Mark Pope on first win as Kentucky's coach: "It's so deeply special to me"

The Mark Pope era at Kentucky is off to a thrilling start with a 103-62 win over Wright State. After the final horn sounded, Pope and his wife Lee Anne met his players at midcourt, where Mitch Barnhart presented them with a bourbon barrel top commemorating the victory, his first official one as Kentucky’s head coach. Once the photos were done, Pope’s players embraced him, cheering, dancing, and even tossing water on their coach.

Pope eventually made his way his way to the broadcast table, where he attempted to reflect on the moment with Tom Hart and Jimmy Dykes.

“It’s been — come on. I’m not going to start crying right now but we have these experiences in our lives that change us forever. They change what our insides are and you get to do that with people, right? So here I am in a place that changed me forever with all the people that we got to go through that experience together…there’s nothing like it.”

It was a moment Pope’s players experienced for the first time as well, which made it especially meaningful.

“We talked about this the other night. Walking into Rupp is like walking into your house, it’s just that 22,000 people are there and it’s a brilliant thing and it means everything to me. We’re excited about trying to represent this program and this state in an epic way.”

.@CoachMarkPope postgame with @tom_hart and @CoachJimmyDykes. pic.twitter.com/QnIrCas2qQ

— Kentucky Men’s Basketball (@KentuckyMBB) November 5, 2024

A few beats later, Pope admitted it’s going to take some time to process what happened in Rupp Arena tonight.

“They asked me this on TV postgame, and I’m just going to give you bad answers because we’re just lost in the game. You know, at some point, Lee Anne and I are going to find some quiet moment to sit back and drink a soda sometime in the next month or two, or nine months or sometime, and we’re just gonna — I just look forward to that moment because we’ll really take it in then. And it’s so deeply special to me. But right now we got work to do, so we’re pretty locked in on the game.”

Even more special? The Cats won by 41 points, which was also Pope’s jersey number at Kentucky, a fact that did not escape him.

“These guys, man, our guys, they, I’m pretty sure they cooked that up, but we talked about that after the game. Forty-one is really special to me, so that is really sweet. Kentucky magic. Nothing like it.”