Kentucky forward Andrew Carr sees a lot of himself in Mark Pope

Mark Pope has never been shy about his love for Wake Forest transfer Andrew Carr. He was at the top of his priority list from day one, someone he had to have in the portal when he took the Kentucky job. Shoot, he drove all the way to Bowling Green to pick him up for his official visit to Lexington after a night of travel issues.

Whatever it took, Pope was going to land the prized 6-10 forward. And he got him, adding his commitment shortly after his visit to officially Sharpie in his starting four man.

“Andrew Carr is born to play for me,” the Kentucky head coach said back in May. “The first time we talked on the phone, we just — it’s almost like we live in a shared experience. I feel like I really know him and I feel like he really knows me. His game fits exactly how this game is being pushed, the edges of this game. You’re always looking for the edges of the game where the game is evolving and he fits exactly what we’re trying to do in terms of his experience, in terms of his skillset, in terms of his mentality.”

He later compared him to NBA All-Star Lauri Markkanen, a knockdown shooter with positional versatility and a high basketball IQ. After averaging 13.5 points and 6.8 rebounds while shooting 52.6 percent from the field and 37.1 percent from three on 2.8 attempts per contest, you can see where Pope’s optimism is coming from, certainly in his wide-open, run-and-gun system.

What does his new head coach’s confidence mean to him? Carr says it’s the reason why he signed with Kentucky to begin with. Once they started building a relationship, the 6-10 forward knew pretty quickly there was a match and Lexington was where he wanted to end his time in college.

He wanted to compete for a national championship playing for a coach he trusted. Carr found that with Pope at UK.

“It means a lot. For me, it’s my last chance. It’s my last year, so that was really important when I’m trying to make my decision,” Carr told KSR on Friday. “I’m leaving a great experience, a positive experience for me at Wake (Forest), so I wanted to make sure that I was going to a situation where I would be able to contribute and impact winning at the highest level, chase championships. That’s what we’re doing here at Kentucky.”

They aren’t direct player comparisons, but they’re both 6-10 forwards who can step out and knock down threes, Pope a captain on the 1996 championship squad and Carr “a captain of every team he’s ever been associated with,” as his coach described the day he signed with Kentucky.

The Wake Forest transfer hopes to make a similar impact as a producer off the floor and a leader away from it.

“I see a lot of myself in Coach Pope, so it was really cool,” Carr told KSR. “You don’t find that often in head coaches, especially in college. To be with someone who has experienced it and at your position, kind of similar games and similar style, that was really appealing to me. That allowed us to get super close, super fast. That was amazing.”

A match made in heaven between Mark Pope and Andrew Carr.

. @apc_andrew told Sources Say today that he sees a lot of himself in Coach Pope, which was one of the many reasons why he chose Kentucky.

🎧- https://t.co/hNfBYmQFjm pic.twitter.com/mHvGBpguPw

— Mario A Maitland (@MarioMaitland_3) June 14, 2024