Pope Making Sure that Cats Embrace Kentucky Standards

From the time he was hired as the men’s basketball coach at Kentucky, Mark Pope has embraced the expectations of the program and of the Big Blue Nation. Pope knows that a national championship is always the expectation at UK. He even recalled the 1996 UK championship team, where he was a captain on Rick Pitino’s squad, and how Pitino embraced the expectations at Kentucky.

“He was different. He just told us if we didn’t win every game, he was going to kill us,” Pope said. “I never knew exactly what that meant, if it was just going to be figuratively in practice or actually kill us. It was probably some grouping of both.”

Now, almost 30 years later, Pope knows that the expectations in the Bluegrass have not changed one iota.

“But the expectation was exactly the same (in 1996),” Pope said. “The expectation here has nothing to do with me setting it. It’s what it is at Kentucky. It’s one of the things that sets us apart from every other program in the country. I happen to love it. I love every bit of it. I’m grateful to be here where only one ending to the season makes it a satisfying season. That’s where I want to be and that’s where our guys want to be.”

Pope’s second UK squad continues to work through summer practices, getting to know each other both on and off the floor. What has Pope seen from the team so far?

“I think we have some space to find some great pace with this team for a lot of reasons,” Pope said. “I think we have some personnel who have motors. I think we have some depth that we can really rely on. We have a versatile group of bigs who can attack the game in several different ways.”

Kentucky struggled at times on defense last season. However, Pope believes that the 2025-26 Cats have a chance to be really good defensively.

“I thought this team had a chance to grow into a great defensive team,” Pope said. “We have a long way to go but I think we can get there. I think we have a chance to have a dynamic backcourt. I have high hopes for this group. I think we have a chance.”

Pope made a change this season in practices. He wants the team to live up to some specific guidelines. When they don’t, he’s willing to halt practice to address the shortcomings.

“One of our key ideas this year is living to a standard every single possession,” he said. “So, we’re going to blow up practice a lot more.”

That, along with many other things, are part of living up to the standards and the expectations that are omnipresent at Kentucky.