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Mark Pope jokes people will 'burn my house down' after first loss at Kentucky

On3 imageby:Sam Gillenwater•10/24/24•

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Kentucky HC Mark Pope
Jordan Prather | Imagn Images

Mark Pope understands what’s at stake when it comes to the wins and losses at Kentucky.

Pope was asked for his thoughts on his debut as the Wildcats’ coach following a 123-52 win over Kentucky Wesleyan on Wednesday. With that, it was a success since it was a win, let alone an impressive one with that final margin. He knows that that’s all that matters to them and to Big Blue Nation.

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“You know, I mean, like, we’re deadly serious about winning,” said Pope. “Winning matters.”

“We’re here to win,” Pope continued. “Like, this is Kentucky. The first time we don’t win a game, you guys are all going to go burn my house down, okay.”

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However, Pope also conflicted as he also wants to win in a certain way. A 71-point win is a 71-point win in the end. Even so, he was looking for certain things from his new team and staff beyond what the box score or final outcome had to say about their game.

“I don’t spend a lot of time, I don’t spend as much time on outcome,” said Pope. “This sounds very contradictory. I don’t actually know how to explain it but.”

“We don’t spend a lot of time thinking about what this sheet is going to look like after the game. We spend all our time thinking about what we’re trying to do in the moment, right,” Pope said. “So, you know, I think – of course there’s all the nerves, right. It’s our first time in this building. This is Kentucky and there’s massive expectations and all those things but, you know, I’m really consumed with seeing how fast we can get better. The way we get better is by just being dialed in on exactly what we’re doing. So, I wasn’t really anticipating seeing anything on the stat sheet. I was just curious with how well we can coach our guys to be great decision makers in all the ways that we do it.”

As a former player and national champion there, Pope gets that victories and titles are the main thing about being at UK. Still, if they play the way that he’s wanting them to, all of that will come – and no arson will be necessary.

“We’re spending a lot more time thinking about those things. Then this just happens because of what we’re focusing on,” Pope said.