Kentucky basketball coach Mark Pope on ‘awful’ tragedy of Louisville plane crash

Before he got to discussing his Kentucky basketball team’s season-opening win Tuesday night, Wildcats coach Mark Pope addressed the plane crash in Louisville earlier in the evening.

UPS Flight 2976, with three crew members on board, was departing Louisville bound for Honolulu, Hawaii, when “an accident” occurred, according to UPS.

By that point, Pope and his team were deep into pregame preparation for a 7 p.m. tipoff against Nicholls, but the news reached Pope, who before he took questions from reporters opened his postgame news conference saying he was aware of the incident.

“First, I’ll just note, I’ve kind of just followed a little bit this tragedy in Louisville,” Pope said. “(It) just is awful. Certainly our prayers go out to everybody involved in that. And, man, hopefully we can have the best news possible and the best resolution to that and BBN is just fully engaged in that and best wishes for everybody there.”

As of 9:15 p.m., four fatalities were confirmed in the crash. For further updates, follow the Herald-Leader’s continuing coverage.