WATCH: Mark Pope recaps Kentucky's win over LSU on Senior Night

Mark Pope was a happy man when he took the podium following Kentucky’s dominant win over LSU on Senior Night. As you might expect, Pope had plenty of praise for his squad following the 95-64 victory, a sight for sore eyes after the lopsided loss to Auburn on Saturday.

“I was really proud of our guys and how they responded tonight after a tough game on Saturday,” Pope said in the postgame press conference. “Just their focus, I thought was pretty good. I thought it was elite, especially on the defensive end. I thought guys were really connected, and took it personal and that’s what we’re looking to do as we move forward.”

There’s a ton to love from tonight’s performance. Pope praised the performances by Otega Oweh, Collin Chandler, Ansley Almonor, and even walk-on Zach Tow, who got his first game action tonight, subbing in with Grant Darbyshire and Walker Horn at the end after officials called a foul on Collin Chandler with 0.2 seconds to go. Before the game, Lamont Butler presented Tow with his first official UK jersey, a very cool moment for the entire team.

“Zach was in stunned wonderment and that’s like…you spend one day in this jersey and BBN embraces you for life, and that’s really cool. It’s like nowhere else.”

While the news that Jaxson Robinson will be out for the season was devastating, Pope said that in the days since Kentucky has been able to regroup and focus on what they do have instead of “just trying to stay afloat.” The road gets harder from here, but tonight was a good start.

Mark Pope Transcript

MARK POPE: This LSU team has fought hard all season.  They got a bunch of young talent that’s going to be really good. I was really proud of our guys and how they responded tonight after a tough game on Saturday.  Just their focus, I thought was pretty good. I thought it was elite, especially on the defensive end.  I thought guys were really connected and took it personal and that’s what we are looking to do as we move forward. Hit it, questions.  

Q Mark, when you recruited these guys, it was kind of like speed dating. I’m curious as a coach, how do you cram in four years of relationship into just one year that you have them?  

MARK POPE: I have Lee Anne, Lee Anne actually can do that, and she’s unbelievable at that.  If you ask them, they would be like, I’m sad we are not going to be with Coach Pope and we are really sad we are not going to see Miss Lee Anne. Really, it’s these guys doing it with each other.  That’s what’s so special about this group.  These seniors became so close. It was really fun. We had a dinner last night that was so fantastic. It was really special with just the seniors, not seniors but the extinguished eligibility guys and their families. To hear those guys talk about, it was fun to recount their experience recruiting.  Which all of them had interesting stories from their point of view to share with each other.  And then just to hear them, all six of them stood up and kind of like took the mic and told stories last night for quite a long time and it was really wonderful. I learned a lot of things were going on behind the scenes that I’m not allowed to talk about. But really beautiful things.  That’s what special.  They built relationships with each other. And to watch them just in that setting where the only focus was just taking them in, was actually really fun last night.  Special guys.  

Q Coach, two questions here about the BBN.  Tonight, How was it for you, even though you weren’t here to watch BBN embrace Damien Collins after all he went through while he was here. How effective were they for you guys in Rupp Arena this year as you finish 15 and 3 in the conference?  

MARK POPE: Well, listen, BBN is incredible.  And I think, you know, it was a special night.  A name that most people don’t know is Zach Tal.  Zach Tal actually came to walk on tryouts and we randomly held walk on tryouts and he showed up and he fought through 60 guys in a bunch of workouts and then earned the right to come to practice and be on a one day contract throughout the entire course of the season. He came and battled every single day, never said a word, never missed a rep, never missed a practice, never was an issue, never asked for anything.  Just came and fought every single day. One of the highlights of the night was, you know, I had some of the guys come to me, in fact, Lamont Butler came to me about a month ago and said I think Zach deserves a jersey, he had not got a jersey all year, he was on a one day contract.  In our pregame speech, Lamont had the pregame speech before the game today and he presented Zach with a jersey. The guys lost their mind.  Zach was in stunned wonderment.  And that is like, I’m telling that story is a long way around your question about, if you spend one day in this jersey and BBN embraces you for life. and that’s really cool.  It’s like nowhere else.  This basketball community of BBN is like nothing else. It was fun to hear our guys talk about our seniors, our extinguished eligibility guys talk about it because they got a huge dose of it in just a short time.  

Q Mark, how did the guys internalized the news of Jaxson Robinsons injury and needing surgery.  Sometimes you can be in the back of your mind, we are going to get so-and-so back and that kind of thing.  Now just knowing moving forward that this locker room, this rotation, this is who we have?  

MARK POPE: We had a really trying, just all of the emotions you could imagine post-Oklahoma.  It was a late game central time. We finished the game and then, you know, get back at 3 o’clock or 4 o’clock in the morning.  And are dealing with the emotion of that game.  The emotion of Jax’s news which we all didn’t really get to get final answers on until the next day.  But all suspected.  And then run right into Auburn in an early game. That was a super tumultuous time and there was just so much.  And then we ran right into tonight.  I think, the guys are devastated for him and really sad for us because he is such a massive part of this team.  At the same time resolved that, we know what we have today and we are going to try to find a way to win with what we have today. Jax, these guys love Jax so much and Jax loves these guys so much and they’ve been on epic journey together and it’s hard to make sense of why he doesn’t get a chance to finish this with these guys. It’s really brutal.  

Q Obviously, Otega had another great game all around. I want to specifically ask about one play. We are sitting way up there where the media is. The pass that he made to Lamont, to cap that 15 and 0 run. How much was it from your advantage point because you are down on the floor and you got a pretty good sight of it?  

MARK POPE: It was very much, you know, I love basketball players that grew up playing soccer.  Because they kinda see angles and that can make plays like that is what you do in that game. I don’t know anything about soccer but the little thing I do know is that.  It was a really incredible play.  I thought he was elite starting the game on the defensive end. That’s what we really cared about.  We need him to start gains being great defensively.  And he was, Lamont was.  But, O made a bunch of plays today, he made some really simple plays that look brilliant, right? I thought he was terrific, his focus was great.  

Q Coach, you talked about coming out with vengeance after the Auburn game. Can you talk about what was different tonight and how important to leave Rupp with a win as you play your last game here?

MARK POPE: Just us getting better.  It’s funny how the gravity of the season gets to you, right?  We’ve been patch-working so much that we’ve lost a couple of things over the last six weeks.  We lost this desperate hunger to get better, because we were just trying to stay afloat, right?  By staying afloat in some ways, I think we did get better but there were so many distractions going on.  You know we kind of lost the pace of the game because we are just trying to stay afloat. We are trying to get just enough live bodies to function. You think about Otega’s pass.  Tonight there was a lot of pace against a really good transition defensive team.  LSU had been a really solid transition defense team and they only gave up 50% of their possessions in transitions. Those two things, I think were on the uptick.  I think we kinda have a vibe for the first time. It feels like we are going to have the same guys out on the floor tomorrow, on Saturday as we did tonight, as we did on last Saturday, which we haven’t had that in almost two months. And so we are really excited about that and we are really excited about getting back focused in this late stretch to continue getting better and to continue bringing pace to the game is really important to us.  

Q: Mark, Collin Chandler had a good game tonight, he had 11 points, 4 on rebounds and 4 assists. What did you see from him tonight and how big is someone like him stepping up be for you guys later on?

MARK POPE: It’s really important.  Collin, and Trent, and Travis Perry in some ways are just incredibly important to our stretch run here.  Those guys are ready, they are capable, and those three guys have got to step up and make huge plays for us like veteran experience players, and they can.  But those guys are really crucial.  The success that we have is going to be in some part dependent on them being great and they are ready to do it.  

Q Mark, you guys are big on the numbers and analytics. You’ve had so many people in and out of the lineup all year. Has that messed with your numbers? Do you have enough data to make decisions like you normally would?  

MARK POPE: We have a lot of data but it’s a lot of weird data, right?  There’s not, you know, there is so many kind of anomalous parts to it. We do, we learned about our guys.  Even tonight, you know, there were a couple of, you know, you get yourself into a situation where it’s either fatigue or fouls or match-ups that end you up with a lineup that’s like, oh, I don’t actually love the lineup right now.  And it’s all happening in real time.  We don’t have a ton of lineup flexibility for us right now to put a really good group on the floor. We have a bunch of guys, all of our guys can go be great on the floor, but they have to be with the right other group, some of our guys, to be really effective and functional.  You take that as one example of, man, we are still trying to figure it out. But, we have had three straight games, on Saturday we will have our third straight game where we get to explore this group of pieces.  And we will figure it out.  

Q Mark, Ansley was really big for you in the middle of the season. It seemed like he was able to get some of that confidence back, maybe tonight?  

MARK POPE: I thought he was terrific.  Ansley, my goodness, what a season he’s had.  For a guy never in his wildest dreams thought he would be wearing a Kentucky jersey. You think about the huge impactful moments that he’s had in games for us and he’s going to be big down the stretch.  You see it all the time. He had three or four really quite subpar games for his standard that he set.  And you know, sometimes all of the weight of this thing starts to get on your shoulders and he did a great tonight just casting out, like, I’m going to be a baller man, make minutes and I’m gonna go play. I thought his energy and intensity was great tonight. I thought he was really special. He’s been great all season. Thanks guys, I appreciate you.  

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