LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — Kentucky has a “rich person’s problem.” That’s how Mark Pope describes the overflowing depth of his roster. Talented transfers, blue-chip freshmen, and a preseason SEC Player of the Year in Otega Oweh. Ten players got 15 minutes or more in the exhibition win over Purdue.
“I haven't coached a team this deep before,” Pope said.
Everybody can play. That’s the wealth.
But this week at practice, the losing team in an underneath-out-of-bounds drill had to do the laundry.
Not the managers. The players. Three hours. Uniforms and all.
Call it Pope’s paradox. In a program that sells out 20,000 seats for a game that doesn’t count and has the largest reported payroll in the college game, Pope is building something rooted in humility, competition and intentional stillness.
After each shootaround? Five full minutes of silence.
No talking. No music. Just stillness.
“Just stealing these little moments where it's quiet is important,” Pope said. “… I want to breathe in every single second. I know I only get to be the head coach at the University of Kentucky for a while.”
The implication: His players will only be at Kentucky for a little while. Watch and listen. Take a moment. Soak it in. And then, get out. He wants them to be around fans, upper deck and lower, and to listen to them when they tell their stories.
“What a fail for me,” he said, “if they were here at the University of Kentucky and they missed the one thing that sets Kentucky apart from everyone else.”
He said these things to a room full of reporters and their kids and families, during a press conference he turned into a family hour. He fielded questions from nieces, nephews, daughters. Told stories about road trips and relationships. About pick-and-rolls and perspective.
And about chess.
Pope is in an ongoing battle with Jayden Quaintance, one of the nation’s top young big men. Well, for Pope it’s a battle. For Quaintance it seems more of an amusement. The freshman keeps crushing him on the board. Pope recently teamed up with Collin Chandler just to split a game against JQ, who played both sides, switching boards between moves, on a timer.
“I’ve just lost all pride,” Pope deadpanned.
He’s talking about crowdsourcing moves to BBN.
Mark Pope. Media and family. 2025 Media Family Day at UK men’s basketball practice.
Pope is big on efficiency. He cuts his own hair in three minutes. Talks about decision fatigue. Quotes philosophers, or at least follows their precepts. Thinks coaching is equal parts X’s and O’s and understanding that “everybody in this game is sacrificing something, especially the families.”
He talks like a man who spent time in med school. Because he did.
But he coaches like a guy who knows how fragile time is. And he wants to make the most of it, even in an exhibition. The opponent Thursday is Georgetown University. It’s unofficial. Doesn’t count. Just a tune-up.
Unless you’re old enough to remember Seattle, 1984. Unless the words “3-for-33” still make you wince. Unless the very mention of Georgetown raises your blood pressure the way a John Thompson towel once did.
In that case, Thursday night’s meeting at Rupp Arena (7 p.m., SEC Network Plus) might register a little more than “just a scrimmage.”
“This is a terrific team, a really, really tough, gritty team,” Pope said. “So they're going to challenge in some ways that are incredibly useful for us.”
Pope won’t bring up the ghosts. He’s not even watching the scoreboard.
He’ll be watching the huddles. The body language. The competitiveness. He’ll be looking for wedges and hit-and-go-gets and whatever other stat he pulls out that you've never heard of. He'll even be watching who gets laundry duty if it comes to that.
Because the “rich person’s problem” is having too much. The Pope solution?
Go earn it anyway.
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