Mark Pope says Kentucky is going to Nashville to win: "This SEC Tournament matters"

Going back to his introductory press conference in April, Mark Pope has made it clear that the SEC Tournament is important to the Kentucky Basketball program, music to the ears of fans who had been told for over a decade it was not. One week before his team starts their postseason journey in Nashville, Pope is doubling down on that message, even in a league as strong as the SEC this season.

“This SEC Tournament matters,” Pope said in today’s press conference. “It’s the best league maybe that’s ever been in any year of college basketball, and this SEC matters. So, we’re heading to Nashville with all of our successes and confidence and warts and holes that we got to plug and we’re going there with one goal, which is to go win. And I assume every team is going there that way.”

Those comments came at the tail end of a lengthy answer about how easy it can be for players, coaches, and even fans to lose sight of the true objective of a season, or even sports in general. For Kentucky, the distractions have been especially plentiful in recent months as the Cats have battled injuries. Now that Jaxson Robinson and Kerr Kriisa are officially out for the year, Pope and his team are focusing on what’s right in front of them: the postseason.

“This is why you play, ultimately,” Pope said. “We’re here to win. We do all this work to win. That’s why we’re here, is to go win, especially the University of Kentucky; here, nothing less than that that’s acceptable. The social media stuff, NIL, the transfer portal, the professional [route], and all the things are great but we should never be distracted by the fact that that is not the end goal. The end goal is to win. The end goal is to raise a trophy and hang a banner. That’s the end goal.”

Pope’s message for his team over the next week? Everything they’ve worked for this season is finally in front of them. This team has pulled off some incredible wins; what’s to say they can’t make some noise in March?

“We’re here now. We’ve gone through this season. We’ve been through everything we’ve been through and we’ve grown in all the ways that we could grow, as fast as we could possibly grow. And now we’re at the final stages where it’s time to win. Like, you’re either going to win or you’re not. And that’s not to be paralyzed by fear or crushed by expectations. It’s just time to recognize that what you’ve worked for for the last six months and for your whole lifetime is actually right now. It’s not the other stuff in the future or the past or wherever; it’s right now.”

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Pope: “It’s March. This is the best.”

This year’s SEC Tournament could be the craziest ever. As many as 14 SEC teams could make the NCAA Tournament field, meaning what happens in Nashville may have major ramifications for everyone but LSU and South Carolina. Pope said this week’s upsets are a preview of what’s to come and one reason he’s not overly concerned about the result vs. Missouri.

“Just see last night. Everything turns upside down every single second of the way, right? And so, I think you want to get every single win you can, and you understand what it is, and I think that it’s really imperative for everybody in this league that you understand how great the level of competition here is, and it shouldn’t ever affect your confidence, actually. So we would love to win. We would like to go into the SEC Tournament on a little bit of a run because it just makes you feel good but it won’t have any impact on our confidence level or belief in our guys. I would like to get through the game healthy. So that’s a huge priority.”

Pope is so excited about the postseason that he admitted that he and his staff have tinkered around with SEC and NCAA Tournament scenarios this week (just like the KSR crew!).

“Now, we’re doing it a lot because it’s just fun. You know, these little websites where you go and say, if they win, and they win, and they win. It’s like a mind-numbing endeavor. It’s March. This is the best. I think sometimes we might misread that there’s a difference between fans and players and coaches and there’s really not except if it’s conceivable as a staff and as a group of players that we might be more excited about everything that comes with the postseason than BBN, which seems impossible, right?”

One week from now, the chaos will be upon us; in hearing Mark Pope wax poetic about the frenetic schedule, it’s clear he can’t wait. Thankfully, this team includes plenty of veterans who are used to the madness of the postseason too, which could come in handy as the Cats try to make a run.

“These conference tournaments are great. And being in the SEC now, in the best conference in the country, in the biggest tournament in the country, one of the things especially this is just back to back to back to back to back. There are no in-between days. It’s a fever pitch, going from game one to game two to game three. It’s all teams and fanbases that you’re intimately familiar with, and, in a lot of times, have a beef with and history with and some frustration with, or some ownership of, or whatever. It’s a really unique dynamic. It’s really special.”

“With that said, our goal is just to be as ambitious and aggressive and focused as we can. It’s everything at hyper-warp speed, right? God willing, you win your first game, and you roll back to the hotel and get everyone treatment and all the emotion is gone, and you’re immediately focused on prepping for the next game, which is going to happen in 22 hours. And it’s a beautiful thing. It’s so condensed. So we love it. And we’ll stay laser-focused on it, see where we get.”