Mark Pope's favorite moment of the season? Kentucky's self-scout before Selection Sunday

When you close out a historic regular season that ties college basketball’s all-time record for most top-15 wins, it’s hard to single out the best moment. Was it the magnitude of Duke? The drama of Gonzaga? The rivalry of Louisville? Kentucky beating some of the best teams in the strongest conference the sport has ever seen? There’s just way too much good to choose from.

That’s why Mark Pope went a different direction when asked about his favorite moment in his debut season in Lexington. With so many memorable games, he actually went with something that happened away from the hardwood, a behind-the-scenes moment he wishes he got to share with Big Blue Nation thinking back on it now.

Every game this season, the Wildcats broke down their upcoming opponent’s strengths and weaknesses, things that could guide them to a victory or steer them toward a loss if they don’t take care of business in certain areas. It’s a multi-step process to double and triple check their homework before tipping off, leaving no stone unturned when drawing up a winning game plan.

“Part of our scouting process is we do personnel. 33 times, plus two exhibition game, so 35 times this season, we’ve gotten together with our team, and we’ll do three doses of personnel,” Pope said Monday night. “We’ll do it three times, two days before the game, one day before the game, and then game day, a shootaround. We’ll go over very detailed personnel scouts on the team that we’re competing against, we’ll break down their tendencies, what they look like on film, what they’d like to do with their most effective analytics, their history.

“So our guys really know these players, they have a good sense of what to expect and the challenge of guarding them and where they can attack them on the offensive side.”

This time around, the roles were reversed. Before hearing their names called on CBS during the Selection Show, the coaches actually ran through their scouting report of the Wildcats — the good, bad and ugly.

They celebrated the good and highlighted the bad while also laughing at some of the goofier in-game moments throughout the season, whether it was a fluky make or turnover or defensive slip-up.

It was a time of reflection before the biggest moment of the season, and for many of them, their careers.

“Before Selection Sunday, we met as a team — it was actually really fun,” Pope said. “… Our guys have been through that (scouting process) 35 times now this year, and for the first time yesterday, we presented them with our own personnel scout. So we took a solid half an hour and we did the video and had our coaches actually present — just like they do for every other team, they presented the scout on our team, and we went through player by player, watching incredible highlights, reading incredible numbers and teasing guys about some of the funny fluky plays they made this year.

“It was actually really, really special. It was great. I wish we could have done it with all BBN, because I think everybody would have loved it.”

It helped stress that there really isn’t one game or moment that stood out from the rest this season. It was the start in June, a bunch of random pieces from all across the country coming together with one common goal and making their way through a historic season for Kentucky basketball and the SEC, all to get to this moment.

The process was the ‘moment,’ every high and low that came with wins and losses.

“I feel like this process that we’re going through right now is just really extraordinary, but super enjoyable,” Pope said. “I don’t know if there’s one game I can pick out, I think it’s the body of work, it’s the journey that’s so great. We’re in that, this is what we build up for all year long. We can’t wait to get to this last chapter and make it as special as we possibly can.”

Time to keep that journey rolling forward. There are still six games to win.