Mark Pope changes course, admits to not actually showing Kentucky players fights between USA, Canada hockey teams

The hockey rivalry between the USA and Canada is at a fever pitch after their first matchup in the 4 Nations Face-Off began with three fights in nine seconds. It caught the attention of everyone in the sports world, including Kentucky Wildcats head coach Mark Pope.

Pope, looking for a way to improve the physicality of his team, shared on Monday that he showed his team those fights. Since then, however, he’s backed off of that stance. On Wednesday, following the team’s win over the Vanderbilt Commodores, Pope reversed course on that and shared he was actually afraid the team might take those lessons a little too literally.

“We didn’t actually show that,” Pope said. “Because I was worried some of our guys might take it a little too literally, but we thought about it. We really thought about it. It was pretty incredible.

Regardless of whether or not Pope ever actually showed his team the fight, the lesson does seem to have worked. The Wildcats held the Commodores to just 61 points on 40.3 percent shooting from the field. Their 30 rebounds equaled that of Vanderbilt, as well as the 14 fouls that they were called for during the game.

Most importantly to Kentucky, they were playing this game while dealing with a long string of injuries, which have particularly impacted the ball handlers. Lamont Butler, Jaxson Robinson, and Kerr Kriisa were all unable to go for the game. That has forced other players on the roster to step up, a different kind of mental toughness from the physical toughness displayed in a hockey fight.

Pope recently shared a little bit about their progress in trying to return from their respective injuries. That included that Robinson isn’t getting work with his injured wrist at the moment.

“For Lamont, he’s actually moving pretty well,” Pope said. “He still hasn’t practiced with live play, but for him, it’s just a matter of how far along does he have to get where he could actually take a hit in the game? That’s the biggest question for him. That’s going to be a little bit of a guessing game. We’ll try and get him some live stuff in practice over the next week or so.”

With their win over Vanderbilt, the Kentucky Wildcats moved to 7-6 in SEC play this season. That was good for a tie for eighth in the current conference standings with five games remaining in the season. That includes three games against AP Top 25 opponents.

Canada and the United States, meanwhile, will renew their rivalry on Thursday night.