Mark Pope will wear shoes painted by young cancer patients vs. Arkansas

Mark Pope‘s gameday shoes on Saturday will look a bit more colorful than usual.

Along with it being John Calipari‘s return to Lexington after his 15-year stint as the Wildcats’ head coach, Kentucky and Arkansas (along with many other schools across the country this week) will recognize the Coaches vs. Cancer program when the two collide this weekend in Rupp Arena. Coaches vs. Cancer has raised over $179 million for the American Cancer Society since it was founded in 1993.

During his Thursday press conference, Pope gave us a sneak peek of the kid-designed shoes he’ll be rocking for the highly-anticipated matchup.

“We have a tremendous organization here,” Pope said. “DanceBlue, on campus that in the last 20 years, give or take, 15 years, has raised $23 million towards cancer research, a student-run organization that partners with UK HealthCare and focusing on pediatric hematology and oncology. And so we got to spend some time with some young cancer patients, painting these shoes.”

Pope’s shoes were painted by a young boy named Gunnar and his sister Lily. His Nikes are appropriately colored with shades of blue and the checkmark is painted black. On top of the left shoe is the number 41, Pope’s jersey number when he played at Kentucky. But his favorite part is the reference to the Wildcats’ eighth national championship on the base of the shoes — and some foreshadowing for a ninth.

“There’s a few things I like about it,” Pope added. “I like the color schemes. But what I really like is, I like this on the sole, is actually very cool. It’s got all eight championships. And then, in true fashion — it got smudged a little bit — this is ’25 with a question mark, so we’ll see how this deal goes.”

Mark Pope opens his pre-Arkansas press conference talking about the Coaches Versus Cancer program.

He and the team spent time with young cancer patients painting the shoes you see below. He's going to wear the pair in the middle for Saturday's game.

Will be auctioned off later. pic.twitter.com/aegNfDdegZ

— Zack Geoghegan (@ZGeogheganKSR) January 30, 2025

Pope won’t be the only one sporting some special kicks though. His entire coaching staff will suit up in different pairs of Nikes, but all are painted by young cancer patients. Some have polka dots on them, some have a bunch of tiny basketball stickers, and some have a wide range of mixed colors with some artistic flare to them. The shoes will all be auctioned off afterward with the money going towards cancer funding/research.

“But this fight against cancer,” Pope continued. “Is something that touches every single one of us, and we’re so excited to partner with organizations, especially student-run in UK-centered programs that are making such a huge difference in this.

“So we’ll wear these shoes in the game, and hopefully, we’ll celebrate in these shoes. And then I think they’re going to be auctioned off to try and raise a little bit of money. So kudos to everybody involved in all of those organizations, and prayers to all the families, not just of these kids that helped paint these shoes, but everybody that’s being touched by cancer right now.”

Basketball is what will bring us all together on Saturday night, but this should serve as a reminder there’s much more to life than a simple game.

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