Kentucky-Northern Arizona Postgame Quotes
UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY MEN’S BASKETBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE
November 13, 2026
Lexington, Kentucky, USA
Coach Mark Pope
Press Conference
Kentucky – 78, Northern Arizona – 77
MARK POPE: Huge credit to Northern Arizona. They have been on the road, I think this is their 4th straight game and they came to compete tonight. I thought they did a terrific job. Played well. Made shots. Were tough. Did an unbelievable job on the defensive glass for the whole night. And made a real game of it. Proud of our guys for coming up with the win. Found a way to win. So much to learn and so much to grow from. Some good things to take away, including some things that we need to work on and we are excited to keep learning and growing.
Q Mark, what is this team doing defensively or what do you want them to do defensively that they are not doing and that you think they can do, especially in the short time here?
MARK POPE: We had some slippage in our defensive identity. I think that comes from, once you get into game planning, sometimes your game planning can take away from the central core of who you are defensively, tonight. I’m excited to watch the film. But it felt like for a lot of this game we were really mig less. Which is a rotational position that is key to everything that we do. And we kind of got stuck, giving Northern Arizona a lot of credit, they made a lot of shots. But we kind of got stuck not playing rotational defense like we’ve trained since the first day we got here. Us reclaiming our identity defensively going to be really, really important. I did think our defensive energy was good. I thought our defensive execution was incredibly poor. Sometimes you are focusing and your intensity can drag you away from discipline and so, mastering those two things is really important for us going forward. We are going to be a much better defensive team than we were tonight. That’s not taking anything away from Northern Arizona, I thought they were terrific.
Q Mark, I think Northern Arizona came into this game 314th in the nation in rebound margin. Was this an effort issue? What caused so much problem getting rebounds?
MARK POPE: Yeah. We will credit them first for being really, really focused on the assignment. Clearly is not acceptable for us. We had zero offensive rebounds in the first half and we had one in the game. That is just, again, that’s not acceptable for us. That’s a place where we really have to grow. If you look at the offensive line, you are 21-4 assistive turnover ratio which is actually elite, it’s astounding. But you had one offensive rebound. That’s where we are right now as a team, is finding some ways to do some things great and there are some massive slippage where we are doing things poorly. Most importantly, the guys found a way to stick together through all of it and come away with a win. That’s where this thing rests, and is the most important part. But we’ve got to do it a little more solidly in the future.
Q Can you talk about the shot that Alex Wilkins made in such a clutch time moment. He seemed to be a clutch time player.
MARK POPE: We are seeing Alex Wilkins, the second time he’s done it. We played seven games and we’ve won six of them and two of them he’s had late game last-second heroics. And I think, you know, when he raced down to the corner and lined up, I think everybody thought this ball’s probably going in. That’s just who he is. And he’s got a fearless nature to him. And so, clearly it was a big shot for us. It was actually an important shot.
Q Coach, you had seemed like a roller coaster of emotions from the fans and reactions. One minute they seemed frustrated and the next minute they are on their feet going crazy. What would be your message to the fans in this time right now?
MARK POPE: I hope everybody at Rupp had fun. It was a pretty exciting game. You saw a Northern Arizona game that was playing a team that was playing great basketball and a Kentucky team that was trying to find themselves. And it came down to the last second and it’s pretty entertaining, if not well executed, it’s really entertaining. And I think it’s going to be a fun team to follow. Like I said, this team is, with one exception, they are finding ways to win games and will continue down that path as we try to land and settle the ship and execute better. The crowd was amazing, by the way. They were great down the stretch. They were unbelievable. It’s Awesome. Rupp is a beautiful place.
Q Obviously, Kam Williams didn’t play in this one even at a time in the first half where you were up double digits. Was that just precautionary, wanting to make sure he’s okay or was there something there with him?
MARK POPE: Kam is kinda working his way back. He’s healthy, he’s okay. We are just trying to work him back gently.
Q You talked about the defensive execution being poor. I guess exactly what was going wrong within the game that led it to be so poor almost start to finish?
MARK POPE: First, I want to give Arizona credit. They were really deliberate in what they do. They really kinda take their time and make you guard late into the shot clock. They keep pace of the game the way they want it. Coleman, I thought was terrific. He really torched us. We kinda had the game in hand defensively and then he just kinda switches it and got busy at the end of the second half. He was really difficult for us. And it kind of got us stretched out on the floor. Again, our principles, our defensive shell ball screen principles just kind of fell to pieces. And when we were a little scattered. It was just us getting back to who we are on the defensive side, it’s really important. Listen, that’s something you go through throughout the course of the season. There will be slippage and then coming together more and then there will be a little slippage and then come back together more. The most important thing is you gather wins along the way. Thanks, guys.
KENTUCKY BASKETBALL POSTGAME QUOTES
KENTUCKY VS. NAU
RUPP ARENA – LEXINGTON, KY.
NOVEMBER 13, 2026
PLAYER QUOTES
Milan Momcilovic
On how the team can improve defensively…
“I think our ball pressure first has to increase… if we can heat the ball up, that’ll be better. And I feel like I think we have to rebound better.”
On Alex Wilkins securing the 3-point shot…
“I feel like we know who our closer is now. I mean he’s done it twice, in the UCF game and this game. He just hits tough shots… he’s shifty, he can check his defender and get to the spot he wants.”
On the poor rebounding this game…
“I would say it’s more of the technical stuff. We’re missing some, just missing some assignments, which leads to scramble, and then we’re scrambling… I feel like if we can minimize us scrambling all around every possession, then we can actually box someone out.”
Malachi Moreno
On how the team will react to tonight’s game and learn from it…
“I really just think they serve as lessons, but it’s definitely good to get these early in the season so we can learn from it and continue to get better. We’re a new bunch and we’ve had our time to get together, but these are lessons that we needed, and now we have this lesson to move forward.”
On Alex Wilkins’ play and his ability to make plays in significant moments…
“I wouldn’t want the ball in anybody else’s hands to be honest. We played UCF, he had that floater at the end and overtime and today he hits a game winner so that just shows he’s here and he gets buckets.”
On the rebounding ability tonight…
“No, I think they just knew that we were a good offensive rebounding team and a good defensive rebound team. So I think they really tried to limit our rebounds. We tried to fight better to get the ball so it’s definitely on me, stats show, I only had six rebounds and that’s unacceptable.”
On the state of Kentucky’s defense…
“I think, a lot of times, we get in the ball screen, then they kick out, pass, pass, and it kind of feels like we’re almost in a scramble mode. Like I said, this is a lesson and we’re going to learn from it and we’re really going to crack down so that when we face this type of situation again, we’ll be ready.”
Northern Arizona Head Coach Shane Burcar
Opening Statement…
“I thought we played a really, really good game. You know, we’ve come in here at Rup Arena and had a couple one-and-ones to win a game. It was so close and you give credit number four, you had a baseline jump shot to get it within two. We got the ball in our right hands, and you know, as a coach, maybe I can put our guys in a better situation with the fouling game at the end, and they were out of timeouts. But that’s just hard, that’s probably the most historical win in NAU history to come in here and beat a top 25 team. Give credit to Kentucky and Coach Pope, and Wilkins hit the shot. I mean, they made some shots at the end, and if we do foul, who knows, maybe they make a shot anyway. So we got to live and learn from it. We got a heck of a schedule. We played at UNLV, at New Mexico, then Arizona, Tuesday, and we came here and we battled at the end of the stretch. We called it wildcat week with Arizona and Kentucky. So really impressed with our guys, with their resiliency. You know, we outrebounded, a big Kentucky team. So it sure would be nice to finish the deal, and unfortunately, we didn’t.”
On what they saw on Kentucky’s defense that helped them work with the shot clock …
“Well, I don’t know if there’s anything that we could exploit. We just played in Arizona, Tuesday night, we scored 37 points in the 2nd half. So I thought that was encouraging. We shared the ball really well, and we weren’t necessarily trying to drag out the shot clock. We were just trying to get a good shot and continue to share it. You know, get down the hills, our first priority, offensively, is to get to the free throw line. I think we only shot 12 free throws tonight. So there wasn’t anything that we were trying to exploit per say. We want to get the ball to the front court, and we call it gator, a transition offense. We did want to shoot 3 pointers. That’s something that we have to do. We shot 15 in the first half, and 11 in the second half. So we are a pretty good 3-point shooting team. We showed that tonight. So nothing. We just want the stick coming into the game. We’re going to play NAU offense. Just stick toward concepts and let the scoreboard take care of itself.”
