Kentucky's win over Florida was so fun Mark Pope is already sad about when the season will end

“If you didn’t have fun tonight, you should quit right now and find a new job.”

That’s the first thing Mark Pope said when he sat down with reporters to talk about No. 10 Kentucky’s 106-100 win over No. 6 Florida. It was a back-and-forth battle, with the Gators jumping out to an early 26-15 lead and the Cats storming back to take a ten-point lead into halftime. The two teams traded runs in the second half, with Florida cutting Kentucky’s lead to one on more than one occasion. Just when you thought the Cats had it in hand, here came Walter Clayton Jr. or Alijah Martin with a massive shot to keep it close; however, Kentucky always responded, and ultimately came away the win, a huge one to start SEC play.

At times early on, it looked like the Cats might get run out of the gym as the Gators sliced and diced them inside and owned the glass. Instead of succumbing to the bad habits that have haunted them for almost a month, Kentucky punched back, settling in on defense and finally finding its flow on offense.

“I couldn’t be more proud of our guys,” Pope said. “They just battled and battled and battled. And sometimes we’re not great, but these guys got so much fight in them and so much together in them, and so much resilience. It’s a really fun team to coach.”

So fun that Pope is already sad about the moment it’s going to be over, hopefully, three months from now in San Antonio.

“You know, the only sad thing for me is we only get 17 more of these,” Pope said. “It feels like — I already get sad thinking we only get to do this 17 more times in this regular season, so we’re going to try and enjoy every second of it.”

Subscribe to the KSR YouTube Channel for press conferences, interviews, original shows, fan features, and exclusive content.

Pope to fans: “You guys were magic”

The play on the court was fueled by the energy in the stands. Today’s game tipped at 11 a.m., making it the earliest game in Kentucky Basketball history, but you wouldn’t know it based on the atmosphere. From start to finish, the Rupp Arena crowd brought it, providing the juice the Cats needed to withstand Florida’s runs and make enough of their own.

After two seasons in Lexington, one that ended with a national championship, Pope knows how special Rupp can be for big games. He’s just glad his staff and players are now getting to experience it for themselves.

“I told the staff, we were just meeting for a second before met with the guys after the game, and I just told them, I’m so happy for you guys, because they’re going to be able to now start to connect the experience of being this gym with a real experience they’re having.

“And when I walk into this gym and it’s totally dead silent and there’s no one here and the lights are out — which I love to do — that’s all I hear, is what we heard today, because I got to live it for so long and I’m just really grateful that my guys, the guys on this team and my staff, they’re going to learn that, and there’s nowhere like it. BBN was ridiculous tonight. I mean, how fun was that to be in that gym? It’s pretty special.”

Pope echoed that message when he sat down to speak with Tom Leach in front of the thousands of fans who stuck around for his postgame radio show.

“There’s nobody that could have walked to this gym and not felt like — I mean, you guys were magic tonight. Thank you so much, because that was special; that was really special. Our guys make a couple of buckets, you guys start going crazy. Nobody can hear anything in the gym, and our guys go get three or four more buckets. It was magic, guys. The runs in this game were super fun, and you guys made that happen. So thank you very much.”

Dan Schulman, who has been calling games for ESPN for three decades, said today’s game is in his top five thanks to the atmosphere in the arena and the play on the court.

I’ve been doing this 30 years. I can count on one hand where both the game and the environment were as good as they were today at Rupp for Kentucky-Florida. College basketball at its best.

— Dan Shulman (@DShulman_ESPN) January 4, 2025

It was so great that at the end of his conversation with Leach, Pope circled back to his proposal for the NCAA to extend the regular season to 40 games.

“Just so you guys know how I feel about this, this was an everything game, and we only get to do this 17 more times together. It doesn’t seem like it’s enough. We only get 17 more shots at this, and that’s why I wish they would extend these seasons out to 40 games instead of 31 but we only get to do this 17 more times. So thank you guys for being here so we can all do this together.

“There’s going to be brilliant moments tonight, and there’s gonna be some moments where you guys walk out the gym shaking your heads like, we have the worst coach in the world, but us taking this journey together, we only get to do it 17 more times; I hope we all enjoy it together.”