WATCH: Mark Pope, Kentucky players discuss win over Tennessee

Mark Pope gave another happy postgame press conference after Kentucky’s second win over Tennessee this season on Tuesday night. This time it followed a 75-64 win over the Vols in Lexington.

Kentucky was able to do it without a key piece in Jaxson Robinson. The Cats also lost point guard Lamont Butler to injury with 8:40 left in the second half. Pope wasn’t too optimistic about Robinson’s injury, while also providing a quick update on Butler.

“I’m not sure we are going to get him back anytime soon but I’m hoping and praying we get him back soon,” Pope said. “Lamont was just super scary.  It was right in front of me.  He went down.  The second he went down you could kind of see he extended out and just torqued his shoulder a little bit and it was just exactly what we didn’t want to do. He was incredible.  He was brave tonight too.”

Kentucky players Trent Noah, Ansley Almonor, and Koby Brea also spoke to reporters following the win. It was a memorable experience, especially for Noah, a Kentucky-native.

“It’s amazing, definitely one of the most fun games on the schedule,” Noah said. “There’s nothing like it growing up, watching them go down in my living room, and then crying when they lose and so happy when they win. Being able to be a part of it is so cool.”

More postgame coverage is on the way on the KSR YouTube Channel. Subscribe today to see press conferences, interviews, Rapid Reaction, and more.

Mark Pope

MARK POPE: I personally have so much respect for Coach Barnes.  He’s one of the best in this business.  He’s got a great team.  They’re playing amazing basketball.  They are a top five team in every statistical, you know, the Net, the AP, the whole thing.  They play hard, they play right, they play together.  It was really great to be a part of this epic game tonight.  It was awesome.  I’m so proud of our guys.  We have guys that just want to fight and compete.  We’ve got ballers, right?  They just want to be ballers man; they just want to come play.  We had guys that stepped up and made huge plays and we had young guys that stepped up and made huge plays.  Really proud of our guys and really happy and just grateful beyond belief that we get to be on this magical, incredible journey that you only get to do with the University of Kentucky.  It’s pretty great.  

Q Mark, you said Saturday you woke up in the middle of the night worrying about life without Jaxson, Kerr, and Lamont.  That situation presented itself with 8:40 to go, tie game.  What was kind of going through your mind there and what do you make of the way you guys closed out?  

MARK POPE: Well, mostly in the moment I was just feeling for Lamont.  We feel this all the time.  We don’t have that much time left and he’s been so incredibly such a winner and such a leader and it’s like, I just want him so badly to be able to play.  My heart is broken for Jax right now because he deserves to be out there on the court and be a part of this.  He’s a super senior and has helped build this identity that we have right now and so that was the biggest thing.  I do trust that we will find a way to get those guys healthy as soon as possible.  My biggest thought at the moment was, oh man, there’s nobody that wants to be on this court more than Lamont Butler.  

Q Mark, before the season you talked about the freshman being Kentucky kids, they knew it better than anyone on the roster.  Do you have a gut feeling about playing the 606 kid from the mountains that has probably had to put up with Tennessee trash talking his whole life?  

MARK POPE: Yeah, how fun is that. How about a big, massive shout out for Eastern Kentucky showing up today.  It’s just really special.  You know, we’ve got the Mountain Mamba. We’ve got the Holla-Balla, which may be my favorite.  I give all the credit to Trent Noah’s family and his community and where he grew up.  Because this is what he is.  He comes every single day.  And he gets no love from us.  He’s not a featured guy from practice.  He’s not getting the media attention.  He’s not gifted anything.  And he comes, I mean we talked about this over and over again and it’s fine to talk about it tonight because he was incredible tonight.  He comes every single day and competes with full intensity and incredible physicality.  You know, I say this all the time.  He’s a clear heart and incredible focus and he’s like a sponge learning.  When you do that every single day, that’s the part that people don’t see.  They just see tonight.  His journey to get to tonight was pretty special.  He is just built different man, he’s really special.  He’s a really special player and he’s going to continue to get better and better with all of these freshmen.  We have a really good freshman group.  

Q Mark, to piggyback off of that.  What gave you, I guess the confidence to know he was going to be ready in these situations in the last four games?  

MARK POPE: Watching him work every single day.  You know, I had the incredible blessing to play for the great Larry Bird.  I was a diehard Larry Bird – Magic Johnson fan growing up and I got to play for Coach Bird.  In quiet moments I would listen to him tell stories about, you know, here is one of the most confident players to step foot on a court and just talk about where all that confidence came from the work he put in.  He’s like, I worked so hard, I take so many shots that I don’t believe I should get the last shot.  I don’t believe I should just earn the last shot on the team but I do deserve to make it.  And you watch Trent Noah work, and he’s highlighted today because he was so good today.  He works that way every single day.  It gives him confidence; it gives me confidence.  It gives his teammate confidence.  And so, TP was great today.  Collin Chandler had a big time dime.  All three of those guys.  We knew they needed to step up.  This is the part in the season, in fact it was funny because we talked to the media about it today.  This is the part in the season where these young guys kind of have to become sophomores a little bit and our roster issues are forcing them to do it.  And they are ready. They are really talented players that have put it in every day.  These guys stay and shoot, the three of these guys stay and shoot.  Like they play their own shooting game after practice.  They will be in the gym for an hour after.  Last night I had a – I’m allowed to say that, I’m allowed to say I had a recruit?  I had a recruit in town and I was at the JCC late after an event and I was in there and it’s 10:15 and Trent Noah was on there, I’m sorry, Travis Perry was in there full sweat getting shot up at 10:15 last night.  It’s just how these guys are wired.  They are great representatives of Kentucky and they are going to be great players.  

Q Coach, over here.  Pretty well-rounded game for you all tonight, if you could say so.  No single leader across the stat board.  Everybody played pretty well.  Otega and Lamont both had zero turnovers tonight.  Can you just kind of talk about that a little bit, and the play style coming into tonight?  

MARK POPE: Well, Tennessee makes it really hard.  They are the best defensive team in the country and they make things really hard on the offensive end.  I thought we had individuals after individuals make great plays but the guys did most of it together and it’s how we operate.  I think our guys love it.  Some of the plays that really stick out, some of the highlights plays.  You have Koby Brea kind of against some full-court pressure, being in attack mode, getting downhill, slicing the floor, digging in.  That’s his new coined term we are trying to inspire him with to get downhill.  Digging in and throws an alleyoop to Otega Oweh cutting from the baseline corner.  Those are not the two guys we normally script to do that.  We see guys growing and their games are expanding and growing and they are getting more comfortable with each other.  It’s pretty great.  It’s really special.  For us is going to be a team effort every single night.  It takes every single one of our guys.  Every single one of our guys is making key important plays.  Every single guy on our roster that could play tonight made important plays.  I like Kentucky being that way.  I actually love it.  It feels right to me.  Maybe it is because of how we were when I played here.  Maybe it’s because of what I know.  Maybe it’s because it’s how the state of Kentucky works, this community works.  But I dig it man, I think it’s a good representation of where we are in the state. 

Q Mark, I know you touched on Lamont at the beginning.  But for the sake of asking directly, what do you know about his injury?  Was it the left shoulder again?  And also, with Jaxson, what was the process for ruling him out and is his right wrist injury a day-to-day thing or more of a week-long thing?  

MARK POPE: Yeah, Jax is, I’m not sure we are going to get him back anytime soon but I’m hoping and praying we get him back soon.  Lamont was just super scary.  It was right in front of me.  He went down.  The second he went down you could kind of see he extended out and just torqued his shoulder a little bit and it was just exactly what we didn’t want to do.  He was incredible.  He was brave tonight too.  He was playing as a one armed bandit out there and just working for his team.  We will patchwork it together.  You know, we will keep figuring it out.  He was brilliant tonight, I thought he was great.  He got the first steal on the first possession.  Talk about a statement of like, hey, we are going to guard.  What was really fun is I didn’t really see him raced on the floor and score a layup because my eyes were drawn to Otega Oweh who was, like I thought he was going to run up in the crowd and bodysurf.  He was so excited about the defensive play.  That sets a good tone for our team.  You know, I’m hopeful he can get healthy as soon as possible, we’ll see.  

Q Mark, back here.  Back here to your right, way back here.  Lamont goes down and the air kind of get sucked out of the building for a minute and then Amari dribbles it up the floor like a minute later.  Is this flexibility, this malleability rare and how should it be appreciated to the wins and losses?  

MARK POPE: Well, I thought tonight was really special guys.  We have Kerr Kriisa sitting on the bench.  We’ve got Lamont Butler sitting on the bench.  We’ve got Jaxson Robinson who is our retrofitted point guard sitting on the bench.  And then we got Amari.  And TP is not naturally a point guard but we are shoving him in there as a freshman.  It was, to me it felt like a really heroic effort on behalf of our whole team.  And Amari Williams is a stabilizing force.  He kind of can bail us out of some complicated situations as a point center.  We’ve talked about it a lot.  But he really is.  I don’t know anybody else in college basketball who is doing what he’s doing.  It’s really remarkable.  

Q Mark, you said Tennessee, best defensive team in the country.  You hit them for 12 threes twice.  Is this a style makes fights things where you guys are just difficult for them to play or how do you see it?  

MARK POPE: You know, it’s such a small sample size.  It’s just two games.  But our guys, you know, they understand what a challenge it is going against this Tennessee team.  It’s a great defensive team.  No two ways about it.  They’re great.  I think our guys look forward to the challenge.  We had some guys that made some big plays.  They exert so much pressure.  Kind of the way we play is almost more functional against intense, intense pressure if you can just survive.  And so it’s not a terrible fit for how we play but it’s an incredible challenge for sure.  

Q Mark, Ansley had a relatively quiet first half and a not so quiet second half.  Just his continued ability to come up in those moments and the sacrifice that he’s shown to kind of take a backseat and then be able to do things like that.  How important is that for this team down the stretch?  

MARK POPE: Ansley Almonor, guys, come on.  I know I told you all that he was going to win some games before the season, I didn’t even expect he would win us this many.  I honestly did not recruit him to be a downhill, euro-step, through contact finisher in the crucial moment of the game against the best defensive team in the country, but he did it.  He’s been so good.  Man, he’s just super fun.  He’s just, you love having him in the locker room.  And he came here for all the right reasons and he came here for the right reasons.  He’s reaping the rewards beyond his wildest imagination right now.  Like this is super cool.  How fun for him.  I love every second of it.  

Q Mark, your daughter was featured with the UK dance team tonight.  Can you explain how she got her dance moves?  From your side, I’m sure.  

MARK POPE: So, actually it’s super sweet to me.  I had three of my four daughters here tonight, which we don’t get to be together that much.  And my other daughter is out serving the world in El Salvador right now.  I got to have my, it’s really actually pretty incredible.  I got to have my daughter wearing my national championship jersey on our court in this game.  And it’s just like, you know it’s not about me or about us.  In a really personal way, it was a super special moment for me.  Thanks guys.  

Koby Brea

#4, Koby Brea  

Thought process when taking those two deep shots…

“Honestly there wasn’t much thinking going on it was just playing the game. Understanding the situation that we were in, what we needed. I just felt like I have confidence in myself, and I feel like the team has confidence in me too. I can take those shots and make those shots.”

On him stepping up and the message it sends…

 “Just I’m going to be an everyday guy. Coach was like ‘you going to bring that same energy today?’ and I’m like Coach I’m doing this every game, every practice. It’s just about me trying to better myself and understand that I’m not just doing this for myself but for my team as well. You know, just trying to go out there and give my all every time.”

On the ‘no look’ shot…

 “That was probably one of the top plays in my career. I was just talking to O (Otega) about it, he cut at the perfect time. As soon as I saw him move, I was like “that’s perfect,” but it was a great feeling. Just to have that kind of play at such a big game like that, to do it at home, just made it more special. Good feeling for sure.

Ansley Almonor

On being 2-0 against Tennessee…
“Great win, you know, we had to go out there and try to get a W, especially after last game. We looked at what we did well, and what we didn’t do well,  trying to focus on those things. And we went out there today and executed that.”

On showing off some extra skills…
“Yeah of course, you know how it is. We are all basketball players, so it’s in our game, or something like that. I just felt like that was, you know, we needed a bucket at that time, so I got a little bit creative.”

On having so many big moments for this team…
“I mean, I hoped, that I did, but I just go out there and try to help the team as much as I can. Sometimes it goes down, and sometimes it doesn’t, you know.”

Trent Noah

On if they knew tonight would be a good night…

“Yeah, we were ready from the jump and that’s the credit to our five guys that started the game. They were ready, they got some stops early and set the tone.”

On what this rivalry means to him…

“It’s amazing, definitely one of the most fun games on the schedule. There’s nothing like it growing up, watching them go down in my living room, and then crying when they lose and so happy when they win. Being able to be a part of it is so cool.”

On if he liked the win at Tennessee or at home better…

“I loved them both, they were both really special. It’s cool whenever you can do it in front of your home crowd and it’s cool whenever you can be the villain and go into Knoxville and leave with the win, so I would say it’s 50/50.”