What Kentucky coach Mark Pope said after 78-73 win at Tennessee

What head coach Mark Pope said after No. 12 Kentucky’s 78-73 win over No. 8 Tennessee Tuesday night at Food City Center in Knoxville:

Opening Statement

“First, I mean, what an unbelievable job Rick is doing here. It’s unbelievable what he’s done in his tenure here. And he’s got this, I mean it’s the number one defensive team in the country. And they play hard and they’re disruptive of everything. And it was an incredible environment. The gym was packed and jumping. And so we talked to the guys before the game about there’s no place in the world that we would rather be. We just reminded ourselves there’s no place in world we’d rather be than together, right here, right now. And so I’m proud of him. It was an unbelievable game. Really competitive and big punches on both sides. And we’re fortunate to come away to victory.”

Kentucky’s Koby Brea shooting well after some down games

“Man, he makes hard shots, doesn’t he? You know, it’s interesting, with these really special, gifted shooters, you, someone asked me … about Koby that he hadn’t made a ton of shots in the last few games, if that was something. Like we had spent zero seconds thinking about it. It’s great shooters. And great shooters

shoot and make shots. And, I think, he’s arguably the best shooter in all of basketball in a lot of different aspects. And my gosh, he made hard shots tonight. Woo. I mean, he’s 3-for-3 and they were like three, you know, 10.7s. Like they were unbelievable. And I thought he played, he really gave us some life on the defensive end. And I thought he was really, really, you know, my favorite play from Koby tonight, was they kind of got to a roast in the post, actually, I think it was a back. I can’t remember if it ended up being an iso or a roast. And he was really physical, got his hands on the ball and went up to block it and got called for a foul. And it was a foul. And then seeing his emotional release after that play, when you’re watching the game, you’re trying to see if the energy in the gym is right. And man, he was really special, making heroic shots, but also with the energy that he brought to the game, I thought was contagious.”

Kentucky adapting without point guard Lamont Butler  

“Amari Williams is like a one of one. I’m asking him to do an impossible job right now. Come into this gym, sold out, like what do they rank? No. 5 or something? I don’t know, top-10 team. The No. 1 defense in the country. No point guard to be found on our roster. And I’m like, Amari, it’s up to you. And then BG (Brandon Garrison), you got to be his wing man and you got to control the whole game. 

“And Amari brought the ball up against the press probably more than anybody else on our team. Like, I’m telling you, this kid is special man. And it’s his birthday today. And we on purpose didn’t sing to him. I was saving it until after the game. I was like, please let us win, because if we have to sing happy birthday after a loss, it’s going to be really sour and sad. But it was a joyful locker, getting to sing to him.

“He’s incredible. Like, I’m telling you, he’s special. You look at his numbers tonight, 15 rebounds in this game, four assists, only three turnovers, 3-for-5 from the field, only two fouls. With the response, I don’t think there’s a center in the country that’s had to carry a load like he had, the way he had to carry it tonight. It was incredible. 

“And Jaxson (Robinson) is a freaking gamer, man. He just is really special. He was great and TP (Travis Perry) is getting better and better. And I thought Colin Chandler’s minutes in the backcourt were massively important for us tonight. And it was contribution from everybody, which we knew we’d have to have.”

Kentucky freshman wing Trent Noah’s minutes

“Yeah. Trent is, I’m telling you, we dearly. Andrew Carr and one of the best things is that we got through the night without him having a setback. It was probably too early from, maybe too early. Like I’m glad we get a couple more days before, you know, where he could actually — he hasn’t really practiced— where he could actually be on the practice floor. But in his  stead, man, Ansley (Almonor) and Trent Noah, what? Like, these guys have been unbelievable. 

“You guys know I love talking about Ansley Almonor. Wins us games, dude’s four-for-seven for the three-point line tonight guys. Like, come on. And Trent has been great in back-to-back games right now. And you tell me Trent’s not afraid of the moment. He just out of nowhere says like, I’m going launch this 30 footer and we’ll just see what happens. And so those guys have been great.”

Ansley Almonor’s three assists

“I mean, you think about Ansley. I mean like it’s Ansley Almonor that makes the team special. Everybody kind of has the headline, headline guy and very few teams have the guy that’s really, really, really good that’s going to win you games that is like, I’m going to do whatever the team needs. Especially a fifth year senior that’s like, I’ll do whatever the team needs, man. Like, if you play me tonight, great, then I’m gonna go play great. And if you don’t play, I’m gonna just love these guys.  And I’m telling you, those are the guys that go on to do insanely amazing things in life. He’s really special. 

Kentucky getting key stops to end the game

“Well, one, we had some guys shooting that we kind of wanted shooting and not guys that aren’t capable, but when you’re just, you’re just trying to go with space where it’s to be most effective. And they missed some for us. I mean, they got it. They had like 62 threes in the last 17 seconds of the game it felt like because we couldn’t grab a rebound. And so we were fortunate that some of those didn’t go in for sure. And we also had some guys shooting it that we would’ve leaned into rather having them shoot it rather than some other guys and some guys taking some tough shots. And so it was a little bit of both, you know, you have to have some good fortune in this game for sure.”

Where this win ranks for him in terms of the grit his Kentucky team played, being were on the road without two starters

“I’ll tell you. So obviously we say a team prayer before we come out to play and, and Coach Brooks — Alvin Brooks — gave the prayer and he talked about in his prayer, he prayed that we could have confidence, but even more importantly, that we could have ‘godfidence.’ I’d never heard ‘godfidence’ before, but I love it because that’s just — there’s a little bit of this team for me, and we’re a pretty faithful team, there’s a little bit of us that is, we’re kind of in some ways, performing for an audience of one the best we can. And we’re trying to take all the other noise and just kind of set it aside a little bit. And so when you see a game like this where for us, this ‘godfidence’ was a real factor in this. It ranks pretty high, it’s pretty special. 

“I told the guys before the game, like I said, there’s no place I would’ve rather been tonight. And it was easy to double down on that after the game. So we’re really blessed. This is a team that we believed from the outs, from the first few months, we believed that we would have resilience. That’s what we thought we were like, ‘we will have resilience,’ ’cause these guys are loving each other enough that we’re a really good team. It is also challenging, right? But we do feel like we can withstand punches. Like we can withstand rough stretches and we can get better from ’em. And we were really fortunate tonight and really blessed, and it was a good night for us.”

The injury to starting Kentucky point guard Lamont Butler causing him to miss the Tennessee game

“Yeah, I mean there’s multiple factors in it. Some’s going to get better and the other, we’ll see. And so, you know, I’m an eternal optimist, so every media timeout, I was checking with Brandon Wells to see if he was ready to go yet. He never gave me the thumbs up. But Lamont is the heart and soul of his team, as you know. And so, if and when we get him back, we’re gonna be elated. We certainly need him. And in the meantime, guys are gonna step up and compete and fight. 

The decision to play freshman forward Trent Noah despite him barely having played in recent weeks

“Well, I mean there’s a real part of not having (Andrew Carr), right? That’s a lot of minutes gone. But I’ve had, you know, I keep saying this publicly and of course nobody believes me ’cause I’m not putting him in the game. But I have so much confidence in him. He’s a good player. He’s a really good player and he does not fear the moment. Like, you have a kid, a young man that plays as hard as he plays. He’s like a sponge in practice. Like you see it every day in practice. He soaks in every detail. He’s so far advanced in understanding us and how we try and do this for a freshman, it’s pretty remarkable. Little nuances of guarding defensively, to understanding kind of what we’re looking for in transition on the offensive side of the ball. He’s a really good player. We’re really fortunate to have some really good players that haven’t played a ton, that we need right now. And they’re showing up. It’s awesome.”