KWC head coach Drew Cooper apologized to Mark Pope after exhibition

Drew Cooper felt the need to apologize to Mark Pope following Wednesday night’s exhibition. Not necessarily because he did anything wrong though. The Kentucky Wesleyan head coach asked for forgiveness because he was so disappointed in his team’s performance against the new-look Kentucky Wildcats that he almost came off as embarrassed.

“I apologized to Coach Pope; I thought we could put up more of a fight,” Cooper said after Kentucky’s 123-52 preseason win in Rupp Arena. “I think our guys just didn’t respond to some adverse situations that happened early in the game — which I don’t care what level you are, good teams need to do. I felt we could have come out and resisted much more than we did.

“[Kentucky is a] very finely tuned basketball team, but I am not happy with our spiritual effort tonight, so, disappointing night for the Panthers. Like I said, I apologized to Coach Pope.”

Don’t take Cooper’s words as any sort of slight against UK though. Most expected Kentucky Wesleyan to be more competitive and few expected the offensive avalanche we saw from the Wildcats. Kentucky Wesleyan returned plenty of production from last season’s team that beat Louisville in the preseason and made its first DII NCAA Tournament appearance since 2017. Cooper is a veteran coach in year six with the Owensboro-based program.

So yes, he was hoping to give Kentucky more of a fight. Cooper wanted to challenge the Wildcats and give Pope some real film to dive into (although Pope still found areas that need improving despite the 71-point win). He felt obligated to give Kentucky a good contest, but his team ran into an offensive juggernaut. On top of that, he fully respects Pope as a person and coach.

“I am talking as a guy that has been in Division II and Division III my whole life. I’ve had very few encounters with coaches at this level, at the high-major levels, that are as humble as Mark Pope,” Cooper said. “Getting to know him through this process — I ran into him in South Carolina, I had never met him before and introduced myself to him.

“The way he made me feel like I was one of him — that doesn’t happen every time you go up to coaches that quite frankly make as much money as he does. I will never forget that encounter. He’s just so welcoming and I really appreciate him having us. Like I said, I apologized to him, I apologize to Big Blue Nation, I thought we could have prepared much better than we did tonight.“

Don’t worry about it too much, Coach. The Big Blue Nation was more than happy to watch a blowout win. It added another jolt to a hungry fanbase that could still use a few more.