We will stop at nothing to get better. There’s nothing that will stop us from getting better and we won’t sleep, we won’t eat. We won’t do anything until we get better. We are going to get better. That’s going to take every ounce of our soul to do it. There’s nothing that will stop us from getting better and achieving what we are going to achieve this year. If you feel anything from me, feel that. I might not sleep as much, that’s great, because this is the greatest opportunity and a great group of guys. We are destined to do something really special and we are far, far from that and it’s not acceptable. And so, I appreciate you asking, but yeah, I’m great. This is actually my happy space right now. The determination to like get down in the mud and grow and do it sleeplessly and relentlessly and get better every single day and push every single button and try every single new thing. That’s actually how you build something great and we are in it now. We are not leaving it. We are in it and we are going to push it and we are going to make progress. I’m actually better than okay. Like I said, this is my heaven right here. It’s hard. But we have something really good here and we are going to make sure that we get there. Thanks for your concern.
Q Mark, Kam Williams through six games is the only player on your team that did not hit negative in the plus minus category. He leads in 3 of those games in that category. What is it about him as a player that makes them so successful on the court even in the games where he’s not scoring as much?
MARK POPE: He’s been interesting since the get-go in practice, his stat line has been really interesting. He just shows up in every category of the stat line. And so you know, he’s got a ton of growth he’s got to do. He’s got to become more vocal. He’s got to understand us better. He’s got to be more physical, like the physicality of the game is something that’s haunting me right now. You know, that we are going to go find answers to and that’s the place where he’s got to go. He’s got to get more comfortable offensively because he’s got to use offensive game. But he’s got a little bit of Koby Brea vibe where Koby, early in the season, was relentless to get downhill and actually get down to the dirty work of the physicality of the game in the paint. He actually was stubborn a couple of times getting downhill today. He is a stat stuffer and he does it quietly sometimes. We need him to be great, he’s going to be great by the end of the season and he’s got a long way to go.
Q Mark, Otega in the first five minutes, 6 points, 2 steals, 1 assist, really strong rebound, hard cut in the beginning, a nice drive on his own. What did you think of his start and how personally do you think he took what happened Tuesday night in New York?
MARK POPE: I think we all take it really personally. How can you not? Like that’s what this is. You know, it’s the greatest thing in the world. It’s mono e mono. There’s nowhere to hide. One of the great things about our job, it doesn’t matter what anyone says because it’s just the truth of the scoreboard. It’s just the reality for all of us. I think he took it personally, I think our whole team takes it personally. We know we are not in a great spot right now and we got to get better. It’s actually exhilarating. I was more interested in him in the second half. I felt like his first stretch in the second half wasn’t quite as solid offensively but we saw a couple of possessions of Otega Oweh defense that we haven’t seen the passion and commitment defensively, that’s what he’s going to build his game and I was, I felt like welcome back, my friend, let let’s go with that. Where you just refused to let anybody get by you and you don’t need any help on a ball screen or stack or anything else because you are so physical dealing with it. That guy is our guy. And him finding that a little bit, maybe for the first time this season meant a lot to me. He had a couple of good moments tonight. And we’ve got to grow him. We got to grow him. And he will, because he’s a big-time player, he’s just gonna figure it out.
Q Mark, how much of Malachi starting was a reward for what he’s done so far and how much of it was me have been a message that nobody can get complacent and everybody can get replaced?
MARK POPE: I’m not really a message guy. Everything that we do is very direct and intentional. With Mo out, we knew we had to change at the four. Were going much smaller and much less on the ground physicality. Even though Kam has great length. I just felt like Malachi would complement him better. Malachi has been playing well. Maybe the best story of the night, guys, the story you look for is BG’s response, he’s an 11 rebound guy, I don’t think he’s done that all season, has he? Has he been an 11 rebound starting? That’s the beautiful thing. You know what? If our guys, we’ve got to go hang a banner. We got to go be great. We got to go beat a good team. We have to do all of those things, right? And through all that, if our guys become guys that are like, hey, it doesn’t matter what’s done to me in this sense, I’m saying starting or not starting. It matters what I do with it. Well, BG was an incredible example tonight of learning and holding onto that lesson at least for one night. Like, hey, coach decided not to start me and I’m going to go be unbelievable in my 20 minutes off the bench. And he was. He wasn’t perfect, but his effort was great, especially in the second half. The starting change was all of those things.
Q Coach, kind of going back to the starting lineup, I know you just answered a question on that. But in that lineup tonight, Collin hit more threes when that starting five was in together and hit four of them there and then Otega had that run. With the spacing that they had with Kam and Malachi out there together. Is that getting back into that flow up offense that you talked about when you got here that you could get up a ton of shots and have a ton of space and run up and down the floor? They were the five leading plus minus guys as well.
MARK POPE: It certainly is more familiar for me for sure. But more importantly then that was just our intentionality. You know, one of my favorite plays in the first half is when Otega got downhill really hard and got to the baseline and right underneath the left block and came to two feet and pivoted and pivoted and threw a brilliant hook pass to Collin in the opposite corner. The fact he saw it, the fact that he was disciplined enough to get to two feet and the fact he was playing with huge force and aggressiveness to earn a great shot for his teammate is part of us that has been missing. I think yes, for sure, partly the space, but I think our guys intentionality is a lesson we have to embrace and we have to learn if we are going to be good, we have got to be a team that is incredibly physical and forceful and aggressive to make plays for our team. I thought there was more of that than anything else in the first half and the spacing helped a little bit.
Q I have a two-part question for you, apologies. How close was Mo to being able to go tonight? And then when you played BG and Malachi together, what did you see from them?
MARK POPE: I think Mo could go if both of his legs had fallen off. But I just think he’s that type of person. I’m not going to put him out there until he’s healthy. We did in practice yesterday. I think there’s going to be some space in some ways for those two guys to be on the floor together, I think that BG is talented enough of a defender where he can really switch one through four. I don’t think we lose anything at all, I think we gain a lot with him defensively at the four. The offensive side, we are in the process of figuring out how we can play those two bigs together. But for a team right now that’s played and struggled against some physicality. There’s a chance that it could be a lineup that could help us in minutes in a game. So, I was happy to get a chance to put those guys out there together.
Q Hey Mark, I want to follow up on Darrell’s question because we are worried about you. You do get so down after losses. And yet you seem to recover fairly quickly back to normal. Maybe this his is a better question for Lee Anne. What is your recovery process like immediately afterwards until 24 hours later?
MARK POPE: Well, I stunk after Michigan State. I was terrible. I’m a terrible, terrible loser. I’m the worst. Maybe that disqualifies me from having this position. I hate it with a passion that’s unknown on the planet earth. I hate it. Especially here. We are representing. This jersey matters, this thing matters. And sometimes, you know, when you are holding back all of your emotion, I think that was probably more of a manifestation of me after the Michigan State game. I was so proud of myself for not saying the things that I wanted to say, actually. But we a long slog ahead of us. And I’m hyped, I’m telling you, this is my heaven space right here and it’s ugly and it’s tough it’s great and it’s what I’m born to do and that’s what this group is born to do. We are going to hit some hard space, but bring it and let’s go. I’m actually so happy in the misery of it. I just love every second of it and I love the fact that we are in a little bit in the hole and we have to dig ourselves out, I think that’s inspiring to me. I’m so good guys, I’m really good. I’m pissy, but I’m good.
Q Mark, after everything this past week, a tough one. Getting out there late, felt like the guys are having fun trying to get Walker the ball and we still want to see him hit his first shot in college. How nice was it to see that, especially after everything you’ve heard about your own team lately. But to see those guys having fun out there and enjoying the end of this one.
MARK POPE: It’s really important that we monitor the joy in the gym and it has not been a great space for us the last 10 days. Appropriately so. There’s not a lot of joy in losing. You know, there’s no joy there. The joy is like growing and becoming something and so, but it’s really important. Listen, this group, this group is going to take care of each other, we are going to learn to take care of each other. We are going to learn to fight for each other in a really epic way. We are not there yet. We don’t deal with the physicality of the game well. We don’t deal with the intensity of the game well yet. Those are yet’s. Yet is the most powerful three letter word in the world, right? We are not doing those things yet, but we will. And it’s going to be fun. I can’t wait till we get there.
Q Mark, to end the Michigan State game you had 13 total assists as a team. Tonight, you got 13 assists in the first 17 minutes. What did you see from your guys tonight just playing for each other and together as a team?
MARK POPE: Two things, one Michigan State is a terrific defensive team and they did not allow us a lot. We were actually so indecisive in that game that it was paralyzing. And I thought we were more free and decisive today. The way we play is incredibly demanding of making decisions. And so here, you have to make a decision, be aggressive at implementing it and live with the outcome. And we have all kinds of methodology of buy ourselves more time to make a decision, but we don’t buy ourselves time to make a decision by freezing or stalling. And so that was really disappointing, the Michigan State game, epically disappointing and our guys were better tonight.
Q Mark, all of the stuff that you said or you wanted to say in New York and you didn’t, you can tell me I won’t tell anybody.
MARK POPE: I know. You guys love that. We would be in jail, probably.
Q My question, Lee Anne a daughter of a coach. Do you guys talk basketball at home about tough losses and wins? Or is that kind of a safe zone?
MARK POPE: We talk a lot of hoops at the house. We talk about the guys, we talk about them as individuals. You know, Lee was in practice yesterday. Its such a gift. I can’t tell you how much it matters, especially when I’m in a space like this where I have to be hard-driving. Like I have to be hard-driving. We have to and the guys have to embrace it. So it was really great for me to sit down after practice yesterday in the corner where we come out of the tunnel and Lee was at practice and I sat down at practice and I was pretty salty. Every single one of the guys came by and stopped and gave Lee a hug and had a full on individual one after another, it was like a train going through over the course of a half an hour. Conversation about their family and their life and new hair cut and their girlfriend and the whole thing. That’s, I can’t probably be that person right now. I’m never great at being that person, but Lee Anne is that person. And it matters, and having that matters. She is an incredible ally, especially for a journey like we are in right now. She’s great. She’s incredible. Thanks guys.
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