Mark Pope reveals his favorite SEC Tournament memory from Kentucky playing days

Mark Pope was a member of two special Rick Pitino-coached Kentucky teams in 1995 and 1996. The ’96 team went on to win the national title, but came up short in the SEC Tournament. That wasn’t the case in ’95 though, when Pope in his junior year helped the Wildcats to one of the more impressive comeback victories you’ll ever see in a conference title game.

And for those who don’t remember (shoutout to BigBlueHistory for helping this under 30 individual catch up), it happened on this exact date three decades ago in Atlanta.

After reeling off an eight-point over Auburn followed by a 14-point win over Florida, Kentucky advanced to the SEC Tournament championship round in the Georgia Dome. The opponent? The No. 5 Arkansas Razorbacks, which had just won the 1994 national championship and would ultimately finish as the runner-up in 1995. Kentucky struggled early in the matchup, going down by as many as 19 points midway through the first half. But a couple of late pushes — one in regulation, the other in overtime — fueled the ‘Cats to a thrilling 95-93 victory in overtime.

UK scored eight straight to close regulation, forcing overtime. During that rally, Kentucky’s Rodrick Rhodes missed a pair of free throws with just 1.3 seconds that would have lifted the Wildcats to a win. Kentucky then trailed by nine points in the extra period before a series of mishaps (including more missed free throws) from Arkansas allowed Kentucky to claw back and claim victory. It marked UK’s 19th SEC Tournament title and the fourth straight.

Pope remembers it well, too — even if the exact details are just slightly off.

“We played in a championship game against Arkansas my junior year that will forever be one of the most special games in my life,” Pope said Wednesday in Nashville ahead of his SEC Tournament run as UK head coach, reminiscing on his playing days with local reporters. “Arkansas was defending national champions, and we’d been going at, I think we had lost at their place on a last second shot that we missed. We got down 17 during the course of the game. I think we got down eight, maybe eight in overtime.”

3⃣0⃣ years ago today, No. 3 Kentucky rallies from a 19-point first half deficit and from 9 down in overtime to defeat defending national champion and No. 5 Arkansas 95-93 at The Georgia Dome in Atlanta to win the 1995 SEC Tournament.

Freshman Antoine Walker led the way with 23… pic.twitter.com/I3CLh1aDF3

— catsclassics (@catsclassics) March 12, 2025

Pope was quite good in that game against the Hogs. He posted a 12-point, 10-rebound double-double. Pope joked after the press conference it was his lone career double-double (he had five, to his credit) and that he only got there because of the additional five minutes.

Kentucky fans (and Pope) would rather this group of ‘Cats not have to go through a similar miraculous comeback in order to win the SEC title this week, but they also wouldn’t turn it down. We’ve already seen UK produce impressive comebacks a couple of times this season. If they were to go down big early in this tournament, they’ll know how to bring themselves out of it.

“Those are the type of games that let you walk into a room different,” Pope added. “I shared this the other day. My wife loves it so much about birds are scared about landing on a branch that could break because they know they can fly. And you go through some of that. That’s what I wish for my guys. And they’ve been through it.

“They did it against Duke, they did it against Gonzaga. They’ve had a bunch of moments where things look really bad, and they just, as a group, just pick themselves up. But that’s what makes you walk into a room different for the rest of your life, because you know that if things go wrong, you can fix them.”

Will this Kentucky team make its own history this week? It begins Thursday night…

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