Everything UK basketball coach Mark Pope said after guiding the Wildcats to the Sweet 16

For the first time since 2019, the Kentucky men’s basketball team is going to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament.

First-year head coach Mark Pope — who famously was a captain on UK’s 1996 national title team — has taken the Wildcats beyond the first week of March Madness for the first time in six years.

Kentucky secured its Sweet 16 spot with an 84-75 victory on Sunday night against Illinois in Milwaukee. The No. 3 seed Wildcats used big runs on either side of halftime to dispatch the No. 6 seed Fighting Illini.

UK was led in scoring by fifth-year wing Koby Brea, who matched his career best with 23 points. Kentucky also tied its season high with 14 steals in the game and used that to generate a 26-8 advantage in points off turnovers. Pope’s team also matched its season low with only five turnovers in the round-of-32 win.

Up next for the Wildcats will be one of the most anticipated games in program history.

For the first time ever in the NCAA Tournament, historic rivals Kentucky and Tennessee will meet on the hardwood. The No. 2 seed Volunteers breezed past their early-round opponents in this year’s NCAA Tournament, defeating No. 15 seed Wofford and No. 7 seed UCLA handily in games that were played in Lexington at Rupp Arena.

UK and Tennessee will face off for a spot in the Elite Eight on Friday night at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis. That venue is normally the home of the NFL’s Indianapolis Colts.

The winner of that matchup will face the winner of a corresponding Sweet 16 contest between No. 1 seed Houston and No. 4 seed Purdue in the Elite Eight.

Following Sunday night’s big win against Illinois, here’s everything Pope told media members in Milwaukee.

Question about Lamont Butler’s performance.

No, I just felt like — we talked about it. Lamont hadn’t had a single live rep since three games ago. Hadn’t had a live rep from practice, no contact. So going into the game two days ago, it was a miracle that he was able to function the way he is, because you lose timing and rhythm and feel. You just do. That’s why you practice.

He’s such a quick study and a big-moment guy. I felt confident he was going to be special. It doesn’t always happen that way, but he was really special tonight. My goodness, he was really special for us and important.

And he’s a winner. We said it since day one, guys, we were really blessed to have a winner walk through our are doors at the University of Kentucky that cares about winning. And we talked about this yesterday, somewhere, I can’t remember where, what media group it was in front of, but I don’t know if I’ve ever coached a player that is more desperate to — I don’t want to say the negative, but I don’t know how — to not let down his team.

It is in his soul from a deep, deep place about like I am going to rise up to the occasion for my team. I can’t remember if it was Amari or him that said it was love that kinda helped these guys, it’s helped them manage all the chaos they’ve been through. But that’s a real thing. He loves his guys, and he wants to perform for his guys. It’s pretty fun. It’s great.

Question about Kentucky’s strong end to the first half and strong start to the second half.

It’s not really plays. I mean, we have plays and whatever, but it’s our guys’ mentality to dig into the emotional reservoir and bring it to start the game.

The game is so taxing and the season is so taxing, everything that all these players, our team, Illinois, everybody goes through, it’s so taxing. Our guys find strength in each other. There were a couple of well-executed plays, but mostly it was our energy that our guys brought into the beginning of the second half and their intensity that was really important.

Question about the courage being shown by Lamont Butler.

One of the reasons he played well tonight is because he tweaked his ankle in the first half, and so he’s balanced now. He’s got no shoulder and no ankle, and I think it just works out.

Courage is real, but I keep coming back to love, man. He loves his guys, and the guys love him. Who knows where we’re going to go from here? But this group, what a blessing to be around this group.

I’m glad that (indiscernible) gets to see it. I hope they feel it. I hope they feel it from these guys. They deeply care about each other, and Lamont is the ring leader.

He started this, it was about two weeks into the summer, and I know I haven’t given specific details on this, but I was on the road recruiting. One of our guys was going through something really terrible, a terrible family situation. And we had set up something for that player to do, and I called in to check with that player and see how the day went, and he had scrapped all the plans because Lamont scooped him up and they spent the day together. And Lamont did that because that’s who he is. He cares.

His courage comes from a ton of skill and a ton of work and a ton of love.

Question about Illinois freshman Will Riley, a player Pope tried to recruit to come to Kentucky.

What an incredible season he’s put together with a great Illinois team. I’m so happy for him. His family is terrific and — am I allowed to talk about Will? I am. He’s a beautiful kid, and he’s got a huge future as a big-time pro.

And the only negative thing I have to say about it is — well, maybe not negative, he’s also smart enough not to come play for me. So really good. But he’s a beautiful kid with a great family, and he’s played unbelievable basketball. He’s super impressive.

Question about the importance of getting Lamont Butler to come to Kentucky.

For me it was really important. It was really early. I think we had half a staff, and we threw the whole staff on a plane. I think the turnaround from our first conversation to us being there in person was 12 hours.

Winners are special. We talked about it in the locker room before the game. Everyone has heard this over and over. But most of us, you know, talk about what happened to us. We talk about what happened to us. And champions, winners talk about what they made happen. It’s just the truth. It’s true.

Lamont Butler is spending his whole lifetime talking about what he makes happen, and that’s a champion’s heart. And he doesn’t spend anytime talking about what happened to him. He talks about all the stuff he makes happen. When you have a guy like that leading your crew like that, it’s pretty special.

Question about Kentucky’s defensive improvements in recent weeks.

It’s the players. It’s our guys. Certainly we’re gathering data, and we had some slippage, and we had to rethink some things. But the easy answer for me is it’s Koby Brea. He all of a sudden started saying I’m taking this personal. I’m going to take every single defensive possession personal.

And after we came home from Ole Miss, he went through two straight practices where — we start practice with banner behavior, which is essentially some skills, but it’s before we got fully warm. And he came out in banner behavior and was flying around, diving on the floor. And he just changed. It became not a job but it became something insanely personal to him.

When things didn’t go right defensively, he was going to take it incredibly personal. And he’s an example of one of the guys on our team — we have a player-led team. We have unbelievable leadership on our team, and it comes from a wide variety of guys, different slices of it. And when you have players that are leading the charge, things get better.

I’ve never seen — and I haven’t dug into the data, so somebody check for me, but I have never seen a team that has gone from 112 to 45 in the last six weeks of the season. I’ve never seen it, and that is a credit to our guys. Gives you a sense of our players.

Question about Koby Brea.

… Koby Brea. I will talk about Koby Brea for two minutes, OK? To do what he did tonight is extraordinary. And Illinois is — Coach does an unbelievable job of game planning, a really incredible job. So they made some calculated decisions where they were going to clog the middle, protect all the backcuts, all the curl cuts, and lock and trail on guys and try and force them inside the 3-point line.

And Koby Brea, I think he is the best shooter in college basketball. And he’s in the process of becoming an elite-level cutter. And to his teammates’ credit, guys were setting big-time screens. And then he just has incredible poise.

I appreciated the question about making three in a row. I don’t know if any of us ever at the rec league have felt what he felt tonight in the second half. We don’t win that game without him on the offensive and the defensive side of the ball.

And the best thing about Koby is he jumped into the interview right after the game, and just started talking about God’s plan. And that echoes a sentiment from all our players. He is a deeply faithful young man, and he is loving every second of exploring what God’s plan is for this team. And all of us are grateful that God’s plan is not done for this team yet.

So his core, the core of him, the courage of him, the faith of him, his incredible skill set, his recovery from a massive, massive, massive, massive setback injury, I think he would point back to his faith on all those things.

Question about a late-game steal by Lamont Butler.

I don’t know, NCAA Tournament, so everything happens. But that was a massive play. It was unbelievable. Lamont Butler, not just his explosive ability but his breaks, also, he covered ground in a special amount of time, was able to get through that clean. He came from clear across the court.

It was a brilliant play by him. But there were so many brilliant plays, Koby’s run, Andrew Carr’s play, couple stops, like so many guys. But certainly that was a massive play to kinda stem the tide a little bit. Really proud of him.

This story was originally published March 23, 2025 at 10:35 PM.

Cameron Drummond

Lexington Herald-Leader

859-242-5257

Cameron Drummond works as a sports reporter for the Lexington Herald-Leader with a focus on Kentucky men’s basketball recruiting and the UK men’s basketball team, horse racing, soccer and other sports in Central Kentucky. Drummond is a second-generation American who was born and raised in Texas, before graduating from Indiana University. He is a fluent Spanish speaker who previously worked as a community news reporter in Austin, Texas. Support my work with a digital subscription