UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY MEN’S BASKETBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

December 14, 2024

Lexington, Kentucky, USA

Coach Mark Pope

Press Conference

Kentucky 93, Louisville 85

MARK POPE: I’m incredibly proud of our guys.  It was a classic rivalry game. Louisville, hats off to them. I mean those guys are playing so hard right now and doing it shorthanded and Pat is doing an unbelievable job coaching that group and they got a ton of fight and a ton of heart and leadership and seniority and they had guys making big plays and making shots,  which they haven’t done as much lately and they should be super proud. And our guys just kept fighting and got the win.  Couldn’t be happy for our guys.

Q Mark, did you have to tie Lamont down to keep him out of the game today? 

MARK POPE: First of all, I was joking with the guys after on the way off the floor. Lamont’s agent called me and said okay, he’s only playing every 10 days and he’s taking the rest of the time off.  Unbelievable credit to him.  My goodness, what an incredible, I mean Lamont Butler just gave us one of the all-time greatest performances in the history of this super special game. Like, of all time.  The numbers back it up.  The way he came into it backs it up.  And you think about when you go out and you are trying to recruit and our guys, our staff is so good and those guys identify a winner, then this is what you get from him, right?  I’m so proud of him and major credit-major credit.  Looking at my performance team side-eyed for the last 10 days.  I’m telling you, this Brandon Wells is probably the best in the entire business.  He’s incredible. And for Randy to have limited access but to be creative enough to keep Lamont in playing condition without him being able to set foot on his ankle for a week is really remarkable.  You know, we weren’t proceeding with caution, we weren’t just holding him out of gameplay because we wanted him to get a bunch of practice under his belt. He really hasn’t done anything. Everything has been auxiliary. We are blessed at Kentucky to have two the best guys in the whole business doing it. It’s a real credit to Lamont.  His heart, it’s a real credit to Brandon and Randy. What an unbelievable team they were. So, hats off to those guys.

Q Mark, Michael Bennett with Just the Cats.  Back in October, your wife talked about an annoying mole in the backyard. How does it feel to beat that mole for the first time? 

MARK POPE: Well, one mole down, one to go guys. That one in the backyard is a little more pesky, it’s a problem.  That is really frustrating, but we will work on it.  My guys know it. It’s an honor to a be part of this great game. It’s really special to be able to kind of put their name in the book and imprint it.  It had everything that you would expect of this game, it was really special.

Q Mark, back here.  The moments with Lamont out of the game, obviously those could be worrisome.  They were tough but they weren’t bad. It seemed like Andrew Carr got the big tip in at the under eight time-out. They got timely buckets, but how do you feel about those moments and you are going to have to deal with those moments when he’s not the game without Kerr. 

MARK POPE: Well, the first time I checked him out, we turned it over in the back court for a lay-up, that wasn’t great.  After that, I haven’t even looked at TP’s minutes.  TP played 6 minutes and 42 seconds.  They were probably like 17 seconds stints.  Basically, he was great. He kind of kept it under control and was really solid defensively and had some makeup ability. The staff has worked really hard and figuring out rotation. Who we can have in the game when Lamont is out right now. I thought our guys were great.  It’s important, I mean, I’m not sure if our design is to have Lamont playing 32 every night. But he did it tonight and the other eight worked.

Q Mark, sometimes this rivalry has kind of been defined by some of the tension in it and skirmishes and that kind of stuff.  But tonight, outside of the one little hubbub in front of the bench, it seemed like it was more defined by respect and just playing at a high-level. What do you attribute that to?  Is it kind of the new chapter of the rivalry? 

MARK POPE: I think that you have two veteran groups that are pretty focused on the way they compete the best, the way they give themselves the best chance to win.  It is to be laser focused on the job at hand and be super disciplined about not letting the emotion be a distracting factor, if that makes sense.  I was really proud of our guys.  Listen, it wouldn’t have been an appropriate game if, you know, if it was a tension filled mosh pit down in front of their bench.  That was probably the most fun of the game, right?  But I think you have two organizations right now that have an insane amount of passion about winning and feel all of the joy and intensity and stress of this rivalry. But also are pretty good about being focused about what actually makes you play the best to give yourself the best chance to win. I think both programs are probably in that space somewhere.

Q Mark, another one for Lamont. How much does his mere presence open things up for everybody else? Three other guys with four assists. I think Otega had three assists. 

MARK POPE: Yeah, it’s really important, especially the way Louisville was playing.  They stayed really-really pushed out. And so, him getting downhill to the rim was really important because when he got down there, it was a lot of space to operate.  He had such a terrific burst. He’s gotta special burst.  It matters, his ability to get downhill was really important.

Q Mark, what is it about, it seems like Otega has kind of a knack for closing games for you guys. I think he made three massive plays down the stretch. What is it about him? 

MARK POPE: One of the great things about O is he is just in the moment. I think he’s got a pretty great capacity of just being dialed into the moment and not spending a lot of time worrying about the consequences of what might happen or what just did happen.  He’s pretty good at being present, he’s actually really good at it.  I’ve got a story I want to tell but I’m not sure if I should.  You guys – so we had a really fun moment.  Our guys, you know, we are in this space talking about – it just hit me because you talking about being present.  Our guys have made a renewed commitment to be present in class every day.  Otega happens to have an early morning class where he’s getting better and better at being present.  A couple of days ago it was all hands on deck making sure it was there.  Two minutes after class, we got a video from him of him sitting in an empty classroom because class was canceled and we didn’t know about it.  He is the epitome of present.  In fact, I’m going to try to get him to put out the video, I’m going to try to get him to post it. It’s actually so delightful, because he didn’t really say anything, he’s like, ah. So he’s present, he’s present in class, he’s present on the court, he’s present in the closing minutes.

Q Coach, it looks like you guys were talking about the rotation.  You guys ended up playing Brandon Garrison 23 minutes as opposed to Amari at 16 tonight. It ended up working out for you, Garrison played some big minutes there at the end.  What made you make that adjustment tonight? 

MARK POPE: I thought BG was giving us great energy. It’s fun with those two guys, they love each other and they both want to play 40 minutes.  They are both starving to play and they both cheer for each other. It’s really a beautiful thing.  Amari has been such an incredible big brother to BG. In fact, both of them, Amari, every time he throws a great pass, he’s running down the court throwing eyes and now BG is doing it, BG did it tonight.  It’s actually really fun. BG kind of had a good vibe out there and both of those guys were trying to manage their energy so they can kind of keep up and I thought BG was terrific tonight. I thought he was really-really good.

Q Mark, as you were pulling together all of these dis-reports for the first time, when was it and what was it that made you think, this is actually going to work? 

MARK POPE: I think it was when I seen the guys off the court actually more than on the court. I think we have a really good sense of off the court, of on the court, the guys skill set. We are still learning how to do it. Like tonight, there was this – there are so many moments when our – our ceiling is so much higher than we are right now in terms of the way we execute and understanding why we are doing it.  We have so much growth we can do.  I think there were a couple of moments that I talked about a lot where I saw, during the summer, guys going out of their way to really go be together.  Andrew Carr is like the dad of the team and he has been incredible. And Lamont Butner takes care of each of these guys one by one.  I can’t tell you how many stories I’ve heard about someone is having a tough time and all of a sudden Lamont shows up and he’s gone way out of his way to actually just reroute that person’s day and the way he feels and we went on a service retreat to Eastern Kentucky and there was a couple of things I saw that I loved.  One, you know, it wasn’t the guys idea to go do some reconstruction projects on some of these flooded out areas.  They went and, you know it was a two and a half day affair but it was still 8 to 10 hours of work a day and there wasn’t a single moment where anybody was hiding.  The staff, we all finished that and were shaking our heads and said, man, we didn’t have anybody hiding.  We never had anybody complaining.  The guys, it wasn’t like their favorite thing in the world to do but they were like we are here and we are going to work for 10 hours and we are going to work for 10 hours tomorrow.  You see things like that. At the end of that we had a devotional where the guys each made one very specific commitment to the team out loud just with only the team there.  You heard how thoughtful the guys were about what they were going to give to the team this year. And you see Lamont, we got a chance man and we have staying power and some resilience and we have unbelievable young guys.  Unbelievable. It’s very cool, good group.

Q Mark, having played in this rivalry twice as a player and obviously watching it as a fan. In the years since, what did it feel like to be the coach on the Kentucky side line? 

MARK POPE: Can I be honest, you guys know I have a terrible memory. You guys know I was with Lee Anne yesterday.  It was last night. I looked up at the two games that I actually played in and the game my junior we lost by two at Louisville.  When I saw it, I was like, wait, what?  I promise you, so I remember now.  It was like locked away.  The bus ride home from Louisville. I was in a full on teary-eyed sweat last night.  I blocked it out of my memory.  And all of a sudden it all came rushing back.  I’m starting to sweat right now.  You get locked in the bus with Coach P for an hour and a half after two point loss against Louisville.  I don’t wish that on any of you, actually.  I bet only half of you guys would come out alive, I kid you not.  And our senior year we had a runaway win. Nate Swatki and Jake Most and our kind of, and Billy Tumes are media alumni team did something that was really cool I thought was so special.  I don’t know if you seen it but they found 15 players, former players. They had them each write a letter to our 15 current players about what this game means to them.  That probably says it better than I ever could. If you haven’t seen it, take a look at it because it’s really special to our guys. It is what Kentucky basketball is. Generation after generation being connected and understanding what it means. Those letters, I’ve got a copy of each one of those on my desk and they are really special to me and I think they are special to our guys.  Sometimes, five, 10, 15 or 20 years from now, our guys are going to be writing letters to the next generation of players and keeping this connection going. That’s really special, supercool. That’s the good and bad of my memories about Louisville.  Thanks, guys. I appreciate you all.

KENTUCKY MEN’S BASKETBALL POSTGAME QUOTES
KENTUCKY VS. LOUISVILLE
RUPP ARENA – LEXINGTON, KY.
DECEMBER 14, 2024

UK STUDENT-ATHLETES

#00, Otega Oweh, G

On how the team needs to be better without Kerr…

“We just always gotta have the next man up. Obviously, we know what the core five, core six, whatever that is. I mean, we have a team full of great players so, it’s just stepping up and always being ready to play.”

On what allows them to close games out…

“Just being aggressive. Obviously, the game was close so, I mean, we couldn’t just wait and hold the ball because we did and when they’d get the ball back, they would score and get it closer so, just trying to keep your foot on the gas then for me. I was a little quiet throughout the game so just really keep on being aggressive.”

On the Kentucky vs. Louisville rivalry atmosphere…

“I don’t know. I don’t even put that in a certain category. This atmosphere was crazy. Just warming up, I’m looking, 40 minutes before tip and student sections already packed, people are already here so, obviously it’s a big rivalry but there’s tiers to it. It’s crazy.”

#1, Lamont Butler, G

On his performance for tonight’s game…

“It’s definitely up there, one of my top-20 games for sure. It was a great rivalry game and atmosphere here at Kentucky. It was definitely special.”

On his opinion of the “rivalry” atmosphere…

“It was amazing, it was exactly how I expected. The fans really showed out and kept the high energy throughout the game, it was so much fun.”

On making sure he was healthy and ready to play …

“I was trying to get out there man, I did a lot of treatment with our trainer Brandon Wells. I did everything to get back healthy. I wanted to be out there the last two games as well but I just wasn’t ready. This was the game I was ready to show out.”

#2, Jaxson Robinson, G 

On when he knew Lamont Butler was going to play today…

“He practiced yesterday full speed, and he told me he was 100% and was good. So, we knew going into it that he would play and look at the performance he put up, that is crazy.”

On what his first taste of the rivalry was like…

“It was cool to just be a part of the rivalry itself because I grew up watching it so to be a part of it is a dream come true, something I always looked at when I was a kid, so it was a blessing.”

On where this game ranks on games he has been apart of…

“It is definitely up there. It was really cool to play against some former teammates and talk some smack, but yeah it was really cool.”

LOUISVILLE HEAD COACH PAT KELSEY

Opening Statement …

“I want to give Kentucky credit they played a great game, great college atmosphere. I thought it was a great college game. Lamont Butler was magnificent. I still see that kid in my nightmares because we played against them when I was the head coach at College of Charleston and he was the point guard at San Diego State. We played an epic battle in the first round and he is just a warrior and a winner. He has been out the past couple games, people were talking about if he was going to play or not and I thought that that cat was playing in this game you can mark that one down. He is a stone-cold killer and a really, really good player. He’s obviously a good shooter but he is more of an attacking downhill driver. I want to say, I could have this wrong, he has seven made threes on the year and six of those were tonight. A lot of them made tough shots, big shots. We had momentum and he stopped the momentum with a lot of those threes. We had a couple bad defense breakdowns on a couple of his wide open threes. But I know I’m spending a lot of time on him, they have a very good team, they are very deep. You guys have heard me talk about the job I think that Mark’s doing, he’s doing a great job with this group. I’m proud of our guys. We are, it’s no secret that we are a little shorthanded on the terms of our depth. A lot of guys who played minutes tonight never quit. Kentucky made some huge runs and I thought our guys responded with resilience every time and brought the game back to a one or two possession game. But that last burst they made and the plays that they made was just too much for us. So proud of our guys but I give Kentucky credit.”

On importance of competing well given recent results in the series…

“Yeah, it’s a great, great rivalry. I said it the other day in our press conference, not only in collegiate basketball, but I think it’s one of the really cool rivalries in all of American sports. We have to do our part and win some to continue to make it a rivalry. Obviously, we came up short tonight. I mean, it’s hard to truly describe. And I think that all of you out here who are Kentuckians, you guys understand, but nationally, especially in our city of Louisville, and here in Lexington as well, how much this rivalry means. I mean, it is houses divided, obviously, but man, they remind me early and often. Every single day, every time I get gas, every time I go get something to eat in the community. You know, “Hey coach, how you doing? You going to beat Kentucky this year?” So I get it, I get it. And what a great thing it was. It was awesome. You have to sometimes get above the trees and have a little bit of perspective of what you’re doing and where you’re at. And I try to stay present every single day, keep blinders on and work on helping our team become the best they can be. But I’m going to be honest with you, when I walked out of there today, the pageantry of the Louisville and Kentucky rivalry hit me. I looked around, and I saw the atmosphere, and this is before the jump ball went up. I did take a minute to truly appreciate how special it was. But like I said, whatever it is, 365 days till the next time we play again, and I’m going to be reminded about four million times when that game is coming up, and we’ll be looking forward to it.”

On learning anything more about this group …

“No, I was pretty clear on the makeup and the fabric of our guys. You know they say the game doesn’t build character, but it reveals it and our guys continue to show character by fighting through some of this adversity. We’ll have Kadeem back soon probably, not probably, next week for Florida State we won’t have him back but were hoping right after Christmas he’ll be back and that will be a big boost from a depth standpoint and obviously, he’s a very versatile player and we need him. So were looking forward to that, having an extra body and a little bit more depth and it’ll help us moving forward.”

On the move to not start Terrence Edwards Jr…

“I don’t know, you’d have to ask him. People ask me, like Dan Shulman asked me, why did he come out of the lineup, I’m like, I don’t know, I’m just trying to figure out buttons to push. Aye, I make a bunch of dumb decisions but he’s played pretty well the last two games coming off the bench, now like every player—players are competitors and Terrance is a team guy. He’s about the team first and foremost. That guy wants to start now, he wants to start. He’s a decorated player, he’s a winning player, championship player over the years at James Madison and well see how it is moving forward. But Noah Waterman’s a guy that has had some struggles lately, made three big 3s for us tonight playing against his former coach. He had twelve stinkin’ rebounds, six offensive. You talk about how many minutes our guys have to play and the standard of their hustle and their grit, and the tenacity, I’m proud of em’, I’m proud of em’, I’m proud of Noah. Twelve rebounds in a big game like this, made three big 3s, that was big for him.”

LOUISVILLE STUDENT-ATHLETE

#5 Terrence Edwards Jr., G
On what he thought about keeping it close and his first true road game of the season…

“I give credit to my coaches. Our program is built on not making excuses, so we come into every game knowing that we’re shorthanded, but we don’t think about those things. We come into every game prepared like no other team in the country, and we come in and try to win every game.”

On the message in the huddle to keep the team together..

“You just got to keep going. It’s a high-level game. Kentucky is a good team, so we already know they were going to come in and make shots. Them making seven in a row, we went to the huddle and said we got to keep going and fighting, so you can’t think about teams that are really good and hit shots. You just have to keep moving forward and think about what’s next.”

On the mentality in the game…

“I just want to shout out my teammates. They kept me in there, I got a little frustrated picking up that fourth foul kind of early. So I gotta do a shout out to my teammates for sure, they kept me in there and I know the team really needed me. I just came in and tried to play a big role, try to bring us back and win, of course we came up short but yeah I just want to give a shout out to my teammates man. We just give confidence to each other, knowing our circumstances with the team, guys going down so we just stay positive. We understand it from the click. We just stay positive and keep going.”

On 3-point shooting…

“Just playing you know. Guys on our team, we work. Everyday through the week, off days, shoot at practice, shoot after practice. Like everybody in that locker room right now wearing red really works. Whether the shots are going in or not, we going right back to the gym tomorrow. We filling up the gym, getting up our shots. It’s just a matter of time, when it starts to really get going and those shots go in, it’ll be hard to beat us.”

On the intensity of the rivalry game…

“I thought it was great. I wish I could do it again. That’s the greatest atmosphere I’ve ever played in as far as coming into a game. I was just extra excited and everybody was too. I’m wearing this Louisville across our chest, we don’t take it for granted. We knew this game was huge, we came in, tried to answer a couple runs, came up short, but it’s like no other. Guys in the hotel when you come out, you see the L’s down and stuff like that, that really makes you want to win the game but it was a great atmosphere.”