Mark Pope's recruiting strategy? "We are going out to find winners."

When you see Mark Pope and the Kentucky coaching staff bouncing around from city to city, flying or driving anywhere with talent, they’re not looking for the best athlete or measurables. It’s not about finding the best shooter, passer or defender. Those things are important, obviously, but a lot of players in the transfer portal, high school and international ranks have those physical traits.

They don’t guarantee winners. And the Wildcats will pass on a gifted player if they don’t have the mental trait that matters most.

Pope was asked about building one of the most loaded rosters in college basketball in 2025-26, combining both talent and depth to push the program into the preseason top 10. How did he talk so many players deserving of a spot in the rotation into competing for roles?

Winners are willing to sacrifice for the greater good of the team.

“The guys we recruit — we recruit winners. We are going out to find winners,” Pope told The Field of 68. “When you come in with a DNA that your first priority is to go win, that’s who you want to coach in college and it’s actually who you want to coach in the league, also, right? So you start there.”

But then you have to do something with it all, putting the puzzle pieces together to make a cohesive product with real chemistry. They need to build it with each other, but the coaches have to create an atmosphere of trust in both them and the process in general.

That’s how you get the buy-in.

“Then it’s every day. All of us are dealing with all the emotions and stresses and worries and anxieties that we have. It’s an everyday connection,” he continued. “Our guys, we have a massive focus here on, like — I want my guys to leave this program as different human beings than when they came.”

Pope’s own 1996 national championship team in Lexington was the perfect example of that. Nine players on that squad went on to play in the NBA with seven of them drafted. There were All-Americans and members of the All-SEC and All-SEC Freshman Teams, plus All-NCAA Regional Team and All-NCAA Final Four Team members.

No. 41 will be the first to tell you he didn’t hang around in the NBA because he averaged 7.6 points per game at Kentucky. It was his unselfishness that translated to six years in the league.

Winner, just like the guys he is recruiting today.

“I was blessed that way. I was actually blessed to leave here a different human being than when I came, courtesy of Coach (Rick) Pitino and Kentucky,” Pope said. “We’re here to hang banners. We’re here to send everybody to the league, and we’re actually here for guys to walk out of this place different than when they came. A big part of that is understanding something bigger than just yourself.

“The thing is, the only way you’re going to become a great player is when you understand there are things bigger than yourself. It’s not either or, it’s this and the other. That’s really the truth, guys, I’m telling you it’s the truth. We have the right guys to do it.”

Play for something bigger than yourself and trust the process; you just might hang a banner in Lexington.

“It’s an everyday journey to love each other, care about each other, believe in each other. Trust the process, and it can take you to special places.”