Mark Pope Introductory Press Conference

SPEAKER: Big blue nation, please welcome home your new head coach of Kentucky, Mark Pope!

Good afternoon, everybody. (Cheers).

That’s the banner. This is the logo. And this was the welcome home. (Cheers)

It is a one sentence introduction, the captain is now the coach. (Cheers). Please welcome the new head coach of your Kentucky wildcats, Mark Pope and UK athletics director Mitch Barnhart.

(Cheers – Go big blue! Go big blue! Go big blue! Go big blue!)

MITCH BARNHART: Wow. Truly amazing. Amazing. And thank you for every one of you coming out on a wonderful Sunday afternoon. Thank you so much. (Applause).

There are programs that don’t get this kind of crowd for five games. UK is here for a press conference, that is awesome. That is awesome.

A few thank you’s and a few comments. First off, thank you to the president, Dr. Capilouto, our Board of Trustees, our lettermen, who are right over here, they got off the bus over here with us and specifically the teammates of Mark Pope on the ’96 team.

Congratulations, one of your guys is back. (Cheers).

We’ve got several members of our head coaching staff over here, and we would like to thank them for coming to support Mark, that is awesome. (Applause)

We have members of the Rupp family here somewhere, I am not sure

 

where they are, they are right back here. Thank you for being here today. (Applause)

I would like to thank Mark and Ray for all of their help during this process, it is really good. Quickly, I will give Mark a jersey. We take these photo ops all of the time. I will finish my remarks and get him up here. Let’s do this real quick. (Applause)

 

There is an old song from the ’70s by Jefferson Starship, Find Your Way Back. I date myself. It is time for us to find our way back. (Cheers).

To do that, you need a guide, you have to have someone who has been on the journey before and knows the way, the work, the challenges and eventually the beauty of the destination. That’s right. To understand the heart of this special place, and we have such a person today, a letterman, check the box; we have a captain, check the box; (cheers); we have a champion, check the box; (cheers); we have got a guy that understands the professional game, check the box; we’ve got a scholar, I have never hired a Rhode Scholar candidate in my life, check the box. Most of all, we have an amazing husband, father and coach, check three boxes. (Cheers).

He will guide us back to our heart, through all of the changes in college sports, he understands the DNA that leads us to the destination. He says this changed the trajectory of his life. We’re excited for this, for him to do this for our program and our guys.

A couple more sentences and I’m out, because you didn’t come here to hear me. It is with great pleasure we welcome today the Pope family. Welcome, it is our honor you are here. (Applause)

And while I’m making introductions, I will introduce the new head basketball coach of the University of Kentucky, Mark Pope! (Cheers)

 

COACH POPE: Hey, Mitch, Mitch, Mitch, hold on. So, guys, we see these introductory press conferences all the time. Nobody in the world has ever seen anything like this. (Cheers). But I’m about to break tradition.

(Cheers – Go big blue! Go big blue! Go big blue! Go big blue! Go big blue! Go big blue! Go big blue! Go big blue! Go big blue!)

I’m about to break tradition. At every one of these press conferences the coach comes up and stands there with the AD and takes a picture with a jersey that they made that ends up in a closet somewhere. We’re not doing that. (Cheers). (Cheers).

Hey, this jersey comes from a hallowed place in my home because it is a jersey I got to wear with my teammates and all of Kentucky nations in the national championship games in the Meadowlands of New York. And that’s not just a jersey that will go in the closet. It is a jersey that has blood, sweat, and tears and love and it is

 

all of us together. (Cheers).

I will keep this as short as I can. I talk a lot. But there is one other way I want to blow up this press conference, and I will get crushed for doing this, (cheers), every coach in America at every other job in America stands up at the press conference and they try and moderate expectations. We don’t do that here at Kentucky. (Cheers). When Mitch called me and talked to me about being the head coach here at Kentucky, I understand the assignment. We are here to win banners. (Cheers).

And as we go through this journey, we’re here to win banners in Nashville, (cheers), because you guys turn out in Nashville like nobody else and that matters. (Cheers). And we are here, our job here, our assignment is to go win banners in the Final Four, win national championships. That’s our job. (Cheers).

With those high expectations there will come criticism. But I don’t want you guys to worry, because I will group chat with every one of my single ’96 championship teammates and they will destroy me every time something goes wrong. (Laughter).

I want to do a couple of thank you’s, please. Thank you, President Capilouto, for his leadership. I’m grateful for Mitch Barnhart, as I’ve watched the last 22 years as he has run this program and how he is as a man. We’re grateful to have him here. He is incredible. (Cheers). I’m grateful to Mark Hill and Ray Oliver for all of the work they have done in this process over the last

72 hours. Grateful to these players. I’m grateful for the players from ’96 and through the generations at Kentucky who have made this place what it is. I’m grateful to every single one of you. More than anything else, what separates us from everybody else, we have great coaches, players, administrators, but what makes us different from everybody else is you all. I’m so grateful for you. (Cheers).

Guys, I cannot wait any longer for this. Please join me in a little C-A-T-S C-A-T-S. 1, 2, 3, C-A-T-S, please. Stand up and let’s go. I need your help here. Can we do this, please?

1, 2, 3. C A T S, Cats Cats Cats! Ohhhhhh, C A T S, Cats Cats Cats! Ohhhhhhh, C A T S, Cats Cats Cats! Thank you. (Applause)

Let’s go. Let’s go. Like Mitch said, I love this place from the depths of my soul. It changed my entire life. If you will indulge me briefly, I would like to introduce my family to your family. And I would like to show you how much we love this place.

My daughter, Layla, stand up, please, just wave. (Applause). This is 100 percent a true story. When Mitch offered us a job he gave us a couple of hours to consult our family. We didn’t need it. He knew I would walk here to take this job. (Laughter). But as we gathered the girls from all of the various places, Layla Pope walks in the door, and I kid you not, her first words were, she knows the deal, “Tell me who is in the house tonight, UK.” She did exactly that, exactly that. (Cheers). True story.

That evening, Avery stand up, and Shay stand up and say hi. (Applause). I don’t know how they did it or where it came from, but they went down in the basement in storage and both came up with ’96

 

untouchable vintage T-shirts. I have no idea. Ella is my oldest daughter, and she knows me the best and my history the best. And her only question was: “Dad, when are we going?” Of course it was.

Will you stand up. (Applause).

And then Lee Ann, will you stand up and say hi. (Applause) (Cheers).

So if you will stay with me for a second, if you are a mother, and you can imagine all of the pressure and stress that comes with life as a mom and all of the things that she has to consider every single day. And we sat around the table and got everybody’s reaction and with all of the burden, with all of the grace and courage and elegance you can imagine, Lee Ann looked across the table and said, “Let’s go.” (Cheers).

You don’t need to know this, but I will say it anyway because I can, I’m madly in love with this woman. She makes sense of my life. I’m so grateful for her. (Cheers). And you will quickly find out, she will get to know every single one of you and love you like crazy. It will be really special, okay? (Cheers).

So Pope family, stand up because this is important. I want you to turn around and, Pope family, I want to introduce you to our family. (Cheers).

All right. Should we talk a little bit about coaching? I will tell you things that are deeply in our DNA as a coach and what is interesting, where we learned them. So you will hear from me every single day, 24/7 work, relentless 24/7 work. I learned that here. I was here for maybe two weeks and I had transferred in and I couldn’t believe I was at the University of Kentucky, and I was like, man, they have all All-Americans. I have to catch up.

So it is 11:30 p.m. in the Wildcat Lodge and I have to get extra work in. I walk across the street, open up the door, and I hear balls bouncing. Who is in there? It was like five guys, like JP and Shep and DA and TD in a full sweat already. (Cheers). Those guys taught me how to work. I learned about resilience here. And here at Kentucky resilience is a requirement. It is not an exception, it is a requirement, and I learned that here. I learned here about the passion wins championships; passion wins championships.

And sometimes, my ’96 guys will remember this story, sometimes when you are on the court playing with all of the passion, competing with all of the passion you can, your insides end up all over the floor. (Laughter). I learned that from my guys. I learned about gratitude here at Kentucky. I learned so much about gratitude.

Entitlement leads to sorrow and depression. And gratitude leads to joy. And I will tell you this, you know all these players know, what all of the future players will learn really quick, okay, is that they are not doing those jerseys a favor by letting the jerseys clothe them. (Cheers). Our guys will know quickly, and it is hard not to know, it will be one of the great honors of their life to put that jersey on. (Cheers). There is only a select few players in the world that ever get to wear a Kentucky jersey, to wear a Kentucky jersey, it is one of the greatest honors guys can ever have as a basketball player.

Let me tell you a story. I played a decade in the NBA and it has been confirmed that I was the worst player to ever wear Jerry West, okay? Unanimous polling, all right? You know what we did in the locker room? I played with All-Stars. You know what we did? We didn’t talk about the NBA teams we played for, championships or MVP’s, we sat in the locker room and talked about our college basketball teams. (Cheers). That’s a true story, a fact. That is what you do. Nobody is going home to the NBA team, they are coming home to here. This is a gift to be here. (Applause). I believe these players, man, our job as coaches is we get to be shepherds. (Cheers).

Sometimes no words are the most powerful words of all. (Laughter). But Shep and I are roommates for a long time, so we get to do that for a little bit, to be a shepherd to these guys. When you come to Kentucky, it rips you open and you get to rebuild yourself with your teammates and staff and we get to shepherd you through that. These players are my job to coach and shepherd and our job to love.

And for every player, for every player I wish that they could come experience something like this. There is nothing better. You cannot get it anywhere else besides Kentucky. There is nowhere else you can get this, nowhere else.

All right. I will give you a few specifics about basketball really quick. You know that my team last year made the second most 3’s in all of college basketball. (Cheers). But at Kentucky we don’t come in second. (Cheers). My team last year had the fourth most assists in the country, and at Kentucky we share everything. (Cheers). We’re going to be aggressive on offense, we will change it up and keep people on their heels on defense. And that’s….(cheers). I heard a “defense wins games” out here. (Cheers). And that’s our plan. That is what we will work for every day, and we have no choice but to be successful.

Guys, it is the greatest honor that I will ever have in my professional or this family career to be able to come back here and do this with you. The difference between Kentucky and every other program in the country is that this is not my team. It is not even our team. It is our team. (Cheers). I’m looking up at these banners up here. I’ve got championship team 1948, 1949, 1951, 1958, 1978, if you remember, I can’t tell you how many times I heard Kyle tell the story about halftime when coach came in and said five words, “Get the ball to Goose.” (Cheers…’Goose Goose Goose’). We’ve got 1996 team. What? (Cheers). And we have got these legends. I think I have a couple here from 2012. How much do we love that team?

What? (Cheers).

And I will tell you, the last thing I have for you, when I look up at the banners, when I look up at the rafters, it looks super crowded, if I know anything in the world about Mitch Barnhart, he will make more room. (Cheers). Let’s go fill it up. Go cats! Love you cats! (Cheers – Go big blue! Go big blue! Go big blue! Go big

blue!)

 

MITCH BARNHART: The next order of business. There are members of the media with us. Ladies and gentlemen, we will ask you to give us your name and affiliation when the microphone comes to you.

SPEAKER: Welcome back, Mark. I’m the editor of the Cats Paws. As the father of two girls, growing up with five women in the house, how did that make you a better basketball coach?

COACH POPE: Good question. Well, the one thing that my girls did for me, they never listen to anything that I say, most importantly, and just know this, as tough as the ’96 team is with me, when I come home after games I hear an earful from the Pope girls. They are awesome. Thank you for being here, baby, thank you. Thank you.

SPEAKER: Spencer. Mark, at Utah Valley, BYU, I’m sure you had a recruiting philosophy. How does it change here and have you spoken with any members of the current team?

COACH POPE: We are talking to all of the guys on the current team, all those recruited and every player in the portal right now. And we will find — (cheers). We are going to find the guys that fit here, the way we play, and the guys that will come here and understand what a gift it is to play here at the University of Kentucky.

SPEAKER: Mark, Tucker with Athletic. What is the approach with building a staff, not just this, but the assistants next to you, the big picture approach to building a college basketball staff today?

COACH POPE: Yeah. It is so dynamic right now, the portal, NIL. Conference realignment has changed so quickly. Building a staff now you are not looking just for the skill sets for just recruiting but considering GM positions that navigate a roster, considering NIL positions.

Let me say something about NIL. It is more than just cash. It is building a future and contributing to a community. And doing that right takes a lot of effort. And I can go into hours and hours of conversations on that.