Kentucky-Tennessee Postgame Quotes
UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY MEN’S BASKETBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE
February 7, 2026
Lexington, Kentucky, USA
Coach Mark Pope
Press Conference
Kentucky – 74, Tennessee – 71
MARK POPE: All right, first, congratulations to Tennessee, man, what a game, what a game. I’m just happy for them. It was a great college basketball game, man. It was elite level talent on the floor. Making big-time plays. Two teams really fighting it out. I’m just really grateful to be a part of it. We had a normal Kentucky circus day today. Our partners at Nike are unbelievable. It’s the best partnership in sports. They take such great care of us. We are grateful to Book for bringing so much love and juice back to Kentucky with these Book denims. We are grateful for Nike for taking care of our guys and these incredible jackets and all the gear they did bringing back the denim of uniforms. The pop-up store was awesome and we are grateful for BBN showing out and making that really special. Just grateful for Nike and that partnership is awesome. I’m proud of our guys, man. I talked to our guys before we went out on the locker room. It’s Kentucky, there’s so much noise surrounding everything these guys do and honoring the denim and bringing back the denim was such a big deal and such a big storyline. I talked to them right before and said, guys, I know all of this is going on, but this is not about 30 years ago. This is not about denim, this is just about anything except for the story that you guys are writing right now. Because the story that these guys are writing right now is awesome. It’s their story. And if you are not enjoying it, if you are not on this ride with us, I feel bad for you because it just is what it is, man. It might not be the normal way we do things here in Kentucky, but it’s pretty great. Take questions. These guys will take questions too. They are good to take questions. What I can’t wait for, honestly, I cannot wait to go watch the film. I’m not even going to watch what happened on the court, I’m going to watch these guys the whole time behind the bench. I can’t wait.
Q What does it mean that you know it’s over, what’s it mean personally to win a game like this with these guys back?
MARK POPE: It means that our group text is not going to be quite so vile. This is not about me, it’s actually not about us, it’s about the guys that played. On a very personal level, it means a lot. I love these guys so much. I don’t know, Al went to unbelievable lengths to get here today. We talk three or four or five times a year, and I’m just using Al because he’s standing right here. The connection that we have, like you can’t buy it. There’s nothing in the world like it. I care about these guys so much. I love them so much. I’m grateful that they could be honored in all the ways that they got honored today and I’m grateful our team was honored them with a win. Because that matters too, it matters to me.
Q Coach, there’s been a lot said this year about a guy, like a go-to scoring guy. But you got a whole cast of people behind you that forms one of the most cohesive teams in Kentucky history. What can you say about this years team playing into that same team first, die for each other identity?.
MARK POPE: I would like this team to continue to adopt that. We don’t have that many guys on the roster anymore. Everybody is stepping up. We got unbelievable contribution from Jasper Johnson. He’s in the guts of the game. He’s probably our best option. He was terrific. BG, again gave us real juice. Mo Dioubate, maybe did not have his best game, but like, I don’t understand how every clutch offensive rebound at the free-throw line, he comes up with one big one down the stretch of every single game. Collin Chandler continues to be like ice in his veins. One of my favorite moments of the game was after he banged that three. Which was just cold, man. We walked in the huddle and Otega grabbed him and went eye to eye with him and said you are a cold, there was a lot of other words behind it. When you earn that from your teammates. Then you start to feel like we got to feel. And Otega is carrying a lot of weight. For him to be like, man, I’ve got a guy out here that’s going to step up and just make shots. Malachi, how physical is Malachi in the offensive post tonight. We could have milked him a lot more. He was a monster. He was so determined in the post offensively. Go down the list of everybody, Trent, BA, everybody we have contributed. We need everyone and everyone is showing up and we are making it really dramatic.
Q Mark, you mentioned this team is writing its own story. How much do you feel like it understands what it means to play for UK now where you are getting this kind of effort and there won’t be any games like a Gonzaga or something like that from the past?
MARK POPE: I mentioned this to our guys that these denim uniforms, when we first got them, do you guys like them? I don’t think anybody liked them. Who made them? Converse, I don’t even think converse liked them originally. When I walked in the locker room today and saw the guys for the first time, I seriously was like having Deja vu, it was crazy. But we came to love them. Not because they were denim, but because what these guys did wearing them. And our guys, you know, guys can come here and I can talk to them till I’m blue in the face and BBN can reach out to them nonstop. But you don’t really understand what this is until you have bled and suffered and sacrificed for this place. That’s actually what makes this jersey great. And these guys are in the process of doing it, man. They just refuse. The hits we’ve taken this year. I wouldn’t wish on anybody. But these guys refused to go away. So that’s why they are actually making it. They are making this great. They are earning the understanding of what it means to be Kentucky by their blood, sweat, and tears. Super cool.
Q Coach, you guys have won eight of your last nine games. Can you talk about the individuals in the locker room that are taking on those leadership roles that really maybe weren’t there early in the season?
MARK POPE: Let want to brag about our staff. Mikhail McLean gave one of the great pre-game speeches today. So our staff is stepping up. Coach Fox had this scout, this Tennessee team is really good and the have been playing elite level basketball. They’ve got a top 3, definitely top 5 pick on the team that really showed out tonight. This Gillespie is a veteran, a tough kid. We are getting huge contributions from our staff. Those two and the rest of the guys on our staff also and our players are just in it together, man. It’s a short rotation, we don’t have a deep bench and these guys are fighting for each other.
MARK POPE: Mark, can you take us through that last 3 by Collin. Especially leading up to the 3, O’s drive and the body control and the vision to get it out there to him?
MARK POPE: Yeah, we actually changed up the play. We were going to go back same rip and I was going to have DA be the snap guy and literally as we were walking on the floor, I was talking to Otega about maybe the reject feels good. We ended up sending him. And O is just, the way he’s grown is just incredible. It’s really incredible. He did not have a good first-half. He was frustrated on the defensive end and a lot of it had to do with Tennessee. Man, he stepped up and made great under control super, physical demanding plays. And then Collin Chandler just continues to, it’s been every game, like every game, the scout on him is going to be in the last four minutes, like, just please guard him at 94 feet and don’t let him touch the ball, he’s making them on the defensive end, down on the glass, and on the offensive end. We are enjoying that, it makes my job easier for sure.
Q So, Mo Dioubate, I want to bring him up again, over here. Quiet on the box score. As you mentioned, 2 rebounds, one of them huge at the end of the game. His 4 points, they were unanswered. That cut Tennessee’s lead down to 6. How important has he been stepping into almost that clutch roll, especially in these games that are decided within a few points.
MARK POPE: It is so important to have a player that will make the, the plays he’s making are not the stuff that you see on SportsCenter top 10. But they are the plays that win. His offensive rebounds down the stretch in the last three minutes at Tennessee are what won us the game. His offensive rebound at the free-throw line is the play that sealed the game for us today. You just can’t overstate the value of that and sometimes it’s hard to love that as a player when that’s who you are. Which is unfortunate. Because everybody else in the league would kill to have that guy that is going to make that play. I actually thought Mo was cooking for the game. I thought our guys offensively, I thought our execution early was unbelievable hitting the short roll. We just got a little rushed. Our short roll guys. They had the whole world in front of them but we just got a little rushed, but we were making the plays we needed to but we just didn’t finish after that. He was in line to have a great game but he got a little frustrated there. Maybe that was some defense and miscues and their size bothered us, their short roll big to big plays were great. They were really good at getting that short roll and throwing it into the rim and trusting their player is going to be there. We adjusted that late and we were better when we started zoning up and being in a real C3. Mo just makes huge plays down the stretch. He’s really good and we are grateful to have him.
Q Coach Pope, you mentioned earlier ice in his veins. It feels like it does not matter what kind of game he’s having, you put the ball in Collin Chandler hands late, he’s going to hit his shot. As a coach, do you feel a weight lifted off your shoulders when you see him shoot it, or are you still tense?
MARK POPE: I feel like it’s going in. I feel like it’s going in and I feel good when he’s shooting it. We have a pretty faithful team and our guys, man, they are earning their belief. Confidence is an interesting thing. Because you don’t have confidence. No one gives you confidence. You go earn confidence. You earn it, you have to go earn it. You do it by being resilient and never giving up and keep hitting it and hitting it and hitting it and coming back and coming back and coming back. Our guys are earing some confidence.
Q Mark, you talked early in the year about this team having to learn to win together and lose together and even mentioned early on in the year about things that happened after certain games. But then, just a minute ago was the loudest I’ve ever heard that locker room from the inside of this room. You celebrated with BBN afterwards. How is this team coming together as a group through this winning and through the stretch and through the tough time?
MARK POPE: I think it’s belief. I really do. It’s part of losing ourselves in our commitment to the team. You know, one of the things about taking some tough losses is it can steal you of your own personal agendas really fast. If you are willing to be humble, it can steal your personal agendas really fast. The blessing of it is if you do it right, once you lose those agendas, you have a chance to be together. I think our guys are celebrating each other today. Listen, they feel the pressure, they feel all the pressure. I had these guys, it was probably a bad idea, I had these guys talk to them right after shootaround. You could just feel that when you have these legends walking into our huddle and you feel the pressure, right? But our guys are leaning on each other and they are delivering.
Q It feels like Otega goes out and gets 20 every night, coach. What has his consistency done to help this team as they kinda found their way?
MARK POPE: It’s unbelievable what he does. It’s really incredible. Like I said, I don’t think he was very pleased with his first-half. We switched. We actually moved him off 10 and put Collin on 10 and Collin did a really admirable job in the second half and Otega did an unbelievable job on Gillespie, unbelievable job on Gillespie in the second half. He had to managed every single possession working those highball screens and his defense is what was so much better in the second half. He brings it every night. He is just a warrior, his competitive spirit continues to grow. He’s putting together a season. I don’t know, he’s got to be somewhere in pretty exclusive company with what he’s doing in SEC play right now. It’s unbelievable how consistent he is. It’s pretty special.
Q Mark, we heard a lot about after last season when defense was, not a strength at times, but one of the emphasis for this season was getting better defensively. When you look at the second half holding them 6 for 30 from the field if you took away – they are 3 for 24 in the second half. Was that about as good as a half of defensive basketball as this team has played at the two seasons here?
MARK POPE: We were not good the first half. We were giving open threes. We died in every gap in the first half, it was really frustrating. To take this team, which is a terrific offensive team with elite level talent and hold them to 37% from the field is a major accomplishment. Our goal is to hold teams at 39%. We have not had a ton of success at that and that’s a pretty ambitious goal but when you hold a team at 37% you are going to win most times. We had to. They out rebounded us by 15. It was really important for us and I was proud of how our guys stepped up to the second half, to hold them to 20% in the second half is a big deal. Part of that, listen, we don’t win this game without BBN in the gym. Just to be honest. BBN, the volume of this place, like the gym was electric tonight. BBN was on it. I don’t know if people had been partying for four hours before the game. But it was great in the gym. That’s exhausting as an opponent to not just withstand the push of our play but also this crowd, I think it’s really hard, and they certainly contributed to the second half with Tennessee.
Q Coach, back here. Why does it say that you had so many different guys make clutch plays and you had Collin and obviously Mo but then Denzil hit those free throws at the end so guys we able to make that play. The second part of the question. Since you guys won in them, does that mean the denims might come back again?
MARK POPE: There was some conversation back there, somebody was saying we have to wear them every game now? Why are we talking about losing? Can we crush Kam, can we talk about Kam’s speech to the guys, is that what you said?
Q Mark, most of the guys on that stage right now could have gone elsewhere and played 35 minutes per game. We all know what your guys accomplished with sacrifice. You talked about that to the media. Have you talked about that much with your guys and your team and use them as an example?
MARK POPE: Yeah, a lot. Here’s the thing. We talk about it all the time. Talking takes us so far, like we talked about earlier. The experience takes you the final steps, right? The experience is what really gets you there, the sacrifice is what gets you there. There is nowhere else in the country where 30 years later you get to walk into the gym like these guys get to walk into the gym. That’s what you get at Kentucky. There’s nowhere else, there’s nowhere else where you are walking in the gym 30 years later, still really handsome, maybe put on a couple of lbs. But where you walk in the gym and get the reception that you do here from BBN, there’s nowhere else. That’s the family you join here at Kentucky that’s unlike anywhere else. And I know these guys wouldn’t trade it for anything, I wouldn’t either. Thank you guys.
KENTUCKY BASKETBALL POSTGAME QUOTES
KENTUCKY VS. TENNESSEE
RUPP ARENA – LEXINGTON, KY.
FEBRUARY 8, 2026
KENTUCKY QUOTES
#0, Otega Oweh, G
On never giving up…
“It was good, like I said, because we’ve been here so we know we can’t come into the locker room all down, depressed, or too rattled. Obviously, we had some adjustments that we had to do, and we did them. That’s what our halftime looks like. It’s more just figuring out how we can fix it.”
On the ‘96 team coming back…
“It was awesome. I feel like it was a really cool night. I came to shoot around, brought out the new jerseys for them. We just got to honor and celebrate them and what they did. We dream and aspire for that every single day. To see them do it and then come back and show love, it’s easy to kind of get all rattled up and wrap our minds around that, but we saw the game to go out there and play. Coach both did a really good job of making sure that we were locked in and still going out there and winning the game.
On getting an understanding of what it means to play here…
“First game. I mean, first game I was here, so last year.”
#5, Colin Chandler, G
On being scared of taking the shot…
“Scared of? For sure not, for sure not. It’s like I’ve been saying, it’s what you dream of and it’s just coming in the flow of our offense. I’m just grateful for that moment.”
On what he thought of Oweh’s pass…
“I mean it was unbelievable, I mean from my angel, it was great, but I watched the video already from the baseline, and unbelievable.”
On what it was like talking to the 96’ team
“Well, it’s just cool because we’ve experienced a lot of meeting the people of Kentucky and what it means to them. To hear what it means from the players that aren’t, a lot of them aren’t from Kentucky. Um hearing what it means to them 30 years later is um cool. I think it touches our heartstrings a little bit because it’s going to be us.”
#24, Malachi Moreno, F
On adjustments the team made at halftime…
“I think coming into the second half, it was just key to really pay attention to detail and just to really cut off the two main scorers… then just make other guys make a play.”
On how the team has grown over their past eight wins…
“We’re very physical… I don’t think many players on the team are concerned with how many points they score… they’re just concerned with winning, and that’s the recipe for success.”
On how it felt to play in the denim jerseys…
“It was awesome… we got to represent a team that was unbelievable thirty years ago… I think being able to keep that tradition going, that’s the best Saturday.
Tennessee Quotes
Head Coach Rick Barnes
On offense in the second half…
“Well obviously, with the way we made shots in the first half, he knew they were going to put more issues on Jacoby and Nate and we were getting what we wanted. In the middle of ball screens, we just didn’t finish it. At that point in time I thought we needed more post guys, but I think both teams played really hard and not a lot of easy baskets out there. ”
On playing the full 40 minutes…
“No, I don’t think there is any question our guys want to win and they play hard. Kentucky is a really good basketball team. We had a big breakdown on the three. We over rotated on the baseline, but then they were driving really hard to the basket, and it wasn’t because lack of effort. We really did a good job defending the three better than we did last game, that one play he made a nice pass to it, but we didn’t execute that last three that they got the way we needed to.”
On assists in the second half…
“You have to be better, and that’s one of the things I told him at halftime, and he plays hard. I said it and I’ll say it all year, he’s got to learn to shoot a midrange jump shot, and he’s got a good one, as good as anybody in the country. He’s got to learn to do that when he’s open, and it will open up so much more for other things.”
On this game feels compared to the one in Knoxville…
“I can take this one. The one in Knoxville took me two days to get over, and I’ve been doing this a long time. I can normally let them go pretty quickly, but we gift-wrapped that one. They did what they had to do; they did exactly what they had to do: win the game. This is exactly how we felt; even when we were up, we knew it was going to settle down to a last-minute play, and we got to get a better shot than we did there at the end and put a little more pressure on the referees than we did. We will bounce back; they work too hard, and their work ethic is too good, and we have not reached the ceiling with this team, and that’s a good thing right now that we can keep going.”
