The Kentucky Wildcats are 9-1 through the first ten game stretch of Mark Pope at Kentucky. BBN has fallen in love with the aggressive and adaptive style of the new-age Cats and the energy only picks up this weekend. Kentucky will host the Louisville Cardinals (6-4, 0-1) at 5:15 PM EST this Saturday for the first matchup between Pope and new Cardinal head coach Pat Kelsey. Pope discussed everything from Lamont Butler’s status, to Louisville, to a proposed change to the college basketball schedule in his pregame press conference.
Lamont Butler
Tip-off this Saturday will be eleven days since Lamont Butler sustained a foot injury at Clemson, and it does not sound like the starting point guard is progressing as quickly as hoped. “Lamont was on the court a little bit [Thursday], but he didn’t do anything with [the team].” Pope said multiple times how much he would love to have Butler in the rivalry matchup but said “I don’t know if he’s going to be quite ready.” With Kerr Kriisa out for an extended period of time, Travis Perry, Collin Chandler, and Otega Oweh were all mentioned as people who could fill in at point guard. It is clear how important Lamont Butler is to this team, and being without him again would be another tough challenge for the Cats.
Louisville Rivalry
The first question Pope was asked about Louisville was his favorite memory from playing in what he called “one of the most iconic rivalries in all of sports.” “Winning,” the head coach said with a smile, “the games are so fun and so intense.” Pope was specifically impressed by Chucky Hepburn, Louisville’s defensive leader who also leads the Cardinals in points in assists, saying he propels their whole team to be “super disruptive and really aggressive.” He talked about how talented and versatile Louisville’s frontcourt is, but Pope did say he intends for Kentucky’s depth to wear down the injury-riddled Cardinals. “They’re a good team, and they’ve already proven to be really really dangerous.”
Big Picture College Basketball
With a lot of talks about expanding the NCAA Tournament this week, Pope did not have a strong opinion one way or another. “I do believe it’s the best event in all of sports, and so when you have something like that you proceed with the upmost caution when considering changes.” His answer almost provided more insight into the way he processes information than a true answer to the proposed change. He repeatedly said the decision makers should be “incredibly intentional” with making decisions and they should make sure to consider all the possible unintended consequences expanding the NCAA Tournament could bring.
Pope also had his own proposal to college basketball: a 40-game season. Even if it needs to be an extension of the exhibition game schedule, Pope believes “making the season longer will give us a better product because you have to build a team in one season… it makes a huge difference in revenue stream and it gives you a huge opportunity to go play other teams.” Pope also believes it would help prepare the players for the next level as well, recalling how tired he was by the All-Star Break in his rookie season in the NBA. We know how thoughtful and deliberate Mark Pope is so it will be interesting to see how quickly other coaches will join him in this position.
L’s Down
Pope said, “It’s our job to really really hate Louisville.” There will be a sold-out crowd of professional Louisville-haters there to help the Cats beat the Cards tomorrow night.
Photo Credits to the Courier Journal
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