Kentucky-Texas Tech Postgame Quotes
UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY MEN’S BASKETBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE
October 23, 2026
Lexington, Kentucky, USA
Coach Mark Pope
Press Conference
Kentucky – 76, Texas Tech – 65
MARK POPE: I’m really grateful for these opportunities we have. This is week 5 of a 6 week training camp for us. NCAA changed this rule and allowed us to play these games. They are so instructive. You learn so much. You get a chance to experiment with things. Especially for us, every time I look out on the floor, I’m more and more humbled at how young we are for our guys to have this experience and grateful for Grant, he’s got a great team and they are so good and he’s a big time coach. I’m grateful for the way Rupp feels. I will never take it for granted. The 20,000 People find their way into this arena for exhibition games. It’s just amazing. Big Blue nation is incredible. Little bit of story of turnovers for us. We had 7 turnovers in the first 11 minutes and the game was clunky and then the guys did a better job protecting the ball. Four more, but really only 2 live play turnovers the last 29 minutes and I thought that was the biggest direction of the game. In the second half from the 12, the third media timeout stretched from 12 to 8 and we kind of got stuck a little bit and I thought our guys responded great, you know, 8 minutes left, give or take. It’s a tie game. We give up a 10 point lead to a really good team and our guys responded well. So much to learn and we got to clean up the glass, clearly. We were at 74% contest rate, which our goal is to be at 80. But against this particular team one of the reasons we were so excited to play them is they make it really hard to get to an 80% contest rate. We’ve got a lot of growth there. Overall, a good night for our guys and we are excited to move forward and keep getting better and move on to week 6.
Q Mark, there were times today where Ousmane looked like he was completely taking over the game. As you get closer to the regular season, what are the keys for you guys to really maximize those moments from him?
MARK POPE: This team, they spread the floor out. They shoot it so well. And they shoot it so much. Their stampedes are great, which is when you catch the ball on the move in a drive and kick situation. There are guards that are really, really explosive. So the thing I was mostly proud of Ous was with his feet. I thought his feet were really good. He gave up a couple of strong hand drives. Their personnel is, the simple scout on the personnel as a drive right drive left player is impactful for them. Ous got beat a couple times. But I thought overall was good. At the beginning of the game he didn’t communicate ball screen switches very well, but he got much better at that as the game went on and he was good on the glass. His length had impact. I think we are barely seeing the beginnings of what he can be and it’s just a race to see how quickly he can get better.
Q Coach, can you just talk about the play of Mason Williams over the last two games? Is it something that you come to expect from him now, 10 points, 14 points, can you just talk about what he’s done for this team?
MARK POPE: Yeah, Mason is in a space right now just with our health as a team. He has to play, he’s going to have to play 24 minutes a game, 26 minutes a game. We’ve only have 3 guards really to fill 2 positions right now. I have a lot of faith in him. I’ve been a big fan of his. We studied him a lot during the course of the year and he showed signs and he comes in with a college ready-made body. He wants to grow into a good player. He’s trying to understand what is happening on the floor. But he’s learning quickly and we need him to be good and he is, again, one of those guys who’s got a really high ceiling if he keeps growing. So we need him to do that.
Q With Alex, how important is it for him to know when his shot isn’t falling, but you still want him to shoot the ball? And then also, in those scenarios, what can he bring with just his feistiness out there especially defensively and with that intensity?
MARK POPE: Alex is never going to ask my permission to shoot the ball, he’s not wired that way. I was so impressed with him. I’m telling tell you what. You guys have heard me talk about it for 5 months, right? Just about how excited we are about what he can eventually grow into. Again, you will hear me say this, the third player that has a really high ceiling. He’s nowhere near it, not even close to it right now. He showed me something tonight with his engagement on the defensive end. I’m so proud of him. You know, it’s not the way he usually defines his game. His effort was elite, his effort and focus and intentionality on the defensive end. If he can live in that space consistently. Then we got a young man that could really grow into a big-time player. I’m so proud of that. We are going to encourage him to stay in that space. It’s a good guide for him because the offensive stuff is going to come. That’s going to come easy. He’s 7-3 today. We love the 7 assists. I’d like him to be a 7-1, that might be greedy. But defensively he was just so excited to take on the challenge and he made us feel different on the defensive end. Against a team that’s really hard to guard man, they are hard to guard.
Q Coach, tonight you went on that run in the first half with the same line-up that you had when you went on the run in the second half with of Ousmane, Malachi, Milan, Mason and Alex. What did that offense bring to the court against the opponent you had tonight that let them go on multiple runs and how does Alex and Mason play off each other so well when they are on the floor together?
MARK POPE: They are so far away from, you know, we don’t really know what we are doing yet. We are a work in progress that way. I actually thought Malachi had a, maybe not as present on the box score, but he had some physicality on the offensive end that was really important for us tonight, it was really important. I do think those three guards man, Zoom, Alex and Mason have a chance to cause some problems for us. They are multidimensional guards. They can shoot and pass it and drive it. They each bring a little bit of a different vibe to the game and we need them to be good. That’s our backcourt, that’s what we got right now.
Q Coach, you had 18 assist tonight on 25 made field goals. Is that something more like you are looking for from the team?
MARK POPE: Yeah, we are 18-11, there are some similarities in the teams, they were 18-11 also. That’s a really important number for us. And we like to be at 2+ to 1 if we can. So we fell a little bit shy of that. The last 29 minutes of the game, we were much better. It was the first 11 where we were just trying to find ourselves. Listen, you look out there and we spent 20 minutes of this game with 2 freshman, 2 sophomores and a senior on the floor. We are young. We are just going to keep figuring things out and keep growing. I’m really encouraged by this group and they are fun to coach. For those people to want to jump on the ride man, it’s going to be really fun to watch these guys grow into who they are going to become because this team, we are not going to come close to the ceiling until we get closer to the end of the year. So, we got to keep growing every day.
Q Mark, going back to Alex for a second. Somebody who’s making a transition as he is from Furman to here. Do you have to sell him at all on the importance of, you know, as you said, he was like a disrupter in that first half as well as a facilitator. Do you have to sell him on the importance of that? It’s not the same role as Furman where he was the number one guy who had had to take those shots, but he doesn’t have to take the kind of shots here?
MARK POPE: He’s going to have to take them in some moments. There’s some moments where he has to take shots. He’s trying to learn. Sometimes you have so many skills it can be actually harder to learn when and where to use them than when you just have a limited package. Right? He’s got so many skills. And there will be times where we just need him to take over a game. There’s going to be times when we have several guys that we need to take over, not a game, but 2 minutes in a game. He can do that for us. Like I said, I’m going to sleep really well tonight in the sense that he just found some real passion for this defense. I will talk about Alex. We’ve been doing a different, you know, in prep for this game. This was week 5. It’s like week 5 lesson plan was all this week. It was kind of all planned out. So, we went in our shell drill, we went from 4 out, to 1 out, to 3 low because we want our guys to have to work in double gaps. And the first day, three days ago, Alex was a train wreck. And so, as we went through the same rhythm every single day, he started like kicking the next guy out of line because he’s like, I got to try this again, I’ve got to learn this. Eventually coach Fox and him, coach Fox finally had to kick him out because he’s so hungry to learn. If our guys will approach the game like that consistently, where they start to really care about those little things, then we have a chance to grow and we will keep growing. I’m proud of him. He’s got to keep growing.
Q Mark, I just wanted to follow up on Mason. Specifically, just how impressive is it with these 2 exhibitions? He’s played 48 minutes and only committed 1 turnover.
MARK POPE: He knows that’s really important. I think he’s been really solid with the ball. We’ve kind of had him off the ball a bunch trying to protect him as much as we can. He’s going to keep going. Like I said, that trio is our backcourt and they have a chance to be really good. We’ve got so much growing to do. You know, it’s week 5. It is what it is. I’m very optimistic about what they can accomplish. But we have a lot to learn. That’s why these games are great. That’s why I’m grateful for these. Cheers to the NCAA for getting this one right. Thanks, guys.
KENTUCKY BASKETBALL POSTGAME QUOTES
KENTUCKY VS. TEXAS TECH
RUPP ARENA – LEXINGTON, KY.
OCTOBER 23, 2026
KENTUCKY PLAYER QUOTES
#10 Alex Wilkins, G
On his growth …
“I’m not the best defensive player ever, but it’s just effort. I just work every day, day in and day out. Just continue to build.”
On playing alongside freshman Mason Williams…
“It’s funny because you hear things about someone before you come, and I heard Mason is a hard worker. He does all the little things, stuff like that. It’s been great, he can do everything.”
On playing in transition with Ousmane…
“The way he runs, the way he goes up and down the floor, his motor, he has been really cool to play with. He doesn’t ask much, he doesn’t ask for anything.”
#24 Malachi Moreno F
On physicality …
“One of the things he kind of said to me throughout the summer was he’s going to be running a lot of offense through his fives, which he’s done almost his entire coaching career. And he said to me in the locker room today, I had a good feel on offense today, and it just opens up so much for everybody else. So if I can be a threat on offense, it opens up shots for everybody else, and then we get it moving.”
On the freshmen, especially Mason’s big second-half 3 …
“That’s what they do, man. They surprise me every single day, but every single day we come to work, so they’re always getting better, and they’re showing it in the game as well.”
Playing with Ousmane …
“It was very helpful. Ousmane is a big key piece for what we were building and what we need. His length makes a big difference on both ends of the floor, and he’s a monster on the glass. Y’all saw it tonight. He’s winning rebounds, and he can shoot it as well, so I think that makes him even more of a threat.”
Texas Tech Head Coach Grant McCasland
Opening Statement …
“I will start with, thanks for the box. Pope wont need this box, so thanks for letting me stand on it. Heck of an environment, obviously, Rupp is historic for a lot of reasons, but I thought that in the first half this place really came alive and made a huge difference. That is what’s awesome about exhibition games and playing them on the road in a tough environment like this, is you get to feel something that you haven’t felt with a new group. I thought that was huge for us to be able to respond to. Then, ultimately, I thought Kentucky’s length really bothered us. They did it without fouling. I got to be around Malachi at USA Basketball for two summers and he just moves so well and causes problems at the rim. We made some difficult shots over top of them in the first half, but at the end of the day, getting to the free throw line looked like the difference. We couldn’t generate enough physicality at the rim and draw foul pressure to make a difference in the game and I thought they could. Then it comes down to a few possessions and give Kentucky credit because they came up with a few loose balls in some tough moments, especially that offensive rebound where we rotated on the baseline and it was probably the biggest offensive rebound of the game and we gave it up and I have seen it a million times, Momcilovic made us pay from 3. Kentucky has a really good team. I thought their guard play did a really good job in the middle of the floor late in the game of just having good composure and making big shots and getting fouled. That is just what allows you to win some games in this league. Good test for us, had a great opportunity against a great team.”
On Mason Williams …
“His physical play at that guard position is real and that is one thing that jumped out to us on film watching him. He has composure. I thought that 3 that he hit in that stretch was huge. It was a momentum swing, it felt like we were getting back in it and he made a big 3. You can tell he was excited to compete too and wasn’t backing down. Those are things that, you know, you are coming out of a timeout or going into a timeout and he is vocal about the success that they are having. I loved his energy and thought he was a difference maker in the minutes that he played.”
