"Ivy League Iverson," denim uniforms and other Mark Pope Show highlights

One holiday week has transitioned into another, Kentucky turning a 10-day holiday break between games into a New Year’s Eve matinee against Brown. The Wildcats will take on the Bears at 2 p.m. ET inside Rupp Arena on Tuesday before 2024 transitions into 2025 — and the start of the SEC schedule — at midnight.

As he does every Monday night, Mark Pope kicked his legs up and chatted with Big Blue Nation for an hour during his call-in radio show. There, he previewed the team’s matchup vs. Brown and what’s to come in league play, among other notes — including the potential return of denim uniforms.

KSR catches you up on all of the most important highlights tonight.

Kino Lilly Jr. is “Ivy League Iverson”

On pace to become Brown’s all-time leading scorer this season, senior guard Kino Lilly Jr. is a bad, bad man. Averaging 20.0 points per game on 42.7 percent shooting from three — on 9.4 attempts per game, mind you — the 6-0, 165-pound playmaker is the player to watch tomorrow afternoon.

With a nickname like Ivy League Iverson, you have to be a superstar, right?

“This Brown team is really good, they beat an undefeated Rhode Island team. They’ve got an incredibly explosive combo guard that is lovingly referred to as Ivy League Iverson,” Pope said. “He’s terrific, he’s dangerous, dangerous, dangerous. Shoots at any time, anywhere, all the time.”

Undersized — but solid rim protection

Brown doesn’t have a single rotation player taller than 6-8, but still somehow ranks inside the top 50 nationally in defensive block rate at 13.4 percent.

“They’re undersized, but my goodness, they get it done,” Pope said. “I’m not sure where Duke is, but this is certainly one or two of the best rim protection teams we’ve faced so far.”

Preparing for an all-time SEC schedule

Kentucky must first take care of business as a 22-point favorite vs. Brown. From there, though, it’s time for a historic league schedule, starting with a consensus top-10 team in 13-0 Florida on Saturday.

“This league is awesome, it’s unbelievable. It’s why this break has been nice, just getting one last breath before we jump into this gauntlet,” Pope said. “It’s going to be an emotional roller coaster. It’s going to test us in every way, expose us in every possible way, give us a chance to get better and prepare ourselves for what we are hoping will be a great postseason run.”

Kerr Kriisa will not play this week — and his return is TBD

Out with a surgically repaired foot since the Gonzaga win, Kerr Kriisa is not set to make a miraculous recovery in time for the Florida matchup — no matter how hard Pope tried to make it work. He (jokingly) begged UK S&C coach Brandon Wells to clear him, but was unfortunately given a firm no, as expected.

As for a timeline for return, that remains firmly up in the air.

“Kerr is doing great. He was in rehab today — I actually walked in after practice, he was working hard in rehab, so I hit Brandon Wells pretty hard about this Saturday, just seeing if I could get him to (play). That was a hard no,” Pope said. “So, I don’t know when or if he’s coming back, but apparently he’s definitely not coming back by Saturday [laughs].”

Don’t love that ‘when or if‘ verbiage, but I’ll selfishly choose to call it a slip of the tongue and root for a timely return. The world needs more Kerr Kriisa in blue and white.

Brandon Garrison is “not 100 percent healthy right now”

Speaking of injury updates, Coach Pope says backup center Brandon Garrison is “not 100 percent healthy right now” and his availability is something the staff is keeping a close eye on.

“It’s nothing serious, but he’s just dealing with a few things we’re trying to monitor,” he said.

That came in a segment where Pope talked about Kriisa’s absence impacting the rotation and forcing the staff’s hand to monitor fouls and general wear and tear a bit more closely. The Wildcats are still deep, but not as deep as they were to start the year and not too much flexibility beyond the current state of the roster.

Keeping Garrison healthy is a big part of that.

“Brandon Garrison is incredibly talented, he’s growing really fast,” Pope said. “His ceiling is so high, so it’s been fun for him to kind of learn us and learn how we’re playing and learning how he fits into all of this.”

“There’s a good chance we’re not quite done” recruiting in 2025

Caleb Wilson, come on down? Pope was asked about Kentucky’s 2025 recruiting class and his thoughts on current signees Jasper Johnson, Malachi Moreno and Acaden Lewis.

There, he shared a nugget stressing the Wildcats likely have more coming to join what is already a ‘really special’ group they are ‘absolutely thrilled’ with now.

“We’re really excited about this class. We have three incredibly talented and incredibly highly motivated, great young men who are in the recruiting class right now. There’s a good chance that we’re not quite done with the freshman part of this class, and then, of course, there will be some portal additions with this class too,” Pope said. “But so far, it couldn’t be any better than it is right now. We’re absolutely thrilled with the three guys we have in this class — really special.

“They are really special talents on the court and great young man off. And that bodes well for what they’ll be able to do the day they walk in the door and how fast they’re gonna grow. We’re ecstatic about that group.”

Kentucky must earn more 3-point attempts

Pope has made it clear he hasn’t been pleased with shot volume in recent weeks. That’s something that must change going into SEC play and is currently being addressed.

It’s not that the 30-attempt mark he wants his team to hit is some magic number that translates to guaranteed success. Instead, it’s an indicator that his players are working hard to create open shots for one another — and, thus, scoring more efficiently.

“When we are playing great, at an elite level, through those five ways of attacking, we earn ourselves more threes. When we’re playing right — this 30 3’s is a bit of an arbitrary marker, but there’s some science in terms of just anecdotal, repeated experience behind it,” he said. “When we’re playing great, we earn ourselves threes, and we earn ourselves a lot of threes. We earn them because we run hard in transition, we earn them because we’re so heavy getting in the paint with two feet. We earn them because we make plays for our teammates. We earn them because we work so hard for space.

“We would definitely like to increase the volume of threes, that’s really important to us.”

Are the denim uniforms returning?

And then the ultimate highlight, what fans have been craving since the day Pope took the coaching job back in April: denim uniforms.

Well, let me start from the beginning. One fan called in asking for the return of Kentucky’s old Wildcat logo, making it clear she did not like the current staple remover look.

“Nobody likes the new logo we’ve had the last several years,” she said. “Everybody wants to go back to the old Wildcat with the tongue and pointed ears. You’ve got Kansas State, Washington State and some others with the same logo. It ain’t the Kentucky Wildcat that we’re used to having.”

That’s when Pope gave his best attempt at a non-answer, filibustering about how everyone in the room lit up when the logo conversation started before admitting he likes both — and will leave that decision to the people writing his paychecks.

“I mean, I have a very personal affinity for the logo that was the logo when I was here. I think it’s special and distinctive and wonderful of great times. And I love what we’re rolling with now,” Pope said. “I’m going to let the people that write my checks make those decisions [laughs].”

To close out the show, one fan asked if Pope could bring back the denim uniforms his ’96 team made famous three decades ago. His answer was everything BBN hoped to hear and more.

“Can I tell you this? I’m not really allowed to say this, so it’s just between the two of us: I’m working on it. It’s amazing the red tape that we have to go through to make this happen, but we’re pretty passionate about trying to make that happen. We’ll see what we come up with. It’s definitely on my agenda of things to get accomplished.”

Music to fans’ ears.