UK basketball finishes regular season with a flourish. Mark Pope recaps win at Missouri
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Game day: No. 19 Kentucky 91, No. 15 Missouri 83
Click below for more of the Herald-Leader and Kentucky.com’s coverage of Saturday’s men’s basketball game between Kentucky and Missouri in Columbia, Mo.
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Kentucky basketball’s final game of the regular season was an impressive reminder of what Mark Pope’s team is still capable of despite season-ending injuries suffered by two of its backcourt players.
With Kerr Kriisa and Jaxson Robinson now confirmed as both being out for the season, the No. 19 Wildcats went to No. 15 Missouri on Saturday afternoon and handed the Tigers a 91-83 loss.
Fifth-year forward Andrew Carr stepped up in a big way, logging 16 points and 12 rebounds in a season-high 34 minutes for his third double-double of the season, and his first since December. Junior guard Otega Oweh led the way in scoring for Kentucky with 22 points, 20 of which came in the second half.
Kentucky — which finishes the regular season with a 20-10 overall record and a 10-8 mark in SEC games — is only the second team to go on the road and win in Columbia this season, along with Texas A&M.
The Wildcats also now have eight wins this season over opponents ranked in the top 15 of the AP poll at the time of the game.
UK’s final finishing position in the SEC standings — and as a result its seed for next week’s SEC Tournament — is still to be determined. But the Wildcats are locked into a top-eight seed in the conference tournament, and UK’s path toward a potential SEC Tournament title will begin Thursday.
Before that though, Pope met with reporters at the Mizzou Arena on Saturday to recap one of Kentucky’s most impressive wins of the season.
Here’s everything Pope said.
Pope had fifth-year wing Koby Brea deliver the opening statement for the press conference.
Question about Kentucky’s defensive success against Missouri in the first half.
We were pretty rattled offensively and it’s a credit to Missouri, man. They don’t lose here. They have a terrific team. I’m maybe the world’s No. 1 Dennis Gates fan. I think he’s really special and after what this group went through last year, for them to respond this year is pretty amazing.
They had us really uncomfortable on the offensive end to start the game. So I was really proud of our guys because we talked about it in the timeout, I said, ‘Hey. It’s OK. ‘Cause our defense is going to keep us afloat.’
And for us to be able, in that run, to just be able to trust our defense, trusted it like ‘We know we don’t feel great on the other side of the ball. We will eventually get there.’ But for these guys to step up and make tough, physical plays on the defensive end to kind of keep us alive was incredibly encouraging.
Question about Amari Williams defending Mark Mitchell and Collin Chandler defending Caleb Grill.
This Grill, I think he’s a terrific player. He comes off (the bench) and plays with so much energy. He cuts and runs so hard. He’s so confident … Like everybody, he was a point of emphasis for us and I thought between Otega and Collin Chandler, both of those guys worked so hard to kind of keep him just to six shots.
It was a huge effort, and really, really important.
Question about Pope tightening the rotation of players for Kentucky.
The first half, we were kind of managing fouls. So we got all the way through the rotation.
And in the second half we didn’t have as many fouls, (so) we had fresher guys. Otega and Lamont didn’t play very much in the first half. There’s so many variables and dynamics that go into it.
I thought the three freshmen were elite today. There were three or four possessions where we were getting late in the shot clock and they just stayed diligent and aggressive, like trying to get downhill with two feet in the lane and then finding the next guy and busting it to get two feet in the lane and with two seconds left in the shot clock finally making a play.
I was getting nervous. I was getting anxious. I was like, ‘Guys! The shot clock’s running down!’ But they were super poised, and the best thing was if they were going to make a mistake, they were going to make our mistakes. So I thought they were great.
In the second half I think there was just a slow enough cadence to the game that we kind of got to keep it (the rotation) a little bit tighter. And these guys are playing so good.
Drew (Carr), you talk about a Herculean effort, I mean he had 12 rebounds and they were contested, violent, physical, like, combative rebounds. And then Koby, we were a mess in the first half, offensively, we just couldn’t find a feel. Except Koby’s just like don’t worry guys, I’m just going to do my thing. And he did his thing.
And so these guys are really special.
Question about Kentucky now having eight wins this season over opponents ranked in the top 15 of the AP poll.
It’s just an insane number. I mean, if you come to Kentucky and you can do something all-time at the University of Kentucky as a team, like all-time, at Kentucky, and you think about the people who have rolled through here.
For this group now to hold that record, is just insane and then in the history of the game of college basketball for them to be tied, it’s a credit to these guys man. It’s a special group, and it hasn’t been an easy road. Like, we’ve been tested every way in health, and rotation stuff and all of this stuff has been a massive, massive challenge and these guys just keep raising up to it.
It’s been pretty fun.
Question about Travis Perry recovering from getting blocked at the rim to get back on defense and record a steal.
Yeah, we had two of those. Otega was the lucky beneficiary, and I think Drew came up with a loose ball.
Our guys were really good with 50-50 balls. I thought we were really good with 50-50 balls., We didn’t win them all, and this Missouri team, that’s their DNA. You know, the fact that we were 10 turnovers tonight, we can in here thinking if we can manage the turnover situation we have a chance to win.
And our guys, we didn’t feel great. We weren’t flowing. Like, we really struggled, we were a little discombobulated in the first half, and we still found a way to just stay alive, protecting the ball and part of protecting the ball is winning those 50-50 balls.
I thought those were huge energy plays.
Question about the importance of getting Andrew Carr back to his best playing ability.
I can’t overstate how important it is. You think about what Drew did for us the first two months of the season, pre-injury and then it got really complicated for us as we tried to deal with it during injury and post-injury.
Things are pretty good in our world right now. He’s a massively important part of this team, as every guy is. I mean, we’re a community effort and Drew is carrying a huge load for us.
Closing statement.
If I could just throw some love to our staff. Our staff, man. These guys work really hard. We have an unbelievable staff. Tonight, Coach Fox was the lead scout on the game. This gym is really special to him.
I grew up and coach was my coach at the University of Washington, heard him talk about his dad all the time, got to meet his dad. (Fox) actually had to bury his dad and then came straight here the next day to play a game in 2014.
We won that won. He led our staff in doing a great job on the scout and I’m glad we can get this one for (Fox), it’s a special place for him.
This story was originally published March 8, 2025 at 4:05 PM.
