Mark Pope quizzes his team on scouting reports and other Pope Notes

One of the more refreshing changes of the Mark Pope era is how prepared his players seem to be for their opponents. With no disrespect to former Wildcats, game prep is just different under Pope, who shares more info on foes during his three-minute pregame conversation with Tom Leach than we’ve heard in years. He expects the same from his players, who show up to media opportunities knowing more about opposing players and offenses than most media members.

One way Pope ensures his team does their homework? He holds a quiz before the game. During the official UK pregame show Tuesday, Cameron Mills said Pope quizzes players on the scouting report during walkthroughs. When called upon, each player has to say three words about whatever opposing player Pope names.

“I look back at our scouts and I’ve said this before, we would have 25-45 page scouting reports, front and back,” Mills said of his and Pope’s days playing under Rick Pitino. “It would be detailed, so broken down. The percentages of time the point guard would go in and out right, in and out left.

“Yet when you get to Pope’s scouts, we would have to memorize our scouting reports. I don’t know what he physically gives them but he expects it up here [points to head] because in walkthrough, he has this thing where he asks questions to random players at random times and they have to answer him in three words. ‘Give me three words about No. 41 tonight’ and they have to answer three words. And after watching him do that, they’ve already got the scouting report down.”

Knowing about the team you’re playing is not a revolutionary concept in college basketball; however, this kind of scouting is a sharp contrast from the previous staff, which famously spent little time on opponents’ film, instead having players focus on clips of themselves to correct their mistakes. That approach makes more sense with teams made mostly of young players, like most of John Calipari’s squads; Mark Pope’s first Kentucky team is one of the oldest in college basketball, and, based on early returns, one of the smartest. So far, they are acing the test when it comes to both scouting and in-game adjustments.

We got a great example of the latter during a key stretch in the Duke game when Pope told his players how to stop Cooper Flagg in isolation, and moments later, Andrew Carr and Otega Oweh executed it to perfection, with Oweh ripping the ball from Flagg’s hands and driving it down the court to draw a foul. UK Sports Video documented the moment on the latest episode of “The Journey,” the clip of which went viral.

Mark Pope’s coaching down the stretch of the Champions Classic was next LEVEL 🤯

(via @KentuckyMBB) pic.twitter.com/54HezMyQ8a

— NCAA March Madness (@MarchMadnessMBB) November 18, 2024

Why Andrew Carr had the “most impressive number of the night”

Pope and his staff also spend a lot of time on analytics, which can tell you more of the story than a simple box score. After playing a starring role vs. Duke, Andrew Carr only had two points on 1-5 shooting, five rebounds, and one assist in 25 minutes in the 97-68 win over Lipscomb. Doesn’t sound like a great night, right? As assistant coach Mikhail McLean pointed out to Pope after the game, Carr was +29 in efficiency, which was tied with Jaxson Robinson as a team-high.

“After the game, we’re going over the numbers, and he pointed out the most impressive number of the entire night, that is a defining feature of your team, and that’s this,” Pope told Tom Leach and fans after the game. “Andrew Carr in the last game, in a big game on national TV, made every big play down the stretch. Was the star of the game. Tonight, he came in here, only got five shots, was one for five, and played his tail off. Had great body language and fully engaged the whole game because he’s here playing for his team, not for himself, and still had an unbelievable effort. And it didn’t show up on the traditional box score, but he led the team as a +29 in the plus-minus.”

Kentucky has had four different leading scorers through four games. Pope said that unselfishness is one reason why this group is special, and could be dangerous come March.

“That’s our team, guys. Our team is all about coming in here and competing for each other, not caring who’s getting the limelight, trying to set aside their own agendas and represent Kentucky well. It’s actually really special. It’s the best stat of the night. Andrew Carr is a great leader. Jaxson Robinson has done the same thing as a great leader. Koby Brea has done the same thing as a great leader. Lamont Butler has done the same thing as a great leader.

“And one of the fun things about coming to these games is you don’t actually know who’s going to be the star tonight, but all the guys going to fight for it and it makes us a really dangerous team. It’s pretty great. I’m really proud of them.”

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Why 39 is the magic number

Of the numbers that Pope keeps mentioning during his chats with the media is 39. That’s the field goal percentage Pope wants to hold the opposing team to each game. Last night, the Cats held Lipscomb, which was averaging 43.6% from the field, to just 38.8%. You better believe Pope mentioned it to Leach and the many fans who stuck around Rupp to hear him speak.

“Our guys were really disciplined in our defensive approach. We didn’t have any issues. We only gave up two points the whole night in transition. That’s a place where Lipscomb lives a lot. We were solid on the defensive glass, even though they were only sending one, so there were a lot of really good defensive things.

“We held them — you know, our goal as a team, if you know this, is 39. It’s a really important number for us. We’re into numbers, and our goal is to hold teams under 39% from the field. We had that the whole night but the last five minutes, we tried desperately to get them over 39%. We held them to 38.8% guys! Let’s go. It’s pretty good. It’s pretty good.”

If you’re curious like me, last night was the second time Kentucky has held its opponent to under 39% from the field this season. The Cats held Wright State to 35.3%, Bucknell 39.7%, and Duke 39.4%. We’ll call it within the margin of error.

Who else will use this as life advice?

Pope was speaking specifically about why he doesn’t believe in trap games or letdowns, but his philosophy of only focusing on the things you want to happen and how you can make them happen instead of the negative could be applied to so many things in life.

“We had this conversation earlier today with the broadcast team.  We don’t stress. Like, we don’t get nervous, we don’t worry because it doesn’t actually work.  You know, sometimes we think if a team has a letdown after a big win, it’s like, oh man, if the coach had just thought about the possibility of it being a letdown and prepared this team for no letdown, it wouldn’t have happened.  What happens is we all just overkill, right?  We just started pushing that narrative so hard with our team.  We don’t actually do it at all.  We are always going to be focused on what we need to do.  And so, we really work hard. 

“It’s human nature to worry about that a little bit.  We really work hard to focus on what we are trying to do.  Our guys are really hungry to get better, we are hungry to become a great team.  We don’t have a lot of time to do it.  So, you know, the last game was over and it was kind of onto like, how can we get better?  How can we get better? That’s the only thing we talk about. 

“And the biology of that, the neuroscience of that is 100% in support of that.  Right?  You know, we are not going to focus on what we don’t want to have happen, we are going to focus on what we do want to have happen.  And our guys have received that really well.  We did not spend much time on that at all, and we won’t, that’s not the way we do it.  That doesn’t mean we won’t ever have bad results.  It just means that we are going to always focus on what we are trying to do and we are going to try to be laser-focused on that.  We are not going to spend a lot of time thinking about what we do not want to have happen.”

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