WATCH: Mark Pope, Kentucky players recap "weird" win vs. Colgate

Mark Pope described Kentucky’s 78-67 win over Colgate as “weird.” His players agreed, trying to explain why the Cats let Colgate storm back and stick around after starting the game 17-0.

“I’d probably agree with him. It was a little bit weird,” Andrew Carr said. “To start a game 17-0 is a little bit different, of course. We’ve got to keep our focus throughout that. I felt like, you know, credit to Koby [Brea], he did a great job. They got pretty comfortable knocking down some threes and things like that. So, we had to buckle down in the second half and really respond and we played well.”

Brea hit five threes tonight, the lone Wildcat to connect from beyond the arc for almost 25 minutes. He got his first start, sliding into Jaxson Robinson’s spot as Robinson took over starting point guard duties with Lamont Butler and Kerr Kriisa out. Brea finished with a team-high 17 points, bringing his career total past the 1,000-point mark.

“It means a lot just because I know everything I went through to get to that point,” Brea said. “It’s a small accomplishment but at the same time, it’s big for me because it makes me reflect on my college career and everything that went into it. It’s a good moment for me and my family and I’m happy about it.”

Hit play below to hear more from Pope, Carr, Brea, and Amari Williams on another cold shooting start, how the Rupp Arena crowd helped them breakthrough, and how much Lamont Butler and Kerr Kriisa are missed. Although none of the players would admit they were caught looking ahead to the Louisville game, it kind of felt that way. Hopefully, that means they’re dialed in for Saturday.

Mark Pope transcript

MARK POPE: Congratulations to Colgate.  Listen, they are not having their best season ever so far, but they are a championship pedigree team.  They got a lot of pride. I like the way they play. They were terrific tonight. Congratulations to them and their crew. I was proud of the way our guys kind of responded, we had some weird energy. There was all kind of weirdness. The 17-0 was a little weird. I think it made it weirder and we got weird.  Our guys rang the bell the way that they do and I was really proud of them.  We got good contributions from them and got a bunch of guys that protected the ball really well which was a point of emphasis for us. We finally got back over 30 3’s and it’s been really hard for us to do but I was proud of that.  Some good things for us.  We got some guys some minutes and different situations that they haven’t had so it gives us a little chance to adjust to changing line-up a little bit. And it was a good night. 

Q Mark, given your injuries at the guard situation. It looked like a good time to get Trent and Travis playing, how do you think they did?  

MARK POPE: That is going to be a work in progress. They are super talented players.  I thought they made solid contributions tonight and it’s hard, you know, you want to get them in the game when there is a real flow to it.  They weren’t, you know Trent probably had a little bit – was in the game when there was a little better vibe.  My favorite part of Trent Noah. This is why I love him so much is he has been in a game a good minute and seven seconds, I’m guessing, something like that. He’s standing right in front of me and I’m like punch it, punch it, throw it in the post, you know, punch it, punch it and he shoots the three. That’s how I know he’s going to be a big-time player. It was a really happy joyful moment for us.  He’s been playing so well in practice for us and he’s been working so hard and he has no agenda other than to get better every day. I thought he really gave us a boost. In fact, I think he went nine straight minutes, give or take.  The staff was like, we’ve got to get him out of there, he’s at nine.  It’s good, this is how you grow as a team and as individuals.  

Q Coach, you have proven that you guys can get into an ugly game and come out the other side like you did against Gonzaga.  How different, if at all are those conversations in the huddle when things get ugly in a game like Colgate?  

MARK POPE: Ideally, they wouldn’t be different.  Today was more of a response to just the energy.  We talked about it in the locker room afterwards.  You know, we are an energy monitoring managing team. The energy on the floor is really important to us.  We kind of were having that discussion through the game and trying to discover for ourselves not just why the energy kind of got off, I don’t know if it was because of 17-0, maybe it got off and maybe they made some really good shots and maybe it was a little fatigue or maybe it was the rotation difference.  Maybe it was not having either of our point guards on the floor. I don’t know.  Usually it’s all of those things, somehow, right?  A little different lineups on the floor.  But–but, that’s this game for us.  We are trying to become masters of energy and you know, games like this can help you learn a little bit more about yourself and hopefully they are helping us a little bit.  

Q Mark, when you first came here you said we are going to shoot a lot of 3s and somebody asked you, what if you are not hitting?  You said we are going to keep shooting. Was tonight an example of that?  You weren’t really hitting your 3s and all of a sudden you got four in a row and get some separation.  

MARK POPE: For sure, 100%, yes. And for us it’s just the volume.  Our volume has been down and it’s been a little frustrating to me.  Kerr has been one of the big catalyst for us. Not only is our volume down for us but we lost one of our catalyst.  We are going to rediscover ways to get back to that part of our game. I was happy to get over 30.  

Q Mark, what can you tell us about the specific nature of Kerr’s injury and when the surgery might be and what approximate timetable might be and then how can he still contribute that energy that he bring even when he’s on the sideline?

MARK POPE: Am I allowed to do details?  What are we allowed to do here?  Deb said I can tell you the answer.  If I get in trouble, it’s on Deb. Did we get that on video?  It’s on record. We had the best performance team ever.  Kerr has already had the surgery and we are kind of like it’s in this, Vegas would say, somewhere around the six week period, I’m saying like 10 days, we will see how it goes.  That’s kind of the prognosis on his injury.  In terms of energy.  Kerr might bring more energy to the team on the bench actually. He’s going to have to grow into this. I don’t know if he has sat like this ever before.  He can be an incredibly valuable piece of this team right now.  We need him, that’s really important.  He’s an important part for us. If you think about Kerr sitting on the bench all game not talking smack.  It’s going to be – heaven help us.  

Q Mark, back here.  With Koby getting his first start tonight. What were the conversations you had to have with him, if any about seizing a moment and being prepared for a big time opportunity like this?  

MARK POPE: Koby is such a vet and we didn’t have any conversation with him. We just put him in a blue jersey and practice and it was off to the races.  Koby could start the rest of the season. We are very malleable and fluid that way and listening to what the game tells us.  I thought Koby obviously shot the ball pretty well tonight.  I guess pretty well, it’s just his normal. He came up with a couple of huge rebounds again and was better in the second half defensively and in the last 10 minutes.  He was getting really good getting downhill to the rim and I thought he’s making strides.  He’s got so much more that he’s going to explore and get comfortable with about getting downhill. He’s a terrific, terrific talent. He’s a big-time player. He’s probably the best shooter in the country.  

Q Mark, you were favored by 30 and you squeak out an 11 point victory.  All of these scores count. They count in the net and count in the rankings. What is your thought, for example, where Kentucky is ranked right now and how important that is?  

MARK POPE: Listen, I’m glad we are in the conversation and I’m glad we are in the national conversation. That’s where we are supposed to be, it’s Kentucky, right?  I’m really happy with all of that.  More importantly, I just want us to be a great team, right?  And we want to keep getting better. We had some runs tonight where we got better. We started the game better and then we just, the energy just turned a little bit on us.  But we will learn from this and we will get better. Right now it’s a race to get better.  It’s Kentucky, we have to win every game along the way. That’s a beautiful thing and I’m not complaining, I think that’s why Kentucky is special. All of the things matter, everything matters. The metrics matter, the analytics matter, the efficiencies matter.  All of those things are really important to us. We would like to be the flagship program in every single category that we grade and rank and evaluate as a team. That’s our goal. It’s all really important.  

Q Is there an update on Lamont Butler so far?  

MARK POPE: Lamont is getting a little bit better. He’s on the court a little bit today. Every day we test him a little more and see, we will know more tomorrow morning when he wakes up how he’s feeling. It’s kind of a throw it out there today and see what we end up with when he wakes up. We will know a little bit more and I would prefer he re-joins our team on the floor sometime soon. 

Q Mark, your first game as a coach of the Kentucky Louisville rivalry coming up. Is there any way you can communicate to your guys exactly what’s at stake?  

MARK POPE: The answer is probably no.  You probably have to experience it to do it.  I’m also blessed with guys, you know, I have seasoned guys. I have guys that have played in big time rivalry games.  It’s not foreign concept to them. It’s just a little level up, right? It will not be unfamiliar to our guys. It’s exciting, it’s awesome. We love it and we hate it and all of those things.  

Q Is it unfamiliar to you?

MARK POPE: No, no, no, I’m well aware of the beauty of this rivalry.  

Q You might have talked about this before but what is 30+ 3s continue to be that magic number for you guys?  

MARK POPE: It is just our goal marker.  I wish we could get to 35. It is kind of a standard for us we would like to hold.  We would like to be there.  Because the 30 3s, for us we have to earn them. Right? Really what the 30 3s translates is we are getting unbelievable movement, we are really, really in attack mode and we are really getting downhill and earning power plays, right?  That we are playing off two feet and we have a ton of motion away from the ball. To get from 30 3s to us the way we should have, it is a measure of how we are moving, right?  And how intentional we are on the offensive end and how we are screening and cutting and those are all results because we want to shoot catches and shoot 3s.  The nights where we don’t get a lot of 3s is probably because we are not aggressive enough downhill, in transition, not cutting and having the first cut, second cut, third cut action.  It’s really a measure of, in a sense, it’s really a measure of the energy of the game on the offensive side for us.  Awesome.  Thank you.  

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