Everything Mark Pope said after Kentucky basketball beat Bellarmine 99-85

The complete transcript of Kentucky basketball coach Mark Pope’s postgame news conference after the Wildcats’ 99-85 win over Bellarmine on Tuesday at Rupp Arena:

Mark Pope: All right, guys, Merry Christmas. Hope everybody has an unbelievable holidays, and take a breath and let’s get back to work. Fire away with questions. Oh, actually, let me take that back. Bellarmine, awesome. Love the way they play. We actually have a Bellarmine cut that — we, I think, played against Bellarmine a couple years ago, and I love the way they move after the bounce and they work hard to get some space on the floor. And I thought they were great in isolation tonight. I thought they were great with MP4Ts (Make Plays 4 Teammates). Played hard and played tough, and I thought they were terrific. So congratulations to them.

Q: Mark, Obviously, a lot of zone that they played tonight. But what did you see from your guys 3-point perspective that could maybe translate to the rest of the season? Sixteen 3s, 53%.

Pope: Well, I love Kam, 8 for 10. I asked him to do that every night for the rest of the year. So that’s plan A. And I thought, Otega being a 10-assist guy, I would like that to happen every game for the rest of the year too. I thought that was absolutely fantastic. He’s been trying to find some space to be an MP4T guy, and he did it. He did it by getting downhill and making plays for guys. He did it by being a quick-turn guy, which is an underrated area of expertise that guys can excel in. I thought he was really good that way. And so I think those two things were really key for us in terms of shooting the ball better. And the zone helps. I mean, the zone helps because every shot is open.

Q: Mark, you just said that Kam hit eight 3. Coming into the game he was shooting 23%, I think it was, from 3 and last year, shot in the 40s. What does it do for a guy like Kam when he can see them go through the net, even if they are playing a zone, and it opens it up?

Pope: I think it was good for him to make them here, too. I think it was good for him to make them here in Rupp. But at the end of the day that I’ve just never been — I think I’ve told you guys this for last two months — I’ve never been in a space where the numbers don’t actually translate. It’s just time. It’s just it’s just time and reps, and he’s an elite-level shooter. So it just is time. That’s all it is. Sometimes it’s the first day and sometimes it’s the 60th day, but when you’re a really good shooter, you make shots. Like, our Noah (shooting system) numbers always translate into on-court performance. They always do. It’s never had an anomaly where it doesn’t. This is how it should be. I was kidding about the 8 for 10 every single night. Maybe every other night.

Q: Mark, obviously Otega’s 10 (assists) show a little bit, but you made the decision not to play Jaland Lowe today, and Jasper Johnson finished with seven assists. What did you like about what you saw from him?

Pope: I thought Jasper was good. Minus the first possession, where he was a little tentative, I thought he was really good for us, for getting downhill. Even the second half, he got downhill and maybe was a little bit too greedy with his opportunity to make plays with his teammates. Really fought the gap through three guys, but he was strong enough with the ball to win it and earn a foul. I thought Jasper was really good. I had a lot of confidence in him today on the offensive end. I think he actually made us with the zone where it just was mucky early, Jasper is the one that kind of made us feel like, ‘Oh, this is gonna be fun. Like, we’ll score against this.’ I felt like, both halves, against the zone, you know, the guys were 46 and 53 points each half. So it was pretty consistent, and I think a lot of that goes to Jasper. I really do.

Q: Between Dec. 20 and Jan. 3, this is the only game you have. You guys are on a little roll. Would you prefer that you had more games coming up, or is the break perfect because you’re working JQ and you can rest Jaland?

Pope: I think the break’s important for us. I think it’s really good for us right now. I’m really grateful for it. Mostly not so much for the guys, but mostly for Lee Anne. Like Lee Anne is so fed up with me right now, and I just need to be a better — I need to do a better job as a husband for a couple days. I’m gonna crush it. It’s gonna be amazing. Lee Anne has no idea what’s in store for her. But it’s also good for our guys right now. Listen, they’ve been through a lot emotionally for sure, and they’ve taken some hits and they’ve responded really, really well. I’m really proud of this group in the sense of how they responded over the last three weeks. We got better. We reoriented some things. We kind of found some new mentality, and I think we have enough of a base that is something that’s gonna filter through our guys over the course of the next 10 days, where we get to really, really get some work done on the practice floor and try and find, try and embrace what we have. But we have a little vision of what we can be in the short time. And I think we’re excited about it.

Q: Coach, playing the last nonconference game of the year, I think going into Tuscaloosa, Jan. 3, playing a very tough physical, you know, Alabama team, what did you kind of take away from this game kind of moving forward into the practice, and what’s that going to look like for you guys going forward?

Pope: I​ don’t know if I’m taking a lot from this one, but I do think our trend line is — I think we’re learning a lot about how to play with two bigs on the floor, about how to play with a little more physical, confrontational game. I think we’re finding a way to have our presence really felt on the glass in big-time games. And so those are areas where we’ve made some growth. I think guys are defining their own roles, which is really fun. It’s great to watch guys realize how they can be a contributor to a team. And so that’s good. I thought it was good that we got to get some guys minutes (who) maybe they haven’t been getting as many minutes tonight. So all those things were really positive, but we’re excited about what we have a chance to become.

Q: Coach, you kind of mentioned guys getting minutes, who didn’t really get a lot of minutes. You were doing some different things with your lineups today. Was that just seeing going forward, who can get in or go out?

Pope: Yeah, just kind of exploring. It was, it was complicated for us too, because they’re an undersized team, and their bigs really can shoot it and have great mobility. And so it was a little strenuous for us to to go with a big, big lineup. And so, you know, that kind of contributed to us nursing some lineups. But I think it was good for our team. I think it was actually a really positive experience for our guys. Sobering, but positive.

Q: Mark was today an indication you’re going to pick and choose when Lowe plays, or was he just sore from a tough weekend?

Pope: Yeah, so, he had a little bit of soreness, just a little bit of pain. So, we just made the calculated decision to (sit him). When he steps on the floor, I’d like him to be at full strength. I think that’s gonna be important for us going forward. I expect him to play every game, but this was just an opportunity for us to maybe let him heal up a little bit more, especially with a break coming up now for a few days. So we’re able to stack sometimes. There’s a big difference between 48 hours and 96 hours. Or 120 hours. And so we’re trying to just buy a little bit of extra time for him to try and heal fully.

Q: I know you guys collect a lot of data on JQ. Were you happy with how he came out after Saturday’s game, and then this next week and a half for him, how important is that going to be for him to get more up to speed. Just what specifically can he work on?

Pope: It’s a big week for him. You know, this is a weird game for him. This a weird matchup, weird vibe. Everything about it, weird. So I won’t take really anything from this game on him. But these practices, I can’t tell how excited we are about them, and it’s going to get give us a chance to really be grounded and really work and really kind of dig in and and kind of forge more of our identity with him in the lineup, with two bigs in the lineup with the kind of rotations that we were thinking about. So this practice time will be really valuable for us.

Q: Coach with the nonconference season now being over, what’s the main thing you’ve gleaned about your team during the nonconference portion?

Pope: I think our response has been good. I think our response to not being who we wanted to be, and I think our response has been good. And so it gives you confidence as a coach, when things don’t go right and guys respond the way you want them to in the long run. I think that’s pretty powerful. So I think it gives us high hopes moving forward as we move into this gauntlet SEC league play. Just can’t wait to get there.

Q: Mark, obviously, you got this break coming up, and I’m sure you’re sick and tired of being asked about injuries, but it looks like Brandon hurt his leg a little bit now, and he went out, didn’t really play much the second half. Are you just holding him out of precaution, or is there something you’re worried about?

Pope: I don’t know too many details, It’s a little tweak. It’s not serious. But B-Wells was like, ‘Hey, let’s, let’s hold him. We don’t have to have them today.’ Again, it was kind of this opportunity, this little window, where we had to stack some days together for guys to heal. And so it was really just precaution.

Q: Odd question: A lot of times Kam was open for a 3-pointer, a lot of times in the corner. What has to happen? Are there a number of things that have to happen with the other four teammates first, before that becomes so wide open?

Pope: Well, Bellarmine, to their credit, they were trying a bunch of different zones. And so sometimes it was just immediate, just because early on, we just were attacking with a high ball screen where they kind of had a two-guard front. And so we had a numbers game on the weak side. Then they brought a third guard to the front to try and manage that, and so we started attacking the corner. That was kind of a back-and-forth game. But mostly it’s just a credit to our bigs trying to have a presence inside, which was really complicated, size wise, and then Kam being an aggressive. It’s interesting, like on some simple action run, you just have to time up your hold in the corner, just so the zone has to honor it before you turn when an action begins, and you kind of get lost in the mix. And it was partly credit to our guys. We had a numbers game on the right side. Kam started in the left corner, ran to the right corner and Otega actually skipped Jasper, because Kam was feeling it — he already made three — and so it was probably Otega’s best turn of his career here. It was like a pop-rule turn. And so also the guys finding him. But the zone, I like the game plan for Bellarmine to kind of go in a zone and just see if he could be disruptive. I thought the guys responded really well on the offensive end today. Guys, Merry Christmas. Merry, Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas, OK? To all of BBN, Merry Christmas. Hope everybody has a wonderful holiday.

This story was originally published December 23, 2025 at 5:27 PM.