LEXINGTON, Ky. — When Mark Pope and John Pelphrey crossed paths at a charitable event last summer, the current Kentucky coach asked the former UK forward if he wanted to bring his Tennessee Tech team to Rupp Arena this season to face the Wildcats.

Given that there may be no mortal walking the earth who loves Rupp Arena more than Pelphrey, the Tech head coach’s reply to Pope’s invitation was shocking.

No, Pelphrey said.

“I said, ‘I’ve been in (Rupp) enough on the wrong side of this deal. It’s not fun,'” Pelphrey said Monday morning.

When Pelphrey got back to Tennessee, he told his wife, Tracy, that Pope had offered him a chance to coach at Rupp Arena again.

“She said ‘You’re absolutely doing it,’” Pelphrey said. “I said, ‘No, I’m not.’”

It took two of Pelphrey’s former UK teammates, Deron Feldhaus and Sean Woods, interceding to get the Tennessee Tech coach to a yes.

“They just said ‘You need to get back up here,’” Pelphrey said. “I’m like, ‘Fine, but here’s what we’re going to do: Y’all are going to come to the (postgame) press conference. You’re going to explain after the game what’s going on.’”

Whether or not we get an “Unforgettables” reunion after the contest, Pelphrey will be back inside the venue where his jersey hangs in the rafters Wednesday night as Tennessee Tech (3-3) faces No. 19 Kentucky (4-2).

This return to Rupp Arena is coming amid a trying time for the 57-year-old Pelphrey. The Tennessee Tech coach announced last month that his wife, Tracy, has been diagnosed with Stage 3 colorectal cancer.

Tracy Pelphrey is undergoing four months of chemotherapy, followed by six weeks of radiation, a six-week break and then will have surgery to remove the tumor.

“She’s fighting,” Pelphrey said of his wife. “We completed three cycles (of chemotherapy). She’s actually going to pause her fourth one (because) she wants to come to this game. She was due to have it this week, actually (Monday). But if she did that, she would not feel good enough to go to the game. And she wants to be there.”

As his wife undergoes treatments, Pelphrey said Tracy has told him he is now finding out what it is like to be a coach’s wife — in the sense of having a tremendous emotional stake in an outcome without any direct way to influence it.

“That is kind of the role of I’m thrust into right now,” Pelphrey said. “I can’t take any treatments, I can’t take any of the pain. I can’t feel bad. I can just kind of support and try to encourage and, as best I can, understand what’s going on.”

High school sweethearts at Paintsville, John and Tracy have dealt with more than their share of adversity. In 2003, the couple — who have two grown children — lost an infant son, John Patrick, to a rare blood disorder.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, John contracted a debilitating case of the coronavirus.

Now they are navigating another health challenge.

“Life is the ultimate competitor: It kind of finds out where you’re your weakest, and that’s where it attacks you,” Pelphrey said. “So (there isn’t) any more of a soft spot for me than (Tracy). Her being my high school sweetheart, I’ve been in a relationship with her since I was 16 years old.”

Pelphrey said the task of coaching a college basketball team while helping your spouse through cancer treatments has been made easier by the understanding of Tennessee Tech University president Phillip Oldham and athletics director Casey Fox.

“They’ve been incredibly supportive, told me to do whatever I need,” Pelphrey said.

However, Pelphrey said the person who does not want his wife’s cancer battle to negatively impact his role as Tennessee Tech coach is Tracy.

“Tracy is not going to allow me to not be great at my job or our team to be less than it could be because she has cancer,” he said.

Looking forward, Pelphrey said his wife is determined to use any attention her cancer battle draws to encourage others to undergo colonoscopies as a preventative-medicine measure.

“Here’s the thing with (Tracy), she doesn’t smoke, she doesn’t drink, she’s not overweight, she’s got no history (of cancer) and this was her first colonoscopy,” Pelphrey said. “So everybody needs to have a relationship with their doctor. Everybody needs to get their screenings. Colon cancer is on the rise, and they can have really good success battling it, but you need early detection.”

Return to Rupp Arena

From the time Pelphrey was growing up a die-hard UK fan in Paintsville, Rupp Arena has been his hoops mecca.

He first played at Rupp as a high school sophomore in the 1985 Boys Sweet Sixteen. Pelphrey led the Tigers back to the state tournament two more times, reaching the semifinals in 1987, same year he was named Kentucky Mr. Basketball.

As a Kentucky Wildcat from 1987-92 playing for Eddie Sutton and then Rick Pitino, the 6-foot-7 Pelphrey scored 1,257 points, doled out more assists (327) than any other frontcourt player ever to play at UK and recorded the seventh-most steals (173) in school history.

“All I wanted to do, I just wanted to get there, Pelphrey said of Rupp Arena. “And once you get an opportunity to experience that, then I never wanted it to go away.”

Pelphrey has coached against UK at Rupp twice before as a head man, absorbing losses in 2008 (63-58) and 2010 (101-70) at Arkansas. Overall, he went 1-3 vs. UK as the boss Hog. As an assistant at Florida and Alabama, Pelphrey logged many other visits to Rupp Arena.

“I’ve got a 41-year relationship with that place,” Pelphrey said.

On Wednesday night, Pelphrey’s plan is to coach at Rupp Arena in a pair of blue shoes.

“They will not be for the Kentucky Wildcats, though probably everybody is gonna think that,” Pelphrey said. “(Blue’s) the color for colon cancer, just like pink is for breast cancer. I’m sure (Wednesday night) will be very emotional, and (there will) be a lot of people ... there supporting me and Tracy.”

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