Pope celebrates UK basketball’s past, teases future with latest Big Blue Madness
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Mark Pope honored Wildcat history and positioned Kentucky for 2025–26 success
- Rupp event blended alumni tributes, player introductions and fan engagement
- Team showed depth in scrimmage, dunk and 3-point contests; expectations high
From the moment he was introduced as Kentucky’s new basketball coach 18 months ago, Mark Pope has looked toward the program’s future by celebrating the Wildcats’ past.
He did it again Saturday night.
Following the introduction of his second UK roster — a group stacked with talent and fully expected to compete for the school’s ninth NCAA championship — Pope made his first appearance of the night in front of the Big Blue Madness crowd.
The Kentucky coach appeared above the stage on a rising platform. If the visual seemed familiar to those inside of Rupp Arena, they had only a few seconds to figure out why.
Right after Pope’s platform had come to a stop, another one started rising on the opposite side of the stage. And standing on that one was John Wall, who was greeted with a raucous ovation and returned the favor by delivering an encore of his iconic dance that took Kentucky by storm at this same event 16 years ago.
A little more than an hour later, the night drew to a close with another throwback.
The final video montage in a Madness filled with them started with brief clips of Jack Givens, Ron Mercer and Bam Adebayo — three UK greats from three different eras — talking about how much their time as Wildcats meant to them. As highlights from the program’s storied history — the Adolph Rupp era to the present day — played on the screen, former UK players filed onto the court, each of them greeted with a hug, a handshake or both from the current coach.
And onto that floor stepped Tubby Smith, who elicited another big pop from the Rupp crowd. As the former coach stood on the court, Pope’s arm draped across his shoulder, the fans showed their appreciation again.
“Tubby! Tubby!” they chanted at the man who led Kentucky to the 1998 national championship.
In between all of that, the attention was on the current Cats.
The UK women’s team tipped off the evening, with Kenny Brooks’ roster introduced to the crowd before the second-year coach hit the stage himself.
Former Kentucky point guard Makayla Epps — a recent addition to the UK Athletics Hall of Fame — introduced Brooks, who followed a video touting his accomplishments in year one with a speech celebrating the other successful women’s sports programs across the department.
Brooks, whose team achieved an incredible turnaround last season — breaking into the national top 10 rankings after a couple of years of futility — promised even brighter days ahead.
“And we will not stop …” he said, pausing for effect, “until we become national champions.”
Later on, Pope’s Cats got their turn in the spotlight.
The Kentucky players appeared through a rising platform built into the stage. Freshman guard Jasper Johnson was among the first, receiving a thunderous pop at the mention of his hometown (Lexington, Kentucky) and another after he delivered the most spirited dance moves of the night.
Sophomore forward and fan favorite Trent Noah appeared on stage accompanied by fellow Harlan native Jordan Smith — winner of NBC’s “The Voice” and a Rupp Arena regular for national anthems — the crowd going wild again as Smith belted out “You’ll Never Leave Harlan Alive.”
The loudest ovation belonged to Otega Oweh, the final Wildcat introduced to the fans, the leading scorer off Pope’s first Kentucky team and a potential All-American going into his senior season. Oweh pulled out of the NBA draft over the summer for one more run with the Wildcats, and — in his first appearance in front of a Rupp crowd since then — was showered with cheers.
As the Cats stretched on the court, Pope talked up their competitiveness level, a running theme this preseason.
“These guys want to win,” he said. “They’re going to make BBN really proud this year.”
As the stretching continued, Pope left the court, slapping hands with recruits seated courtside — class of 2026 stars Jordan Smith Jr., Caleb Holt and Josh Irving all made it to town, as expected — and ran up the stairs to section 233, where he picked out a couple of judges for the night’s slam-dunk contest.
“I love the upper deck!” Pope yelled, before running back down to the court, pausing for several selfies with fans along the way.
The Wildcats scrimmaged for about five minutes. It started with an alley-oop pass from Collin Chandler to Denzel Aberdeen, featured a flurry of made 3-pointers and ended with Johnson’s and-one winner in traffic.
Chandler pulled off a repeat in the dunk contest, earning a perfect score — 10s from all five judges, including junior forward Brandon Garrison — on both of his dunk attempts. The second featured a lob from Wall to Chandler, who soared in and caught the ball at its highest point, slamming it home with one hand before doing the “John Wall Dance” with the UK great on the baseline.
It had been 16 years since Wall burst onto the UK basketball scene with those moves, the defining moment of the first Big Blue Madness of the John Calipari era. The first Madness of the Pope era featured the return of Rick Pitino — a surreal scene in Rupp last fall — and this one continued Pope’s penchant for celebrating the history of the Wildcats’ program.
But the focus now is on the future, of course. In two weeks, Purdue will visit Rupp for a high-profile exhibition game against the Cats, who will tip off the regular season at home against Nicholls on Nov. 4 and head to the Yum Center for a battle with archrival Louisville a week after that.
The 2025-26 season is almost here, and everyone got a little taste of it Saturday night.
Toward the end of the festivities, Noah backed up his reputation as the best shooter on this team by going 36 for 50 across two rounds of the 3-point contest, beating fellow sophomore Andrija Jelavic in the finals and lifting the winner’s trophy to another loud ovation.
Asked what UK fans should expect from their Cats this season, Noah beamed.
“A lot of wins,” he declared to the Rupp crowd.
This story was originally published October 11, 2025 at 10:08 PM.
