Mark Pope's approach to halftime speech vs. Duke was a first for Kentucky players

It was a tale of two halves during Kentucky’s win over Duke nearly a full week ago.

The Wildcats held the Blue Devils to just 26 second-half points after a 46-point first-half performance. After the break, Kentucky cut down its turnovers by more than half and shut down every player not named Cooper Flagg, although Flagg too eventually became a victim to head coach Mark Pope‘s halftime adjustments.

Two of the keys to victory after halftime? Prioritizing transition defense and cutting down on turnovers. Duke forced seven Kentucky turnovers in the first half, but only three in the second. Duke scored eight transition points in the first half, but just four in the second.

“We just talked about the things were were struggling with at the time,” Fifth-year point guard Lamont Butler said Monday of that halftime conversation. “Transition defense was one. We were turning the ball over. I think we had like seven or eight turnovers in the first half. We wanted to clean that up. One of the biggest messages was don’t panic. It’s a lot more game left. We got a while second half. 20 minutes left. We were just talking about those things.

“I think the biggest thing was our transition defense,” Sophomore center Brandon Garrison added. “Just stopping Cooper Flagg and the other kid No. 7 (Kon Knueppel) from getting two feet in, knocking down the little middy. Just using our championship chest like they said in (The Journey) video. I feel like we picked it up in the second half.”

For those unfamiliar with the video that Garrison is referencing, he’s talking about the 14-minute recap that was released on Sunday night by the UK Sports Video team. These documentary-style highlight packages have always been great, but this one capturing the Duke win might be one of the best they’ve ever done.

A day later, fans are still buzzing about Pope’s halftime speech segment, which we saw nearly two minutes worth. Kentucky was down nine at the break, and even though you could hear the sense of urgency in Pope’s voice, he wanted to open the conversation with his players first and see what they were seeing.

“All right, talk to me. What do we got?” Pope asked his players.

Amari Williams was the first to respond about defense. Andrew Carr soon chimed in about the team’s ball handling. After those two brought up the main halftime discussion points, Pope went into coach mode. He pinpointed Flagg and Knueppel’s impact in transition and harped on that for about a minute.

“It is transition defense and ball screen defense right now. That is this game. It’s the whole game.” Pope says. Kentucky shored up both of those areas and wore Duke’s talented youngsters into the ground by the final buzzer.

That’s how we do a halftime pep. #BBN pic.twitter.com/cowzOSjhdu

— Buddy 🏀😼 (@BigBlueBud) November 18, 2024

Some of the Kentucky players aren’t used to that kind of halftime interaction, where the head coach goes out of his way to ask what the players are seeing before he tells them himself. It’s a method Pope brought with him to UK and has instilled in practices, but this was the first time of the season experiencing it at halftime of a Top 25 matchup. For some, it was their first time ever experiencing it.

“It’s the first time a coach ever just had us talk among ourselves in huddles and stuff, just like in practice,” Garrison said. “If we turn the ball over, he huddles us all up, he lets us talk first and then the coaches second. Because we’re the dudes out there playing. So we see everything. He wants to hear what we have to say about it so we can fix it and the coaches can fix it.”

Not even Butler, who played 131 games across four seasons at San Diego State before transferring to Kentucky, was used to a coach approaching the conversation that way.

“No, that’s actually the first time. First time I think,” Butler added. “I think a couple of times at San Diego (State), coach (Brian) Dutcher has asked us what we were seeing. But this is definitely a little new, but I love it. We’re able to lead each other and then also accept coaching from him.”

It certainly helps Pope to have so many experienced veterans on the roster who know how to lead and keep a team’s head high. But seeing him actually trust those guys is just another aspect of Pope that has this fan base loving his every move.