What Mark Pope said after No. 15 Kentucky's 75-64 win over No. 5 Tennessee

What head coach Mark Pope said after No. 15 Kentucky’s 75-64 win over No. 5 Tennessee Tuesday night at Rupp Arena in Lexington:

Opening Statement

“I personally have so much respect for Coach Barnes. He’s one of the best in this business. He’s got a great team. They’re playing amazing basketball. They’re a top-five team in every statistical (category) — the NET, the AP, the whole thing. They play hard, they play right, they play together. And it was really great to be a part of this epic game tonight. It was awesome. I’m so proud of our guys. We have guys that just want to fight and compete and we’ve got ballers. They just want to be ballers, man. They just want to come play. We had guys step up and make huge plays. We had some of the young guys step up make huge plays. Really, really proud of our guys, really happy and just grateful beyond belief that we get to be on this magical, incredible journey that you only get to do at the University of Kentucky. It’s pretty good.”

Playing the final 8:40 against Tennessee without Jaxson Robinson and Lamont Butler 

“Well, mostly in the moment, I was just feeling for Lamont. We feel this all the time, and we don’t have that much time left. And he’s been so incredible. Such a winner and such a leader. And it’s just like, I just want him so badly to be able to play. Like my heart’s broken for Jax right now, because he deserves to be out there on the court and be a part of this super senior year. He’s helped build this identity that we have right now. And so that was the biggest thing. I do trust that we’ll find a way to get those guys healthy as soon as possible. But that was my biggest my biggest thought in the moment was just like, oh man, there’s nobody that wants to be on the sport more than Lamont Butler.”

Two freshmen from Kentucky in Trent Noah and Travis Perry playing well against Tennessee

“How fun is that? How about a big, massive shout out for Eastern Kentucky showing up today? They’re just really special. We’ve got the Mountain Mamba. We’ve got the the Holler Baller, which may be my favorite. And I give all the credit to Trent Noah, his family and his community, where he grew up, because this is what he is. He comes every single day, and he gets no love from us. He’s not a featured guy in practice, he’s not getting the media attention. He’s not gifted anything. And he comes every we’ve talked about this over and over, but it’s fun to talk about his night, because he was incredible night. He comes every single day and competes with full intensity, incredible physicality. I say this all the time, but like clear heart and incredible focus, he’s like a sponge learning. And then when you do that every single day, that’s the part that people don’t see. They just see tonight. But like his journey to get to tonight is pretty special. He’s just built different, man. He’s a really special player. And he’s going to continue to get better and better as are all these freshmen. We have a really good freshman group.”

What gave him confidence Trent Noah was going to be ready

“Watching him work every single day. I had the incredible blessing to play for the great Larry Bird. So I was a die hard Larry Bird, Magic Johnson fan growing up, and I got to play for Coach Bird. And in quiet moments, I would listen to him tell stories about, here’s one of the most confident players to ever step foot on a court and just talk about where all that confidence came from— the work he put in. He’s just like, ‘I work so hard, I take so many shots that I don’t believe I should get the last shot. I don’t believe I should just earn the last shot on the team, but I believe I deserve to make it.’ And you watch Trent Noah work, and he’s highlighted today because he was so good today, but he works that way every single day. And so that gives him confidence, that gives me confidence, it gives his teammates confidence. And so he’s just, like, TP (Travis Perry) was great today, Colin Chandler had a big time, big time dime. All three of those guys, we knew they needed to step up. This is the part in the season. In fact, it was funny because we talked to media about it today. This is the part in the season where these young guys kind of have to become sophomores a little bit, and our roster issues are forcing them to do it. And they’re ready. They’re really talented the players that have put it in every day, these guys stay and shoot. The three of these guys, they stay and shoot like they play their own shooting game after practice. They’ll be in the gym for an hour after. Last night, I had a recruit in town, so I was at the I was at the JCC late after an event. And I’m in there, and it’s 10:15 and Travis Perry’s in there in a full sweat getting shots up at 10L15 last night. It’s just how these guys are wired. They’re great representatives in Kentucky, and they’re going to be great players.”

Kentucky’s balanced offensive performance

“Tennessee makes it really hard. I mean, they’re the best defensive team in the country. They make things really hard on the offensive end. And I thought we had individuals kind of or individual stuff, ee made great plays. But the guys did most of it together and it’s how we operate. I think our guys love it. You know, some of the plays that really stick out, some of the highlight plays— you have Kobe Brea, kind of against some full court pressure being in attack mode, getting downhill, slicing the floor, digging in. That’s his new coin term that we’re trying to inspire him with to get downhill, digging in and and throws the alley to Oteg Oweh, kind of cutting from the baseline corner like those are not the two guys that we normally script to do that, but you see guys kind of growing. Their games are expanding and growing. They’re getting more comfortable each other. It’s pretty great. It’s really special. And it’s for us, it’s going to be a team effort every single night. It’s just, it takes every single one of our guys, every single one of our guys is making key, important plays. Every single guy on our roster that could play tonight made informed plays and that’s, I like Kentucky being that way. I actually love it. I think it feels right to me. Maybe it’s because of how we were when I played here. Maybe it’s because what I know. Maybe it’s because it’s how the state of Kentucky works. This community works. But I dig it, man. I think it’s a good reputation where we are in the state.”

If Kentucky point guard Lamont Butler re injured his left shoulder

“Lamont just was super scary, like he was right in front of me. He went down, the second he went down, you could kind of see as he extended out, that it just torqued his shoulder a little bit, and it was just exactly what we didn’t want to do. He was incredible, and he was brave tonight, too. I mean, he’s playing, you know, as a one-armed bandit out there, and he just worked for his team. So we’ll patch work it together. We’ll keep figuring out. 

“But I thought he was brilliant tonight. I thought he was great. But, you know, he got the first steal on the first possession. Talk about a statement of like, ‘Hey, we’re going to guard.’ And what was really fun was I didn’t even see him race down the floor and score the layup because my eyes were drawn to Otega Oweh who was like, I thought he was going to run up in the crowd and body surf because he was so excited about the defensive play and that sets a good tone for our team. And so, you know, I’m hopeful that we can get that healthy as soon as possible. We’ll see.”

What went into ruling out guard Jaxon Robinson for the game because of a right wrist injury:

“Yeah, Jax is, I’m not sure we’re going to get him back anytime soon, but I’m hoping, I’m praying, that we get him back sooner.”

Kentuckys’ Amari Williams playing point-center

“Well, I thought tonight was really special. We’re down to, like, we have Kerr Kriisa sitting on the bench. We got Lamont Butler sitting on the bench, and we got Jackson Robinson, who’s our, like, retro-fitted point guard sitting on the bench and then we got Amari. And (Travis Perry) is, you know, not naturally a point guard, but we’re kind of shoving him in there as a freshman. To me, it felt like a really heroic effort on behalf of our whole team. And Amari Williams, he’s a stabilizing force. Like, he kind of can bail us out of some complicated situations as a point center. And we’ve talked about it a lot, but he really is. I mean, I don’t know anybody else in college basketball is doing what he’s doing. It’s really remarkable.”

Him saying that Tennessee is the best defense in the country, but making 12 threes against the Vols in two games this season

“You know, it’s such a small sample size. It’s just two games. But our guys, I think they understand what a challenge it is to go against this Tennessee team, this great defensive team. There’s no two ways about it. They’re great. And I think our guys look forward to the challenge. We had some guys make some big plays. They exert so much pressure. Kind of the way we play is almost more functional against intense, intense pressure, if you can just survive. And so it’s not a terrible fit for how we play, but it’s an incredible challenge for sure.”

Senior forward Ansley Almonor’s impact in the second half after a quiet first half

“Yeah, Ansley Almonor, guys come on, like, I know I told you all he was going to win us some games before the season. I didn’t even expect he would win us this many. And I honestly did not recruit him to be a downhill Eurostep-through-contact-finisher in the crucial moment of the game against the best defensive team in the country, but he did it. He’s been so good. He just is, man, he’s super fun. And he’s just, you love having in the locker room and you know, he came here for all the right reasons. So he’s reaping the rewards beyond his wildest imagination right now. Like, this is super cool, man. How fun for him. I love every second of it.”