2025 NCAA tournament: Mark Pope makes good on offer to pay for Kentucky fans drive to Milwaukee

No team travels like BBN, and the fare from Lexington to Milwaukee just got that much cheaper as Mark Pope is keeping a promise he made to the Kentucky fanbase earlier this week. He is staying true to his word and paying for the gas of UK fans driving to the event.

The kind gesture was confirmed by KSR’s Matt Jones, who revealed an email sent to him from a fan to a UK spokesperson regarding Pope’s earlier promise. The spokesperson answered with the following message.

“Coach Pope would love to take care of your gas money! For this to happen, we would need you to send us proof that you have tickets to the game (Which you have already)!

“At that point, we can send you the flat rate gas money. Please verify that there is no one in your party that is within recruitable age (9th-12th grade),” the email read. The money appears to have been sent through Venmo.

Mark Pope is actually giving people the money who emailed him for gas money to Milwaukee

H/t @CBeasmoreSports pic.twitter.com/3cIjyxx5mx

— Matt Jones (@KySportsRadio) March 19, 2025

Pope made the promise during his weekly call-in radio show. One fan living in Florida even called in asking if he could throw in a ticket on top of the gas fare. Pope said he’d try and hit the fan back, though he made no promise in that specific instance. He addressed the rest of BBN with the following statement.

“It’s only a seven-hour drive, so if you’re having trouble with gas money, hit me up. Let’s get all of BBN out there,” Pope said. “I’m not gonna tell you how to hit me up, because I’m nervous about how many people are about to hit me up.

“I had this ridiculous notion one night after a game to buy everybody that was left in the arena ice cream. It cost me a little bit more than I anticipated, but it’s all in the family, baby. It’s family. Let’s go.”

The following week, the voice of UK Athletics Tom Leach asked Pope to set the bill over or under $2,000. Pope didn’t hesitate when taking the over, and it would come as no surprise if this happens to become a similar story the Kentucky head coach in this instance as well.

As Pope stated, he seems happy to pay the flat-rate gas fare for some of the fans travelling up north for what fans are hoping is a successful two games in Milwaukee. It starts on Friday night against Troy, though it starts for fans at the gas pump — on their head coach’s dime.