Kentucky came up short in the Sweet 16. The Wildcats were proud of what came before it
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Game day: Tennessee 78, Kentucky 65
Click below for more of the Herald-Leader and Kentucky.com’s coverage of Friday night’s men’s basketball game between Kentucky and Tennessee in the NCAA Tournament at Indianapolis.
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The doors to the Kentucky locker room opened, and out they came.
Coach Mark Pope, the architect of one of the most memorable UK basketball seasons in memory, was the first one to step into the hallway. A few moments later, Koby Brea, Lamont Butler and Andrew Carr — three players who helped set the foundation for his vision of what the Wildcats should be — joined him there.
Before they made a right turn through the tunnels of Lucas Oil Stadium to head to the postgame press conference, there was whooping and hollering from just down the hall.
Butler’s head shot around in that direction. He looked that way for a few seconds. The sound had come from the Houston locker room. The Cougars were about to take the court that Kentucky had just played on. Their season — and their hopes of an NCAA title — was still alive.
Kentucky’s point guard — the team’s “heart and soul,” according to Pope and everyone else in that locker room — kept his head up, but the look of despair was there. He turned his back and walked away. His season was over.
Tennessee had just beaten Kentucky 78-65, ending the Cats’ run in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament, a few steps short of the ultimate goal.
Butler and his two teammates — having just played the final game of their college basketball careers — followed Pope down that hallway, stopping to slap hands and share hugs with the UK staff members they saw along the way.
When they all sat down a couple of minutes later, Pope was asked to give the first words. The Kentucky coach exhaled.
“It’s hard to talk about basketball right now,” he said.
Back in the UK locker room, the remaining Wildcats were spread around. Some sitting deep in their lockers. Some in folding chairs, heads tilted down at the floor. A rush of reporters surrounded Otega Oweh, a junior guard and the team’s leading scorer.
Oweh had 13 points on this Friday night. He’d emerged over the 35 games that preceded it as the catalyst for Kentucky’s scoring attack, which had been one of the best in the country all season long before it sputtered in the Sweet 16.
Like pretty much everyone he shared this locker room with, Oweh came to Kentucky last spring as a bit of an unknown. One piece of a puzzle that looked interesting on paper but might not fit together once the actual basketball began.
“Nobody probably believed in us when we got here,” Oweh said, his eyes still red with tears. “But we believed.”
Oweh spoke from the position of someone who could still come back for one more season at Kentucky. His three teammates at that podium, and three others in that room — Ansley Almonor, Jaxson Robinson and Amari Williams — won’t have that option.
“This was the most fun I’ve had playing basketball, for sure,” Oweh said. “And it’s because of them. … The seniors, you know, they’re just so selfless. Everyone loved each other, came together quickly and just immediately bonded. So I mean, this is the most fun I’ve had playing basketball. These guys are definitely going to be missed.”
By the time the dust settled on Pope’s introductory press conference in Rupp Arena last April, the former UK basketball captain had the job he’d always wanted. But he had no players.
Over the weeks that followed, Pope built a coaching staff and a roster from scratch.
By the end of that process, he had 12 scholarship Wildcats. The last one to join was the one he knew the best. Robinson, whose college career ended with a wrist injury in February, pulled out of the NBA draft and put his total faith in Pope, who he’d spent the previous two seasons playing for at BYU, growing up a whole lot in the process.
Though his season was finished before Friday night, Robinson was hoping to help push his teammates across the finish line. Sitting in his locker, he reflected on the journey.
“I don’t even know where to start, to be honest with you,” he said. “He took a chance on me. Just being here in this locker room, around these guys, to have this jersey on, to be able to say, ‘I’ve played for the University of Kentucky.’ I can’t thank anybody else but Mark Pope. … That’s my guy forever.”
The first player to commit to Pope was Collin Chandler, who’d been pledged to BYU for more than two years while he embarked on a church mission trip. When Pope moved from Provo, Utah, to Lexington, the freshman kept the faith. As expected, the transition back to basketball was difficult.
“These guys meant the world to me,” Chandler said of the seniors. “And those are people you remember for a long time — people that are there for you in hard times.”
On the other side of the room, fellow freshman Trent Noah — a kid from Harlan County — called it a “privilege” to wear the Kentucky jersey and said he couldn’t wait to get back to work in preparation for his sophomore season in Lexington. A couple lockers over from him, another freshman, Travis Perry — a kid from Lyon County — said similar things.
Those two know better than anyone what it means to be a Wildcat. It’s a feeling that perhaps only those who grow up in Kentucky can fully grasp. Perry nodded along at that idea, but he also noted that these seniors — natives of California, Oklahoma, New York, Pennsylvania and Nottingham, England — picked up on it pretty quickly.
“I don’t think it took long for them to get it,” Perry said. “They’re experienced, veteran guys that have been some great places. But there’s obviously something different about this place, whenever you get to be a part of it. And they knew that. They embraced that. And, you know, they played as hard as they could for Big Blue Nation until the final buzzer sounded for them.
“And I can’t speak for them, but I’m very proud of the way that they fought, that our team fought, and the way that we represented Big Blue Nation.”
Sitting next to him, sophomore forward Brandon Garrison talked about how this team clicked from the beginning. Kerr Kriisa, whose season ended in December due to a foot injury, sat silently in his locker, staring straight ahead. Almonor sat next to him.
The senior — a star at Fairleigh Dickinson last season who could have gone elsewhere and gotten more minutes for his final run in college — came to Kentucky and sacrificed playing time for a chance at something bigger. No regrets.
“I’m thankful for every moment I’ve had since I’ve been here,” Almonor said. “And I enjoy my role because it’s just a one-in-a-lifetime opportunity. A lot of people — a lot of kids going up — they wish they could be able to put this jersey on. And I was just lucky enough to do it.”
Speaking of that jersey, it was a hot topic of conversation among the veterans.
“I don’t know who is in charge of the jerseys and all that,” Brea said. “But they’re gonna go through some trouble to get mine.”
Carr said he had been thinking about it while walking through that hallway after the loss. He said he never thought he would have been wearing one with the name Kentucky across it. He didn’t want to take it off. He said he didn’t even want to untie his shoes.
“But to be part of the Kentucky family is something that I get to bring with me forever,” he said. “And it’s pretty amazing. Just out of your wildest dreams, you would have never believed it.”
Williams, who learned the game in England and played four seasons at Drexel University before getting one year on the biggest stage in college basketball, was asked if he felt like this Kentucky team had “restarted” something this season.
“Hopefully,” he said. “I don’t really know how to answer that. But, I mean, hopefully we’ve started something in this Pope era that can be looked back on. And hopefully the fans appreciate it.”
As Butler reflected on it all, he flashed something close to a grin.
“I was crying earlier,” he said. “I don’t know if you can tell now.”
In his final college game, Butler had 18 points, six rebounds and three assists — leading the Cats in all three categories. He ended the season with a brace on his injured left shoulder. He said after it was all over that it felt about 80% healthy for this game. It had felt worse before. He played anyway.
A few minutes before that — back at the podium — there was a call for final questions. When no one spoke up immediately, Butler broke the silence.
“Can I say something?” he asked.
He was told that he could.
“I think it’s really cool we were able to set the culture for Pope’s first year,” Butler said, looking over at his coach. “And people are gonna have to come in, and the bar is going to be set high for the next people who come under Pope. And it’s gonna be fun to watch, for sure.”
This story was originally published March 29, 2025 at 1:09 AM.
