Kentucky has a team built to 'ring the bell' facing adversity -- even when Mark Pope looks like 'the worst coach ever'

Mark Pope embraced criticism his very first day on the job, knowing that comes with the role as leader of the winningest program in college basketball. Besides, his former teammates in the 1996 national championship group chat “will destroy me every time something goes wrong” anyway, so he’s gonna hear it one way or another.

Then came his first slip-up as head coach: Kentucky‘s loss at Clemson in the SEC/ACC Challenge, a game the Wildcats were in position to win after trailing by seven at the half, retaking the lead with 10:57 to go. That led to the first run of questions from Big Blue Nation, who Pope frequently calls the most knowledgable fanbase in college basketball. Why did the ball stick? Where did the off-ball movement go? Where was Koby Brea in the last nine minutes? Why not throw a zone out there?

He answered some form of all of those questions during his call-in radio show, handling the criticism just as he said he would. Then came another during his weekly press conference with the media recapping the Clemson loss and previewing the team’s trip to Seattle to take on No. 7 Gonzaga. When asked about the Wildcats’ response to the loss and how they would use it as fuel going into the top-10 matchup against the Bulldogs, Pope actually said he likes his group now more than he did before.

Why? The second-half resolve spoke volumes about this team’s desire to improve.

“There are so many things we can do better in the game. I shouldn’t say this because BBN is going to kill me, but I’m not very filtered. I actually have more confidence in this team after the game than I did before, which is a terrible, terrible thing to say here,” Pope said. “I liked how our guys were willing to sell out to address the most important thing. At halftime, the most glaring problem we had, we were down 10 on the glass.

“A lot of times in this game, we give lip service to things that need to be addressed, and then you kind of go through and you don’t really fix the problem because there are so many other things that you get distracted by and focus on. I was really impressed with our guys — like, that was a massive point of emphasis and our guys remedied it, right? They got back to even, which is hard to do.”

Clemson led the rebounding battle 31-21 overall at the half and turned 13 offensive rebounds and turned them into 10 second-chance points. Pope and his staff challenged the Wildcats at halftime to show more fight on the glass and they followed it up with a plus-10 second half while allowing just two offensive boards. They went from being dominated to dominating, at least in that specific area.

That meant something to the first-year head coach.

“We didn’t play great, we didn’t play really well on the offensive side of the ball and we didn’t play well at all. The guys, even in spite of all that, were like, ‘OK, so this is the most important thing. Let’s handle the most important thing,'” Pope said. “When you handle the most important thing, it bodes well for you when you can start there, right? So I felt good about that.”

It would have been easy to let go of the rope in that environment. Instead, Kentucky came together and nearly pulled off the comeback win. You hate putting yourself in that position to begin with, obviously, but if it’s going to happen, you have to respond, right?

That same mindset showed up when breaking down film and preparing for Gonzaga. The Wildcats are hungry to not only learn how to fix their mistakes, but show off the growth in a live setting right away.

“I felt good about the fact that in a time when we weren’t playing well — we didn’t really have rhythm, we were kind of searching for ourselves, the guys pretty much stayed together, right? I liked the response yesterday as we kind of cranked out the film, and we had a bunch of guys that were curious and eager and wanted to get better, not a bunch of guys feeling sorry for themselves or upset or distracted.”

It’s a tough non-conference schedule leading up to an all-time SEC gauntlet featuring as many as 12 tournament teams. This season won’t be sunshine and rainbows, no matter how bad everyone in that building wants to win every game they play. There will be times Pope makes mistakes — he called his decision to go small in the first half against Clemson that led to a 10-0 run for the Tigers a “very poor miscalculation” — and others where the players don’t execute to perfection.

That’s where that answer in the second half comes in. The Wildcats were handed a very specific challenge and responded with their backs against the wall. That’s their approach to everything and why Pope believes this group is capable of something special.

They persevere.

“If we can keep that — listen, seasons are hard, and that’s why they’re great. I mean, heaven forbid we ever have a season where nothing goes wrong, because it’s going to be super boring,” the Kentucky head coach said. “What really is special is when you answer — it’s when you ring the bell, right? I think we have a locker room full of guys that are like that. They can take on some adversity and I think that they are, wins or losses, they’re gonna roll in the locker room the same way just hungry to get better. I think that bodes well for us throughout the course of this season.

“You look at this league right now, this league is really special. It’s going to be really fun, it’s going to be really dynamic. There are going to be some times when BBN is like, ‘He’s the worst coach ever!’ Those are actually beautiful moments, because that’s when you have a chance to ring the bell, right? We have a team that’s built to do it.”