KSR Gameday: Kentucky's first exhibition of the Mark Pope era
Do you hear that? It’s the sweet, soft sound of Kerr Kriisa screaming in the face of an opposing guard. Basketball season has finally arrived, folks. It all starts tonight in Rupp Arena with the first of two exhibition games for the Kentucky Wildcats to kick off the 2024-25 season.
Up first? The Kentucky Wesleyan Panthers — aka, the Fighting Ryan Lemonds. This will mark the first real action of the Mark Pope era in Lexington. Pro Day, Big Blue Madness, and the Blue-White Scrimmage were all fun warm-ups, but now it’s time to finally play against someone other than themselves. Kriisa was actually the only one held out of the Blue-White Scrimmage last Friday for precautionary reasons, so other than the questionable status of the Estonian guard, Kentucky should have a full roster ready to rock this evening.
Kentucky Wesleyan is coming off a 21-9 campaign in 2023-24 that saw the Panthers lose in the Division II Midwest Region Championship to Upper Iowa. The program has a DII record of eight national championships (sound familiar?) that came in 1966, 1968, 1969, 1973, 1987, 1990, 1999, and 2001. They’ll be the first opponent to test Pope’s roster, which features 12 brand-new scholarship players and an entirely fresh coaching staff.
Tipoff is set for 7:00 p.m. EST. This is a streaming-only game, so you’ll need an ESPN+ login to watch it through the SEC Network+. To help prepare us for what’s in store, a pair of Wildcats spoke with reporters on Tuesday to preview the preseason opener. Fifth-year center Amari Williams and freshman guard Collin Chandler had plenty to say about making their Kentucky debuts. Listen to them talk through the videos below and then we’ll dive into the rest of today’s news and notes. We’ve got plenty to talk about.
Amari Williams
Collin Chandler
Mark Pope clarifies the “car out of gas” story
On Tuesday morning, a simple social media post sparked some laughs throughout the Big Blue Nation. Mark Pope had apparently run out of gas in the middle of Broadway around downtown Lexington. The car was blocking a whole lane of traffic and required the police to try and move it to the side of the road. But when Pope went on the Field of 68 podcast, he set the record straight.
It wasn’t his fault the car ran out of gas — it was his wife’s, Lee Anne.
“I had a great event this morning. We’re starting a Zoom compliance meeting — Lee Anne is going to kill me, by the way,” Pope said. “But we’re starting a Zoom compliance meeting at 9 AM and I get a phone call at 9:01, and it’s Lee Anne. She’s just run out of gas on the busiest street in Lexington, like a mile away from here. So I get the GAs, we jump in the car, we run and the police are there. It’s this huge thing. We’re trying to get some gas, people are driving by and honking their horns, ‘Let’s go Cats!’ I mean, it’s just like, it’s every day. It’s just awesome. Come on man, it’s a good life.”
Speaking of Lee Anne Pope…
At some point today you HAVE to read KSR’s Tyler Thompson’s awesome feature on Lee Anne, which dropped this morning. Tyler was able to go in-depth on the Pope’s background and how they got to this point, particularly regarding Lee Anne path’s. She was a coach’s daughter now turned coach’s wife. Without her, Mark likely never finds his way back to Lexington. This is required reading ahead of the start of the Pope era.
“Our Dream”: How Lee Anne Pope helped chart the course for Mark Pope’s return to Kentucky
New Sources Say in your feed
The Sources Say crew of Jack Pilgrim and Shawn Smith is just as excited about the start of the season as you are. To help calm their nerves a little bit, they went live last night to talk about last week’s Blue-White Scrimmage along with tonight’s exhibition. They also answered plenty of questions from our loyal KSBoard subscribers.
If the Lee Anne Pope feature is required reading, then Sources Say is required listening.
Mikkel Skinner commitment day
Four-star 2025 tight end Mikkel Skinner will announce his college decision tonight around 8:00 p.m. EST. The 6-foot-4, 220-pound product of Greer, SC is down to the likes of Kentucky, South Carolina, South Florida, Georgia, and Ohio State. On3 ranks him as the No. 242 overall recruit from the class of 2025.
This has truly been a race between South Carolina and Kentucky over the last couple of months. Skinner has visited both campuses multiple times since the season began. But Vince Marrow has the Wildcats trending as the favorite down the final stretch. Will it be enough to convince Skinner to land with UK?
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Kentucky offense preparing for Auburn
Things haven’t been pretty with Mark Stoops‘ program as of late, but a bounce-back opportunity this weekend at home against Auburn awaits. The offense could certainly use a nice bounce-back performance (or maybe just a full-on reset). Kentucky has still yet to score more than 21 points in an SEC game this season.
There are no easy fixes here, but offensive coordinator Bush Hamdan will do everything he can to make it happen. Following Tuesday’s practice, Hamdan was joined by offensive line coach Eric Wolford, quarterback Cutter Boley, wide receiver Dane Key, and offensive tackle Malachi Wood to talk about Auburn and how to get back on track.
The NBA season started last night
And it featured a TNT doubleheader between the Knicks-Celtics and Timberwolves-Lakers. Which means we saw four former Kentucky players in action on Opening Night.
Anthony Davis was easily the star with his 36 points, 16 rebounds, four assists, and three blocks on 11-23 shooting in the Lakers’ 110-103 win. On the other end of the floor, Julius Randle made his Timberwolves debut, finishing with 16 points, nine rebounds, and four assists on 5-10 shooting. Unfortunately, he was not joined on the floor by rookie Rob Dillingham, who received a DNP-CD.
In the game prior, we saw Karl-Anthony Towns make his debut for the New York Knicks, although it came in a 132-109 blowout loss to the defending champion Celtics. Towns went for 12 points, seven rebounds, and three assists in 5-9 shooting in 23 minutes of action. Jacob Toppin also saw some clock late in the game but missed his only shot and failed to record any stats.
The real fun starts tonight though. 10 games featuring 20 teams will take the stage tonight. A total of 30 former Wildcats made Opening Night rosters this season, more than any other school in the country.
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