KSR - Mark Pope Interview 7/8/26

Episode Date: July 8, 2026

Matt and Drew are joined by Kentucky basketball coach Mark Pope.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Happy to be joined by Mark Pope. Mark, great to see you. I'm happy to be here, man. I like that blue sweatsuit you got going there. Thank you. Yeah. UK gear, I think, has improved in the last year or two. I don't know if you have anything to do worth it or not, but I like it.

Man, when I was here 30 years ago, we had all of it going on to. It was controversial at the time with the denim and then with the like. Hey, look at this right here. Look at these. Yeah. Yeah, I got the denim converse on for you. Got the metal hands. Yeah.

I mean, I think. we've been setting the standard for a long time. Well, let's talk. We only have you for a little while, so I actually want to get substantive basketball questions if you're good with that because I know people would like to hear. Let's talk about the team coming up this year. You've got 14 players, a lot of whom we don't know,

how are workouts going, and what do you think of the group you've seen so far? I know a couple are injured. I like our gym. Our gym feels good. You know, we set out with some very clear intentions as we work through the portal, to put this particular team together. And I think I like where we are.

I think we have a ton of creator vibe. And we're seeing that on the practice floor. We got a ton of length, a ton of shooting in some really fun, different levels. And I think we have some, you know, when we get healthy, this center spot's gonna be a real strength for us. So it's a good group. There's unbelievable juice on the practice floor.

Is there always should be in the summer? But this group is gonna be special. And it's been fun, man. Every day is a joy to walk into that gym. Was there anything you saw that maybe didn't work last year with the team that when you put this roster together, you said, I want to make sure I get that. Well, yes. I mean, this whole, and we've talked about it a lot publicly over the last couple of months,

but this whole vibe of having more creators on the floor is really important. And we could get deep, deep into the weeds on that where we have more guys that are capable of, of actually creating shots for themselves and creating shots for teammates that are causing power plays on the floor. So power play is just a term we use from hockey. We stole it from hockey where any time that you can earn a second defender and you earn the rest of your team a four on three or a three on two or sometimes a four on two if you're really good. We like to work out of space. And we didn't have as much of that last year as we traditionally do. you know, Jalen was such a massive piece of our organization.

And so we didn't have that healthy. We suffered a little bit through that our first year. And so we came in with two major priorities. One, Malachi Moreno is a massively important piece of what we're doing. Did you ever think that you were going to lose him? Well, you never know for sure. Malachi's heart is in Kentucky. He loves this place.

I think he's had a lot of faith in our staff. He's got a lot of passion about what we're doing. But the NBA poll is real. Yeah. It is a real thing. But you never thought you were going to lose him to another college. No, listen, anything can happen in the portal, as we've seen. Yeah.

You know, day after day after day, it's such a dynamic place. But I know Malachi's heart. I know what he cares about. Everybody in Kentucky knows how much he cares about this place. So he was a huge point of emphasis. And then this creator side of the ball was such a huge point of emphasis. and so we went really hard after those two spaces and then built in the rest of the roster. During the portal period, like, it's hard to know sometimes who you guys are going after and who you aren't.

I mean, you're kind of beholden to what the information is that out there. You had different guys in. How important was it because of some of the stuff that maybe happened earlier to close on Milan? Did you feel like that was a huge finishing piece? Well, yeah, so two things. One, it's unfortunate that you go through this process and there's so many reasons why we need to be private. One, it's rules that we have to be private. But two, there's a lot of times when we're dealing with players who want to keep things private.

Or, you know, we're dealing with complicated negotiations. So we do go through quietly. And so it leaves a lot of people having to just postulate. And so you end up with a lot of complicated information out there that might be far off the mark. but it's just everybody doing the best of care. But is there anything to do about that at a place like Kentucky where people want to know information? Yeah, I think you just ride through it.

You do. So, you know, there are a couple times this year where news broke from, you know, there's everybody, as we all live in, Kentucky is the greatest place in the world and everybody wants to know. And so, you know, you might be in a really sensitive moment in a negotiation and news breaks where it kind of makes a family upset because it's gone public. That'd be one of a million examples of how we kind of are trying to, like, thread the needle as we go through this. Does it upset you? No.

Because I think that probably happens. It doesn't upset me at all. Okay. It's just, it's all part of the business, guys. It's part of the deal. Yeah. And so our job is to navigate these spaces the best we possibly can. And, but also do it here where everybody cares more than they care everyone else.

And so that's a thread, like, like doing both of those. things at the same time as our job. That's what we do. And so, so there was a, you know, I think we felt a lot different in the office than maybe people felt publicly because I think from the very get-go, we knew exactly what we were trying to chase and how we were trying to get there. I do think Milan is a really important piece for us, not because he was early or late, because he fits me. He fits what I care about. He fits how we play. He's a veteran, veteran guy. I always thought, I mean, he looks, seems like, if you were to draw up a Mark Pope, stretch three, four, however you use him, it would be him, wouldn't it?

Yeah, he's, he's there. And, you know, he's, and so he was a, he's a very important piece of this puzzle. He happened to come later in the story. But the nice thing was the, one of the reasons why he came was because all the other pieces that we had put in place, they fit him so well also. And so I think we had a really nice dynamic where these guys are going to be able to play off each other. And I'm excited about it.

So, you know, I think your original question was, you know, early on with some of the stuff that happened. Did it make it so important late? It was important. He was an important piece of the puzzle, whether it was early or late. There's no doubt about it. Just like Zoom is such an important piece and Alex is an important piece. And Mason Williams is an important piece.

And Justin, like you got on the list, they're really important. I don't want to say been better than you thought, but maybe better than we as fans thought early on. Is that true? Yeah, he's got a good, Mason. Yeah. Mason has got to grow for sure, but he's coming in with a college ready body. and he is a voracious worker. He's a guy, you know, I've talked about this publicly a lot,

about how he just is relentless in the gym. He's shooting the ball at elite level. He's one of those guys right now as a young player that I'm trying to get him to stop deferring and actually go hunt possessions. He's a great playmaker. He's got to learn how to play us. He's got to learn all the freshman stuff.

But he's, I'm telling you what, I have high hopes for him and his trajectory. I think he's got a chance to be a very good player. So you, I mean, when you first came here, you and I sat down and you said something to me that I really stuck with me. You said, look, I know you have to do your job.

And if things don't go like they should, you need to go on there and blast me. That's your job. It's not BBM if you don't. I remember telling you at the time, that's easy to say in the abstract. What's it like when it happens? Two years later,

you felt at times, I'm sure, the pressure of Kentucky media. Do you feel the same way two years later? 100%. Like, one thing, guys, is like, I know exactly what Kentucky is. I mean, I'm probably right now the world's expert on Kentucky basketball. I know exactly what it is. And I'm learning how to navigate the challenge better and better every single day,

as we all are. But our standard is never going to change. It's what's make this place great. And the way we chase it is never going to change. and our care is never going to change. And so it's all part of the gig. Like it is, every single day, it's all part of the gig. And it's the gig that I want more than any other gig in the world.

It's awesome. Do you, last year before the season started, you were very excited about that team. I think you said that you were sitting on a Ferrari, was your quote. Obviously, the Jalen low injury changes a lot. Do you look back and say, I was overestimating the team, or it just really didn't have a chance after Lowe got hurt?

Like, how do you look at when you evaluate yourself last year's thing? No, I feel the same way about the roster as I did before the season. We just didn't get to see it. You know, it's just a hard, that's, listen, I wish there was a better answer than that, but we just didn't get to see it. You know, we, you know, you don't get, you don't get Jalen. Really, at the very beginning, we kind of had an unbelievable lead guard scenario. we do this year, we had that to start with a couple other players that once Jayland came,

they left. So we had great depth there. I felt like at the five, I thought we had unbelievable depth to really go. And we just never got to see the team. I say this all the time. We got to see them for 17 minutes in the second half against St. Johns. And even in that scenario, you're seeing guys that never practiced together, that never got to develop. And I think about J-Lo and JQ a lot. They changed the way our team could function on the floor.

And so the upside with those guys was so elite. You think about JQ, he played four games all season, and he gets drafted solidly in the first round. That's the type of talent that he brings to the table. We just unfortunately didn't get to see it last year. So is that in your mind you say, look, the plan was good, the roster build

was good, it just, we had injuries. Is that how you see it? Yeah, I mean, there's always things you could do better, but man, I would have loved to take that thing for a ride, for sure. Like, I liked the way it was built. I like the way it was put together. I wish it had stayed because that would have given us some real, like, backup function, and we thought that was going to work, and it just didn't. So there, you know, there's a couple pieces that I wish had hung in there with us. But if you gave me that group healthy and said, hey, run it back, I mean, let's go, man, let's go figure this out because it's a good group. Oh, 100%.

Do you, when I was watching the team, and this actually goes back to the first, first year some. One of the things I've noticed about you, you don't tend to play the guys huge amounts of minutes, any of the guys. I will say one of the things I've always thought is, look, there's a big drop sometimes between the ones and the twos. And oftentimes we might get a lead and then the subs happen and then it's back tied again. Is that just, is that your kind of plan going forward? Is it unique to those two teams? Well, it changes. So there's so many variables that go into it. I think my instinct normally is to kind of like,

let's go lead out in the energy part of the game and win that part of the game. I think part of our optimism going to the last season was we felt like we come wave after wave after wave and we never got a chance to do that because we never had that group. And so I do think that there's a ton of variables that come into making those decisions. But I do think there's a place actually to play guys more of a solid rotation, and I think there's a time and place to do that. And so striking that right balance is important.

You do do it in the postseason often. Well, developing guys is really important, right? And you saw that, you know, a great example is Colin Chandler. Colin Chandler was the seventh most improved player in all of college basketball last season. That doesn't happen by accident. You have to kind of nurse guys and grow guys. You know, Jasper Johnson is a player that has a tremendous upside, and we needed him, and we kept, you know, trying to find the right situation for him, and he's going to be a great player, and some of that's going to come from those developmental minutes. You know, you look at Otega always rise and, like, us being able to continually put him in new situations. That's how guys grow. Malachi Moreno, you know, early on in the season, force-feeding him some minutes helped him grow into the guy that actually had to carry the load for.

for so much last season. You kind of go down the list. So there's a, for us, we are developers of players. I think it's one of the things we do better than anybody else in the country is we help our guys get better. I'm really proud of the fact that Amari came in here as a non-draft board guy, that Kobe came in here as a non-draffboard guy, that Otega came here as a non.

These are not guys that were predestined to be drafted players. JQ was. Yeah. But those other three weren't. And the fact that those guys came here and were, we're able to develop them to where, and they develop themselves. It's their hard work that does it. To earn themselves a chance to go play at the next level is really important to us.

And I think part of the reason why we, you know, part of our plan, part of this process is bringing players in and helping them grow and get better. And I think it's something our staff is a lead at. So that comes into play too. But like I said, there's a thousand variables that goes into those decisions. And that's certainly one of them. I've got, I ask fans for questions that they wanted answers to. you have to go for practice. I love the fans' questions, by the way.

But we got to go quick if we're going to get them. Let's go. Are you going to hire another assistant and win? The answer is most likely yes. But potentially no. I can't tell you when. This is what I can tell you. I love the way that our staff is working right now.

So there's been a change in NCAA right now in terms of staff. So right now I get Will Corman and I get Nick Robinson and I get Matt Santoro on the court. all staff members are allowed to be on the court right now. I like the way we feel as a staff. I'm engaged in conversations about staff every day. Even when our staff is full, I'm still talking and talking to people and kind of seeing where it goes. If we hire someone, it's going to be the right person. That's going to be exactly the right fit for what we do.

But we're working at a really high level right now. So no, Jamal Crawford. Jamal has still got two years left on his NBC contract. I'm a good friends with Jamal. We've been friends for a long time. There might be a time where it's good for him to jump in coaching. It's something that he would like to do. He's one of those guys that's cut from a little bit of a similar cloth like Moe Williams

is where, you know, Mo was, it's hard to run an AAU program. And there's a lot of guys that fund an AAU program. Mo was running an AU program. Jamal is running and coaching an AU program. And when you find guys like that with their background, he could have a great future in college. He could go get a job baby in the right in the exact right space as a head coach in the NBA maybe. But I think there's a good chance coaching is in his future. But he's got a sweet deal right now.

And he's got a couple of years left. I've had a lot of people ask me, why no father, son camps, etc. This summer. Yeah, so we were working through so many dynamics. We thought we would take a pause on those this summer. and just reevaluate with everything that's changing. There is a real place for those camps. I love them.

I actually like the daddy-daughter camp, even better than the father and son camp. But you're not doing any of them. We're not doing either of those this year, and we're going to kind of just take a pause and reevaluate. Re-evaluate, meaning you think they'll come back? Meaning, I could see us going huge into camps. I could see us, you know, walking away from them.

I'm not sure where the future is going to go with that, but it's something we're thinking about. Well, I know. summer trip. So we had we had kind of worked through several dynamics. We actually have and we're still under consideration for something that we have to get some waivers for to do. But it's again, there's been some rule changes. You know, the best thing about these overseas trip is the 10 days of practice. The 10 days of practice are game changers. But the NCAA, rightfully so. And I hope they keep going this direction. They took our four hour

limitation on the court and they extended it. They doubled it now. so we have much more time on the court. It makes those 10 days of practice a little bit less of a boost. There's also a cost. There's a financial cost, and there's a time cost, and there's an energy cost to go out on the trip. So if we find the exact right one, we thought we've had something a couple times.

So you still could? Well, and I can't really go into detail. There's actually something we'd have to need some waivers for right now that we're pushing on right now. We're talking to NCAA about see if we get a waiver on a program, but we just can't, you know, I'm not allowed to talk about it. you're going to get another player? Maybe we're still actively currently.

I love my roster right now. But if we find the right piece at the right time and that could look like a lot of different things, it could be a developmental piece, it could be a depth piece, it could be a, there's a lot of different slices where we've gone. If we find the right person we could, but I like the roster a lot right now, I think we could go to battle. All right. They're telling me you have to go.

We went a long segment here. Could he stay till 1110? Yeah, let's do it. Come on, let's say. We can do it. All right. So we're going to take, this is going to be an extended break, but then we will come back at the top of the hour

and be able to have Mark. We'll be right back to KSR. Don't make it too extended. Welcome back to Techie Sports Radio. Have a ton of people riding in. Let me give you, we got a minute here before I have to take another break. Zoom Diallo Alex Wilkins. What's that back court are going to be on.

Man, if you guys could have heard what the conversation was in this room during the break. It was great. I wish we could have that conversation on the air. There's rules, guys. There's rules. Wivers. We got waivers. Before we get to have kidney, how is our guy Ryan doing?

First of all, I'm glad you asked. He is doing much better. He had a really difficult time. I mean, like in the hospital for 10 days, at one point looked tough. And he, but he's doing much better. He's on vacation right now, so he's okay. He's come back to the show. Okay, good.

It's good to hear. Because I know you care about him a lot. Okay, him in the questions. Zoom, real quick, Zoom and Alex Wilkins. What's that back court going to be like? It's going to be super fun, man. I hope that's the recruiter. They're both 1-0 creators, and they're very different in style of play.

They're going to be really fun. Yeah. Do you think together, is the shooting enough at the guard position with those two? Yeah, so Alex right now shoot 79% on it. We do a series of 103s a day. And on this in the, we're just, you know, right close to that four week mark. He's 79%. That's pretty good.

They can shoot it, guys. All right, we're going to do five minutes with you when we're return and then let you go to let you go to practice. We'll take a break and be right back. KSR. Looking for a mortgage bank to help you make your next major mortgage move, whether it's a refi or a home purchase, regardless of whether it's your first one or one of many.

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This is Kentucky Sports Radio, presented by Stockton Mortgage and the Kentucky Office of Highway Safety Safe Summer Driving Tour. Now, here's Matt Jones. All right, I got five more minutes, so let's go. This is the most important question from the text machine to Mark Pope. Mark, I love you. What bothers me is this. Let's just stop right there. Let's just go with the I love you.

You have the ability to grow a full head of hair. And those of us who are bald want to know why you waste the ability to grow a full head of hair by shaving your head. So this is, so, you know, I do believe that we have the capacity to make a limited amount of great decisions. And so, like, I shave my head because it's a decision off the table. And the thing is with this beard, guys, I didn't, no one told me that it's less decision-making. I don't have to shave every day. Are you keeping it? I don't know if I'm keeping it.

So there's been a lot of consternation about it. No, a dark Pope. The thing is, well, I don't know what dark Pope is. I hope it's get it done, Pope. But I like it today. And we'll see how it is tomorrow. I'm not making any promises, guys. You and the team are heading to Vegas this week.

Can you reveal a little bit of what's on the schedule, what you all plan on doing there? Yeah. So we're going to have early morning practices. We're going to get after it really, really hard at a great facility. It's going to be a great venue. We're going to connect with all of our guys. guys, one of the great things about Summer League is not just all of our guys playing in Summer

League, but all the NBA vets come back. And so we did a huge thing there last year. We're doing it again this year and just connecting our current guys with those former players is really special for us. And there's also, they've also moved, you know, recruiting venues there. So we'll be able to do recruiting at the same time. It's a, it's a, it's a, it's a catch-all. It's really important for our guys to get the work done in a different gym. to grow their relationships together and to kind of see and feel what their future holds. This connection between Kentucky and the NBA is like no other, and this makes a lot of sense for us. You had a picture you posted after you got Milan where you were on the beach and you had two cards,

and they said Jack and King on it. People have spent a month and a half trying to figure out what was the Jack and King. Can you tell us what the Jack and King? I didn't sleep for two days. We were speculating over that trying to figure it out. So you know what's fun? And I was an English major here at Kentucky, and I learned this. Okay.

When an author put something out there, it's now not their own. Oh, okay. It's owned by the reader. And so I can tell you it was incredibly intentional in the sense of like it was a last second idea. And so we thought it would be fun to put out. And it's going to be way more meaningful as people interpret it the way they want. this this this this fan base is BBN man which I'm a member of is is there's no more fun fan base to interact with and that's the whole that's the whole deal did you eat all that fruit that was so much fruit but there is a reason there is a reason so actually the pope girls are setting up the shot and they got a little carried away they're like dad let's do this put a lot of fruit there so good it was fun what uh you know your your girl's very active on social media do you ever say hey down the notch or You like go.

Nope. I'm like go, girls. Listen, my girls sacrifice and care both, maybe as much as any member of BBN and probably more. And this is very person of them, and they are very funny, and they love this whole thing, and they won't listen to me if I tell them anything anyway. So it's just, it's a beautiful, like, I'm telling you. So, again, congratulations on your daughter.

I got an Avery. There is nothing in the world better than being a dad to daughters, man. It is the best. And so I just watch these girls go. And sometimes I hold my breath, but they do what they do. Last thing, and then because I know you got to go. What is your biggest looking back at the two years that are here? What's your biggest thing that makes you happy?

And then what's your biggest regret or thing you would change about the last two years? And then what do you think is most important besides winning for you to alter due going forward. Okay. Let's take those one at a time. Okay. The first, first one was, what do I wish I would have changed? Yeah.

What would you wish you have changed in the first two years? So, um, in terms of regrets. So I don't live in any regrets. I think every experience that we have is actually growing us and preparing us for the future that we're chasing. And so I don't have any regrets. Um, everything we've, we've, listen, we've accomplished so much. We've grown so much.

We're learning so much. We are in the process of getting to our ultimate. destination. The process is messy. Grown is messy. It's setbacks. It's one step forward, two back, three steps forward. It's the beauty of it. And, oh, that's a big one. You take it and come back? I'm okay. I'm going to

come back. Okay. And so, there's nothing. Like, this is everybody's journey, right? But what would you change? Regret maybe a bad word. Well, you know, I'm going to go the low-hanging fruit. I'd like to stay healthy. I would like to stay healthy. Is there anything you can do for that? Like, is there any

is a great question? So we've actually done, you know, we're data driven like crazy. I drive everybody in our office crazy. And so we've dug hard into this. What's interesting is we're not, we're having less soft tissue injury than any other program. We've just had these random traumatic acute injuries like Jackson breaking his finger caught in a jersey. It's just like this random thing. We had two point guards in a row that dove on the floor and stretched out and had labrum deals. We've had two Jones fractures, which is just, There's not like, like we do blood work and nutrition. Those are things that just, it just happened.

It's part of life. Sometimes things happen. And so what you do is you use them to make you better and stronger and grow more and prepare you for the next stage. Those challenges have made us so much better as coaches have so much broader vision. They're making our players better, stronger people. And the end result is going to be the end result. We're going to get where we want to go.

And then finally, what would you like to see? What changes are you kind of? going forward. Well, we have, and we've talked about it. Like, I'm beating this strong, man. Creators, creators, creators. Size, size, size, rim protection, decision-making at the five spot with some depth. And then length, decision-making and shooting at the wings.

And I think we have it. Like, we have the versatility where we're going to be a little bit. Every year as we put together these rosters, you can't completely immunize yourself from misfortune during the course of the season. But we're doing a, we've got. to a pretty masterful space right now where I feel like as good as it can be done, we've put together a roster right now that we're excited about coaching and that has some protection based on our versatility.

My mom will kill me if I don't ask you. Is Trent Noah going to step up this year? Trent Noah, man, he's been the best player on our roster in the first four weeks of camp. He tweaked a hamstring yesterday, which is a nothing. But he's actually, believe us not, he's leading us in defensive impact metric right now on this roster. Yes, he is. And the thing is, we talk about growing players. Trent is in his

third year here. He is completely devoted and dedicated to Kentucky basketball and getting better. And we'll see the fruits of that growth. It's players like Trent Noah and you watch them rise up that you build a relationship over the years. He's going to be really special

this year. I'm super proud of him. So he is going to have an impact on this roster for sure. Mark, thank you very much for coming in here. We do appreciate it. You set, you stayed a little longer for us and I hope we can talk to you more as we get closer to the year. There has never been a better time to be a Kentucky basketball fan, man. Like, it's on, guys.

Why do you say that? Because this is the journey we're going through. Like, we've all had these incredible highs and we had these really, really frustrating things all growing towards a goal, which, you know, we're incredibly focused on nine and we're going to get there. We're going to find a way to get there. This journey, like when we write the book on this guys, it's a good. going to be epic. Like, it just is the best. And, and, um, and so I'm glad we're all riding it

together. Thanks. Thank you, Mark. Go take that call. Appreciate it. Mark Pope. Uh, loving the beard and, uh, and everything. Thank you all very much. All right. Appreciate it. See you later. We will, uh, well, I'll tell you what we'll stay here for a minute. Let him go. Thank you, by the way. Yeah. Yes. Appreciate it. Have a safe trip. Yes. So there you go. It was fun. It was very nice to stick around, especially during a long break. That was a long break. A lot of people in the past, coaches, other people, even people that aren't important. would have said no. The Cal would not sit through a break.

Cal specifically said, I'll do as long an interview as you want, but there will be no break. And, Shannon, there's nothing you and I can do about the break. The heart break comes for everyone. It doesn't matter who you are. It doesn't matter who you are. And he said through there, and he's right. The first break, that would have been a nice one to be able to have over the air.

It's good conversation. But I'm also glad, like, we got to talk, you know, during the break about just in general, like the last year. You know, I think he was very honest about some of that. And it's good to hear him say he still thinks that there should be criticism when it's deserved. I'm glad to hear that reaffirmed. Completely understands the fan base and what he signed up for. He also understands like, we need to be good this year.

And he's excited about the team. You can tell that. He should be, but you can feel it that that's genuine, how excited he is about this team. You can just tell that's how he feels. All right.