How Mark Pope is building next year's roster while competing at the Sweet 16

There is a difference between preparing for a moment and being in the middle of the chaos. Mark Pope talked about the transfer portal opening on Monday ahead of Kentucky’s trip to Indianapolis for the Sweet 16, how his staff has been preparing for potential options popping up for months now with assistant video coordinator Matt Santoro leading the charge — “We have a dozen massive Excel spreadsheets that we’re updating literally minute by minute,” he said.

“Trying to keep all that organized is a huge task, but it’s really exciting because there are incredibly talented players,” Pope said. “I think guys have seen the massive success that our transfers have had this year, and I expect that we’re going to have great success recruiting the portal.”

Then the chaos began Wednesday with the Wildcats juggling media duties and their first practice inside Lucas Oil Stadium while racking up the texts and calls with portal targets with every spare second. As the players were answering questions in the locker room and Pope at the podium, Kentucky’s assistants were on the phone handling business and gaining traction.

It’s not convenient — you’d prefer all of this come after the season ends rather than during — but you gotta do what you gotta do, right?

Pope talked about his schedule and what a day in the life of this Kentucky staff looks like getting ready for Tennessee.

“We were on the portal from 8 to 11, and then we worked on Tennessee until 12:15, and then I had media,” Pope told Mike DeCourcy this week. “Then I go straight from you down to film, and then practice with our guys. And then we’ll spend, give or take, an hour on Tennessee tonight and then we’ll spend into the late night on the portal.”

The first major news update for the Wildcats dropped Friday morning when Tulane transfer Kam Williams announced his commitment to Kentucky, saying, “More people are waiting to fill that spot, so I had to take advantage.” The list of publicly confirmed contacts for the Wildcats sits at well over a dozen, beyond the 6-8 forward’s addition.

How is Pope deciding who to pursue and who to pass on with a thousand-plus names already in the portal? He’s prioritizing the person first before obsessing over the talent.

“I need great people. You can’t function the way we want to function at Kentucky unless you’re a great person, you can see there are some things more important in this world than yourself,” Pope told DeCourcy. “This is not the right place to come if the only thing that matters to you is yourself. It just will never work. It’s too demanding.”

But you also need to have a winning DNA and the abilities that match that — again, this is Kentucky we’re talking about. You play for championships wearing the blue and white.

“I’m also looking for guys that are winners, that have the DNA of being a winner. On the court, I’m looking for decision-makers … guys at their various positions, can you process information on the court at high-speed levels and then execute as a decision-maker?” Pope continued. “It’s because of the style we play; we play a very demanding on-ball and off-ball movement system where it just requires you to be able to read and execute on the reads you’re making very quickly.”

That includes new pledge Kam Williams, plus the likes of Jasper Johnson, Acaden Lewis and Malachi Moreno already signed on for next season. Don’t forget, though, about Otega Oweh, Brandon Garrison, Collin Chandler, Trent Noah and Travis Perry all having additional years of eligibility as Wildcats.

Bringing back most, if not all, of those pieces will be key for Pope, he believes.

“The one thing we couldn’t have was any continuity. I think that’s a ‘cheat sheet’ to making things more efficient,” Pope continued. “We definitely want to find some way to do what’s seemingly impossible in college basketball, and that’s have a core of guys who’ll give us some continuity from year one to year two to year three.

“Those guys speed up the process of the install and learning the system and learning the culture. You don’t have to start from scratch every single year.”

Can Pope build a championship roster while winning one with the guys he has now? Tonight is the next step as the Wildcats prepare to take on the Volunteers in the Sweet 16 — just two wins away from the Final Four.