Mark Story: There were questions when Kentucky hired Mark Pope. His first team answered many of them.

Mark Story, Lexington Herald-Leader on Mar 31, 2025

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LEXINGTON, Ky. — It turned out, it was hard to beat a good team three times. For Kentucky, a third straight victory over Tennessee this season proved impossible.

Pounding UK on the offensive glass and slicing and dicing the Wildcats’ leaky pick-and-roll defense, Rick Barnes’ Volunteers avenged two regular-season defeats to Kentucky with a 78-65 spanking of the Cats in the men’s NCAA Tournament Midwest Regional round of 16 at Lucas Oil Stadium.

All you need to know about the Sweet 16 game is this:

UT doubled up UK on the offensive glass, 14-7, and that yielded a 19-5 edge in second chance points. That was, literally, the difference in the game.

Tennessee point guard Zakai Zeigler controlled the contest, playing downhill consistently and producing a double-double with 18 points and 10 assists.

After the Kentucky offense had its way with the vaunted Tennessee defense in UK’s two regular-season wins, Barnes had the Wildcats figured out by the third matchup.

“They knew our actions really well,” UK center Amari Williams said in a somber Kentucky locker room. “None of the cuts or handoffs were really working in the first half. That’s when (Tennessee) went on their run. By the time in the second half we figured out we had to be more aggressive, it was too late.”

So Mark Pope’s debut season as the head men’s basketball coach at his college alma mater ended in the Sweet 16 with a 24-12 record.

By Kentucky standards, 24-12 is not an exceptional season. Nevertheless, the team that Pope put together on the fly after being the unexpected choice as John Calipari’s successor last spring deserves to be remembered fondly in UK hoops lore.

In fact, Pope’s first Kentucky team supplied positive answers to some of the big questions raised about the coach at the time of his hiring.

Though UK did not play well offensively against Tennessee on Friday night, the five-out, the “modern” offensive approach Pope brought to Kentucky did in fact work against high-level foes.

The Wildcats entered play Friday sixth in NCAA Division I in scoring, averaging 85.0 points a game. After Friday’s outcome, UK stands 10th in adjusted offensive efficiency in the Pomeroy ratings.

“I think it will be really easy for kids to want to come here and play for him,” UK super-senior guard Jaxson Robinson said.

Because he had not recruited at the exalted level Kentucky was accustomed to under its previous coaching regime, there were understandable questions about Pope’s ability to woo elite talent.

If you define that only by McDonald’s All-Americans, that question mostly remains to be answered (even though UK signee Malachi Moreno will play in this year’s McDonald’s All-American Game).

For my money, however, there have been few recruiting efforts at Kentucky more impressive than the work Pope did last spring after he inherited a program with no returning scholarship players.

Mostly working the transfer portal, Pope put together a roster of “good college players” that, when it was healthy, proved it was capable of beating the elite teams in the country.

In addition to building a team that won eight games against teams that finished the regular season ranked in the top 25 of the NCAA NET rankings, Pope also assembled one of the most likable Kentucky rosters in eons.

On Friday night, after the final time they will wear a UK jersey in game competition, a group of players who began their careers at places like Dayton, Delaware, Drexel and Fairleigh Dickinson expressed their gratitude for the opportunity.

“Life changing,” Koby Brea, the Dayton transfer, said of playing for Kentucky. “It’s been everything I wanted it to be and more..”

“It meant the world,” Ansley Almonor, the Fairleigh Dickinson transfer, said. “I was able to achieve one of my dreams to put on this jersey.”

“For me, it’s just a surreal moment to actually be able to put on this jersey,” said Andrew Carr, who began his college career at Delaware. “Certainly, don’t want to take it off.”

Moving forward, there are still questions Pope has to answer.

For Kentucky to again achieve like it traditionally has, the Wildcats will have to be more consistent in future seasons. For all the wonderful moments — wins against Duke, Gonzaga, Florida, Louisville and Tennessee (in the regular season) — there were too many clunkers in 2024-25.

In recruiting, Pope has to find the sweet spot in terms of attracting the type of players who can perform at an elite level in his perimeter-oriented offense while also balancing the need for defenders who can handle the kind of high-level talent that now inhabits the SEC.

Still, even with a flat showing Friday night that produced an NCAA Tournament loss to a team many UK backers loathe, it is hard not to feel like Mark Pope’s first Kentucky team has laid a foundation from which the Wildcats program can again rise to the heights.

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