Mark Pope explains what still keeps him up at night entering SEC play

Every coach has something that wakes them up in a cold sweat in the middle of the night, maybe keeps them staring up at the ceiling into the early hours of the morning. It could be something their team is doing well hoping it’s sustainable or doing poorly hoping to get out of a funk. Maybe it’s a player they need more out of or one who is exceeding early expectations, beating up on lesser competition praying to the basketball gods they can do it once league play begins.

Mark Pope is no different, working through his own personal coaching battles consuming him with Kentucky set to open the SEC schedule, No. 6 Florida coming to town on Saturday with tip-off scheduled for 11 a.m. ET.

What’s eating him alive with 13 games down and as many as 27 to go in his first run as head coach at his alma mater? It may sound like a cop-out answer, but it’s the pursuit of greatness for a group with numbered days.

“It’s just this pursuit. I wish I had a better answer for you, but it’s just like — it’s this insane desire, this voracious desire to get better. We just don’t have enough time,” Pope said.

That’s the blessing and curse of building a roster with seven players running out of eligibility once the clock hits zero on the season. No do-overs, no shot at redemption. You get a higher floor to get things rolling with guys that have been there and done that, paving the path for a quicker rebuild when you’re starting from scratch.

You just don’t get to see the process through over the course of several years in blue and white. The hope is you get Otega Oweh and Brandon Garrison back — the lone incoming transfers with remaining eligibility — plus the trio of freshmen in Collin Chandler, Travis Perry and Trent Noah, but beyond that, this is it.

And that’s some serious weight on Pope’s shoulders.

“This group is so fun, this group has such great young men. Our ceiling is so high,” he said. “You just feel this pressure every minute, like, how are we going to — we just don’t have that much time to become what we can become. I think that’s the thing that we’re feeling all the time.

“How can we be as efficient as we can be? How can we grow as fast as we can? How can we know each other as fast as we can? Trying to magnify the effect of the lessons that we learn almost every minute of the day is probably the thing that is consuming us.”

Saturday marks the beginning of SEC play, but it’s also the beginning of the end for the vets as they enter the final conference schedule of their careers. Pope wants to do right by the players who have given years of excellent service to the game.