How Mark Pope built Sweet 16 roster from scratch, reset Kentucky standard

INDIANAPOLIS – Thirty minutes after the final buzzer sounded on Kentucky’s Sweet Sixteen loss to Tennessee, three players walked in to the postgame press conference. Head coach Mark Pope followed.

None of the three – Lamont Butler, Koby Brea and Andrew Carr – were Wildcats at this time last year. But they all arrived as part of Pope’s complete roster rebuild through the transfer portal following John Calipari’s departure, and that group not only made the NCAA Tournament as a No. 3 seed, but made it to the second weekend.

Afterward, the emotions were apparent. An impressive run with a brand new group was over. But even though Brea was a Dayton Flyer in March 2024, he wasn’t quite ready to give up his Kentucky blue.

“I don’t know who is in charge of the jerseys and all that,” Brea said. “But they’re going to go through some trouble to get mine.”

All three players acknowledged they didn’t know each other when they arrived on Kentucky’s campus. But the one person who knew the program inside and out was Pope. A former captain under Rick Pitino, he was Mitch Barnhart’s man to replace Calipari, and he inherited a roster with few pieces left to put back together.

In the age of transfer portal, though, Pope went to work. He brought in nine players from the portal, including four of the Top 50 players in the On3 Industry Transfer Rankings. One of those players, Jaxson Robinson, suffered a season-ending injury.

Add in four-star guard Travis Perry and three-star guard Trent Noah, and Pope had 11 new scholarship players to round out his first team back at his alma mater. It’s a group, he said, will go down in UK history.

“They set a really high standard,” Pope said. “They set a high standard on the court, and a higher standard in the locker room and off the floor. They set an incredibly high standard representing the University of Kentucky, representing BBN and representing this jersey, and I’m grateful for that. That standard will carry us for a long time.”

What’s next for Mark Pope, Kentucky to keep building

By season’s end, when the final buzzer sounded on that Sweet Sixteen loss to Tennessee, a group of players who just met each other win the last 12 months found themselves fighting hard for Kentucky. Andrew Carr, Koby Brea and Lamont Butler all looked at the group of reporters in front of them with the same look.

“Don’t want to untie my shoes,” said Carr, who spent two years at Delaware and two more at Wake Forest. “Don’t want to take off this jersey. Definitely shoutout BBN and all the fans. It’s like nowhere I have ever experienced, and really have just had the most fun playing basketball this season, and I really appreciate them and caring about us more than just basketball players.

“You’re welcomed into the Kentucky family, and it’s a family for a reason. It’s an amazing experience that hurts right now, but as we continue to get older, to look back and be more and more proud as time goes on.”

Mark Pope proved he could get to the second weekend of March Madness with a fresh group. Now, the key is going to be building with the foundation already in place. Kentucky already has one commitment out of the transfer portal in former Tulane forward Kam Williams.

Pope plans to take the same approach he took last offseason when he returned to Kentucky. He’s going to be aggressive – but that initial group, led by the three players on the dais with him Friday night, was the one to set the bar.

“It’s just being relentless about it,” Pope said. “What these guys did to set an incredible foundation, giving us a great beginning. … We’ll be talking about these guys 10 years from now as the guys that came in here and set a standard of what this is supposed to be, how you’re supposed to carry yourself as a Kentucky basketball player, how you’re supposed to connect yourself with your teammates.

“We’ll set this as a standard for the future. I’m very proud of these guys.”