Mark Pope's approach to halftime is another insight into his coaching philosophy

Kentucky was down 16 to Gonzaga at halftime on Saturday night. As you know, the Cats not only forced overtime, but won in one of the most thrilling non-conference games in recent memory.

So, what exactly did Mark Pope tell his team at halftime to spark the comeback? A fan asked him on last night’s call-in show, which led to Pope giving listeners another glimpse into his unique coaching philosophy. Pope and his staff let the players go to the locker room first to cool off and talk to each other about the game. When the coaches come in, the players then debrief them on what they think is happening, both good and bad. Pope said it’s the best way to truly understand what’s happening in the game.

“We’re really blessed; we have unbelievable and leaders that are figuring each other out and figuring out how to lead, and so they cover most of the stuff before we even get in there,” Pope said. “And what’s really fun with our team, and we do the same thing in timeouts, is when we have time, we’ll actually have our guys debrief us first.

“What I’ve found is that a lot of times as coaches, we just want to talk and when you talk, you don’t actually have any idea what you guys are digesting in the moment or not, and you’re not getting any feedback from what they’re feeling and seeing on the court, which is some of the most valuable data you can possibly get. It’s not a matter of if the guys are seeing it right or not on the court or feeling it right or not, it’s a matter of knowing what they think they’re experiencing. That’s the only way you can actually coach a player, right? And so we do that a lot at halftime.”

Once debriefed, Pope compares the players’ observations with the staff’s to come up with a plan for the second half. More often than not, they match.

“Our guys are great. They know the drill. They come in out of halftime, they get a second to breathe, and then they have conversations among themselves and then I’ll get in there and usually be like, ‘Alright, guys, you go first, what do you have?’ And the guys will kind of give me a laundry list of things, and most of the time it’s like, ‘Yep, that’s exactly what we have. Let’s go. We’re gonna go A, B, C, or D’ and we’re out. The guys do most of the work and that’s in my experience, that’s where really, really, really great successful ownership teams come from.”

No wonder this team is so good at halftime adjustments. You can see it in action in UK Sports Video’s Journey recap of the Duke game (speaking of, counting down the minutes until we get one from the Gonzaga win):

Pope and the “Pop Rule”

Listening to Mark Pope talk about basketball is fun, but even the smartest Basketball Benny may be left scratching their head over a few terms. David from Owensboro called in and asked Pope if he and his staff could provide a glossary or dictionary to help fans learn the unique terminology of his system. Pope said that’s actually something they’ve talked about doing, sharing a term or two per week on the radio show.

“It’s interesting because every program has their kind of terminology for the same things. And so we’ve talked about doing that on the show a little bit, maybe taking one or two words a week, but it is a really important part of the game. And Coach Fox actually taught me this when I was working for him. You try — you’re not always successful — but you try and take complicated concepts and just get him down to one word and if it could be a one-word syllable, it’s even better.”

Pope got the party started by teaching listeners about the “Pop Rule,” coined by Hall-of-Fame coach Gregg Popovich, coach and president of the San Antonio Spurs. It’s one of the reasons the ball never seems to linger in any players’ hands too long and this team is able to play so fast.

“Pop Rule is courtesy of the great Gregg Popovich, one of the greatest coaches ever to walk on the face of the planet Earth. And he has a rule on his team where you have to execute on a decision within 0.5 seconds of the ball, of leather touching your hand. And it’s really, really important.

“Every time the ball stops in a player’s hands, it allows the defense time to adjust to get through their rotations and so that was a concept that Pop really made public several maybe decades ago, right, but it’s really inherent to what we do, and it’s all about actively thinking ahead in the game. There are sometimes when you’ll see guys catch the ball and then turn and then try and make a decision but we want guys who are actively considering what’s going on ahead of the game and anticipating their next move all the time. It makes us way faster than they really are.”

“Pop Rule in a very general sense, means that if the ball is being turned to me, I’m really thinking about a stampede or a Maggette or a shot. Like, I need to execute one of those things I guess, or an extra pass. I need to have one of those four things that I’m ready to execute on by the time the ball touches my hands to actually execute, not to make a read, but to execute a read.”

The KSR group chat had fun trying to figure out what a Maggette is (a lift into a curl behind the roll guy out of a ball screen). I can’t wait to learn more next week.