One week into summer practice, what does Mark Pope think about his UK basketball team?

More than two months removed from an electrifying introduction in Rupp Arena that was more pep rally than press conference, new Kentucky basketball coach Mark Pope met with local reporters at the Joe Craft Center on Tuesday afternoon.

Pope was hired as John Calipari’s replacement on April 12 and filled Rupp with adoring fans two days later. The new head coach and former UK player has had numerous one-on-one interviews — including several national TV and podcast appearances — in the time since, but other than a brief gaggle with the Herald-Leader and a few other local outlets at an NIL event two weeks ago, the meeting with media members Tuesday marked his first formal press conference since settling into the job.

Obviously, the 51-year-old coach has had plenty on his plate over the past several weeks.

Since that first Rupp Arena appearance, Pope has assembled his coaching staff, put together a roster of 12 scholarship players from scratch and hit the recruiting trail in earnest, including a trip to South America to watch five-star Kentucky native Jasper Johnson and the USA Basketball junior national team.

Last week marked one of the biggest milestones yet in the Pope era. The Wildcats actually hit the practice floor for the first time.

UK began its summer sessions last Monday, and the team will be allowed to engage in collective, on-court instruction with coaches for four hours per week over an eight-week period before shutting down at the end of the summer ahead of the traditional preseason practice schedule.

Those early sessions will be important for these new Kentucky players and coaches to get to know each other, and the team’s first few practices were obviously a talking point throughout Pope’s press conference Tuesday.

Early UK practice report

UK’s roster of scholarship players consists of nine transfers and three freshmen. Even though only one of those players — Jaxson Robinson, who was Pope’s leading scorer at BYU last season — has been coached by UK’s new leader in the past, the Kentucky staff is seeing what they expected from these early practices.

“There have been very few surprises, in terms of what we thought we got, which is exciting,” Pope said. “The pieces fit.”

Eight of the nine players who have transferred into the program are obviously new to these coaches, but Pope noted the nature of both the portal and the veteran aspect of these additions — seven transfers will be seniors, the other two were Big 12 starters last season — meant he and his coaches had plenty of film to pour over before they arrived on campus.

“It’s one of the things about working the portal is that guys have such a résumé that you can see over and over again what they do in college,” Pope said. “And our guys have certainly lived up to that billing. So there haven’t been a ton of surprises in skill sets.”

He said he’s also been pleased with how receptive those players — especially the most experienced ones — have been to the coaching staff.

“Sometimes you get veteran players, and they’re less malleable and less coachable,” Pope said. “And they kind of have done what they’ve done, and they do what they do and they’re less responsive. The thing that’s been surprising — these guys have been incredibly willing to just grab onto any instruction and really run with it. … I mean, there’s a bunch of guys that stick out.”

Pope specifically mentioned Lamont Butler — a three-year starter at San Diego State — and Wake Forest transfer Andrew Carr as two examples. He also brought up those two players at UK’s NIL event a couple of weeks ago when talking about possible leaders on this team.

“What Lamont Butler has done in terms of just taking a little piece of advice and implementing them immediately has been so exciting,” Pope said. “Andrew Carr, in the same way, in a different area of the game, has been incredible.”

He added that he had “some conversations” with Otega Oweh — a starter as a sophomore at Oklahoma last season — over the previous couple of days. “And he came out and had an unbelievable practice this morning. It’s really wonderful to see these veteran guys and how excited they are to grow and learn and how willing they are to try new things.”

Amari Williams — a three-time defensive player of the year in his conference at Drexel University — was the first transfer commitment for Pope, and the 7-footer from England is expected to split time next season with McDonald’s All-American sophomore Brandon Garrison, who came to UK after one season at Oklahoma State.

Williams was actually the first player Pope specifically mentioned while talking about the early practice sessions, noting that he was pursuing him at BYU before he landed the UK job.

“We started recruiting Amari even before we got here to Kentucky. And you know, the thing that drew him to us was his ability to pass,” Pope said. “And the very first time we stepped on the court, we were running some corner split actions, and he started diming guys up. And it was like — there was a reaction from everybody in the gym. And all of a sudden everybody starts cutting harder.”

Much of Pope’s offense is predicated on his big men being able and willing to pass, and Williams and Garrison were both recruited with that trait in mind.

One clear challenge to these summer practice sessions — and the build-up to the 2024-25 season, in general — is that none of these players have ever played together. That’s led to a different approach than Pope would normally employ at this point in the offseason.

“Yeah, that’s where we’re feeling the urgency to go fast,” he said. “You know, we installed so much in the first week. You only get one hour a day, four days a week. That’s it. In a normal situation, we would just be doing skill development right now. But we’ve moved at a lightning-fast pace, trying to give our guys a sense — a bigger, grander overview of how we’re going to play and what we do and how we do it, and let them see it and feel it on the court.

“And we’ve been super aggressive on everything we’re installing right now. The guys have been really receptive. That’s the other thing about veteran guys. They pick stuff up really fast. So that’s been a major difference. I’ve never approached an offseason like this.”

Speaking the same language

One player who will play an important role in helping this transition to the Pope era on and off the court is Jaxson Robinson, who played for the head coach — and new UK assistant Cody Fueger — the past two seasons at BYU and pulled out of the NBA draft to follow them to Lexington for his final year of college basketball.

Having Robinson around for these early practice sessions has been huge.

“It’s a gift,” Pope said. “So, you know, I bumble around saying what I’m saying, and Jax is like, ‘All right, guys, this is what he really means.’ He’s a great interpreter. And he’s not just an interpreter of words and concepts on the court, but he’ll also double down on the ideas about, like, ‘Hey guys, this is really important. Like, you’re gonna hear this. What we just talked about, you’re gonna hear every single day for the rest of the season.’ ...

“He’s a pretty good distiller of information for us. And then also the vibe, the feel, the approach of the game. He’s got a good sense of how we try and build a locker room, and the things that are important to us in a locker room, and how we try and, you know, cultivate communication on the floor. And he’s done a great job being an example of that. He’s a really, really vital piece. And it doesn’t hurt that he’s an NBA-caliber player. That always helps, too.”

Pope noted later in the press conference that he was an English major during his own playing days at UK — where he was a captain on the 1996 national title team — and getting players on the same page from a communication standpoint is an integral part of his coaching process.

“The more I see my guys on the court holding each other accountable for the principles we’re teaching is super exciting,” he said. “And then what’s really exciting is when I hear the guys parroting the words we use. We don’t believe in synonyms. There should be no synonyms in sports.”

Pope referenced one of his college professors at UK, how he loved her graduate-level courses — “she taught Milton and Chaucer” — but that she would be upset with him if he used “synonyms” or “colorful language” when trying to teach on the court.

“We actually just say exactly what we mean, and we say the same words over and over and over again,” Pope said. “And so as we’re on the court, even just six practices in — today was our sixth practice — and you start to hear our guys, to each other, use our exact words. You’re like, ‘Oh, we’re making progress. We’re getting somewhere.’ … That’s pretty exciting for us to hear those words being used.”

The 13th scholarship

College basketball teams are permitted to give out 13 scholarships per season. As of now, Kentucky has 12 such players — plus returning walk-ons Grant Darbyshire and Walker Horn — and that leaves one opening on the 2024-25 roster.

With what the Wildcats already have — nine veteran transfers with expectations of considerable playing time next season, plus star recruit Collin Chandler and Kentucky-native freshmen Trent Noah and Travis Perry — it’s not expected that Pope will add an instant-impact piece to what is already looking like a possibly crowded roster puzzle.

He’s talked in the past about potentially bringing in a player who might redshirt for the 2024-25 season and/or a “project” recruit with considerable upside down the road. On Tuesday, he sounded pleased with the current state of his first UK roster, though he’s leaving open the possibility of adding another between now and the start of the season.

“I think we had a pretty good feel of where we were a couple weeks ago, and it’s just been confirmed more than anything else,” he said, joking to the dozens of reporters in the room that they would hold “open media tryouts” next week for the final spot.

“But, yeah, we’re still kind of floating with it. And we’ll see.”

Pope noted that he and his staff would spend “a ton of time” on the recruiting trail this summer, including some international trips to scout potential UK targets.

Over the previous two Kentucky seasons, John Calipari added Zvonimir Ivisic and Ugonna Onyenso to his roster during the summer months. Late reclassifications from high school are always possible, too, and it’s worth noting that Tre Mitchell didn’t announce his transfer to UK until June 26 of last year following the unexpected resignation of Bob Huggins, his coach at West Virginia.

“There’s always unique things that happen there late,” Pope said. “... So we’ll kind of play it by ear.”

Kentucky basketball schedule

There have already been a couple of new confirmations for the 2024-25 schedule this week.

The third game in the UK-Gonzaga series is set for Dec. 7 at Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle. Tickets will go on sale Friday at 1 p.m. at climatepledgearena.com. The Cats and Zags agreed to a six-game deal two years ago, and Gonzaga has won the first two in the series. Mark Few’s team is No. 8 in the most recent preseason Top 25 rankings from CBS Sports.

On Tuesday, officials with the CBS Sports Classic confirmed that the event will be played at Madison Square Garden in New York on Dec. 21. UK will play Ohio State, which is No. 15 in the updated CBS Top 25 rankings.

Kentucky’s matchup with the Buckeyes should tip off around 5:30 p.m. (following the conclusion of the UCLA-North Carolina game, which is set for 3 p.m.). Tickets will go on sale in August.

Those games officially join what should be a formidable non-conference slate in Pope’s first season.

UK is already confirmed to play Duke in the Champions Classic in Atlanta (Nov. 12), Clemson on the road in the SEC/ACC Challenge (Dec. 3) and Louisville in Rupp Arena (Dec. 14).

That’s in addition to the SEC schedule, which tips off Jan. 4 and will feature 18 games in a league that is projected to get double-digit teams in next year’s NCAA Tournament.

UK’s full 2024-25 schedule will be released later this year.

“We’re really close. I think we’re just waiting on some contracts,” Pope said. “Scheduling is complicated. It has never ceased to amaze me how complicated it is to put together a schedule, and more complicated now than ever, for like 10 different reasons. But I think we’re really excited about our schedule. We’re playing some of the best teams in the country early. We like the way that it’s spaced out during the non-conference, and it’s gonna be fun.

“I can’t wait to get into Rupp. I just can’t wait.”

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