Mark Pope hopes this Kentucky basketball team gets to write something special in 2025

There will be no shying away from outsized expectations in the first season of Kentucky basketball under Mark Pope.

UK’s head coach made that clear Tuesday afternoon.

Toward the end of Pope’s first preseason press conference — the highlight of the program’s annual media day festivities — the new leader of the Wildcats was asked what it meant to him to be back coaching his alma mater, particularly from his own unique perspective as a captain of the 1996 Kentucky team that won a national championship.

Pope said there were a “million ways” to answer that question. He settled on one, with a disclaimer.

“This is going to sound so petty,” he said. “But it’s not. … Now let me explain.”

In doing so, the 51-year-old coach made clear the lofty hopes he holds for his first Kentucky team and looked forward to the magic of the journey his Wildcats — all of them new to UK basketball — are embarking on as they work toward that ultimate goal.

Pope explained that — since being named Kentucky’s head coach in April and returning to Lexington — he’s been asked to sign his autograph on a fairly regular basis.

“And below it, I get to put ‘96 champs!’” he continued. “That sounds super petty, right?”

Pope further explained that whenever he’s added that biographical flourish after his name, he’s thought about not only his Wildcats’ path to that glory nearly 30 years ago but the hope that his current Wildcats can follow a similar one in the coming months.

“What means so much to me is that in that ‘9-6-C-H-A-M-P-S-exclamation mark’ is a whole lot of fight and blood and sweat and tears and together, and leaning on guys, and a lot of doubts and worries and frustrations and hopes and perseverance, and all that’s wrapped up into that.

“And I’m grateful that I get to do that and be here and do that, because that’s what I want for my guys so badly. I want them to be able to write that, you know, for their year, and then to be able to write that C-H-A-M-P-S underneath it.”

To finish the thought, Pope made clear that getting to sign an autograph in that manner isn’t about “bragging rights” or pride.

“It’s about the … ,” he paused and held his hand to his chest. “That you know that nobody else knows, except the other guys that were in that locker room that really, really know. And then how you grow as a human being through it. I’m so grateful to be back here to take our big swing at it and see if we can get there. I’d like for all of our guys to be able to write that.”

Pope spoke of hanging new banners in Rupp Arena during his introductory press conference there six months ago, and that theme of chasing excellence will clearly remain prevalent throughout his first season in charge of the Wildcats.

He chose the nickname “Banner Camp” for his first series of fall practice sessions. His players, from the fifth-year seniors to the freshmen, spoke unprompted about chasing the school’s ninth national championship when it was their turn to talk later Tuesday afternoon.

The goal is clearly stated. The fulfillment of it won’t be easy. All involved were clear about that, too.

Everyone knows by now that Pope’s first team was put together on the fly. Following John Calipari’s abrupt departure to Arkansas last spring, the UK roster was empty and a highly touted recruiting class had disappeared.

Pope started from nothing. Even as his coaching staff was still coming together, the 2024-25 edition of the Wildcats fell into place. Under the circumstances, the end result was enviable — a team that is likely to be listed in the Top 25 when the AP preseason poll comes out later this month — but none of these players has ever played together and none has ever played at Kentucky.

All five of Pope’s assistant coaches are new to Lexington. He’s the only one who really knows what he’s getting into, and he was last here more than 28 years ago. As a player, not a coach.

Pope said Tuesday that he’s still trying to learn the job — “because there’s no job like it” — and spoke of the progress his players have made in the four months or so they’ve been together on campus.

The team had eight weeks of summer practice — limited to only four hours per week, due to NCAA rules — and much of that time was spent learning about each other, from the dynamics between teammates to the approach brought by Pope and his coaching staff.

“The first four or five weeks, we got a lot of … blank stares,” Pope said. “Of course there were, because guys hadn’t learned our terminology and vernacular, and they hadn’t learned how we see the game. And so what’s fun is, you know, in the past, it’s kind of like you take a player and you get him for a year, and you talk to him and at him for a year, and he starts to digest it. And then you know you’re making progress when he starts to actually repeat the words, right? And so we’ve just tried so hard to expedite that process.”

Pope implied that this particular process is going well. His roster consists of 12 new players, yes, but nine of them are transfers with previous college basketball experience. All nine of those players have started games elsewhere. Seven of them are in either their fourth or fifth year in the sport.

That experience — even though it wasn’t together as a unit — has proven invaluable.

“Our guys have really done an unbelievable job expediting that in a lot of different areas, where I’m really proud of how they’re working,” Pope said. “And it’s becoming almost natural, instinctive to come into a huddle or on the floor to communicate.”

How will it all turn out? That’ll take some time to figure out.

There will be hiccups along the way, and Pope didn’t dance around the challenges. He said there are still “simple concepts” that his players haven’t yet grasped, suggesting they were sometimes so caught up in the big picture of coming together as one that it distracted them from the little details within the game.

But what was clear from Pope’s words Tuesday — and what was evident to anyone who watched the team’s Pro Day event the night before — is that this team has jelled incredibly quickly under unique circumstances, even if there’s more work to do moving forward.

These Cats don’t have the otherworldly individual talent that was the hallmark of the Calipari era, but they do seem further along in the process of playing as one than those star-studded UK teams of the past were at this stage of the preseason.

That takes effort and unselfishness, a good sign for the future of Pope’s first team. And there’s plenty of talent here, too. Whether there’s enough of it — and enough time to figure out exactly how all the pieces work best — will be a narrative throughout the 2024-25 season.

Will these Wildcats get to sign that special autograph — “25 CHAMPS!” — for the rest of their lives? Pope is clearly looking forward to finding out.

“I’m really excited about our guys’ talent level. I’m really excited about their experience. I’m really excited about their commitment and desire to be here at the University of Kentucky and represent what this place is. I’m excited about their hearts and their insides. I’m excited about how they’re growing together as a team. I’m full of optimism and excitement about this team.

“I think that we as a collective group are going to love watching these guys compete. And we’re not going to see perfection, but we’re going to see perfect effort, and we’re going to see close-to-perfect commitment. And from that, magical things happen.”

‘Such a big deal.’ Travis Perry, Trent Noah talk UK basketball in-state recruiting success.

Kentucky basketball Pro Day: Ten things we learned from Mark Pope’s first open practice

These are the five players who could make this UK basketball season a truly special one

The new UK basketball court in Rupp Arena is ready. You can buy pieces of the old one.

‘My job is to develop these guys.’ How Overtime Elite is preparing Jasper Johnson for UK.

Big Blue Madness tickets ‘sold out’ in 24 minutes. The UK basketball event will be on TV.

Pope’s first week of UK basketball practice speaks to lofty goals. ‘We know what we have.’

Finally, the 2024-25 UK men’s basketball schedule is complete. Here are the changes.

‘A humbling experience.’ UK basketball great reflects on his career as new chapter begins.