Read everything Mark Pope said after Kentucky’s 92-68 rout of Mississippi State

The full transcript of Kentucky basketball coach Mark Pope’s news conference after the Wildcats beat Mississippi State 92-68 on Saturday night at Rupp Arena.

Mark Pope: All right, congrats to Mississippi State. They started the conference 2-0, with essentially the best defense in the conference, and really gutted it out, so they’ve had a great start, and that’s a terrific team. I’ve known Chris forever. He’s a great coach, and it was fun to have the ‘66 team here, those legends. It was really fun to have those guys in the gym. So fun to have them here. Really special to our guys. All of our players got to meet with those guys today at shootaround, those legends walking through the gym. So that was fun, and I’m proud of our guys’ effort. I thought they responded well when the game didn’t go our way early, and we’re excited to keep moving forward

. Q: Mark you guys fell behind early. Jaland (Lowe) gets hurt again. JQ’s not available. It’s like we’ve seen this story before, and then all of a sudden, did it click in because you did a 180. Is this something you’ve been waiting for all year? Did you change something

?Pope: Well, schematically, we kind of went to just moving more bodies on the floor, and kind of went to a little bit of a revamped spacing system. But I’ll be honest with you guys. You know, 21 assists is the most we’ve had against a high-major team, by five. And it just is amazing what happens when you pass the ball to your teammate a little bit. I was really proud of our guys. They were pretty agenda-driven. We had some guys step up and calm us down. I thought Malachi Moreno had an unbelievable night, like just a really incredible night against that incredible, really physical front line. I mean, you look at his line, he’s six assists, one turnover, four steals. We milked him in the post more than we ever had this season. And he really responded. He handled the double team. He was pretty good in one-on-one situations. He handled the short roll. I thought he was elite, and I thought he steadied us a little bit, and then Otegah made good plays. But I thought we had a bunch of guys – Kam came off the bench and was the most aggressive off the bounce that he’s been. So when you have guys do that, it helps for sure

Q: Mark, a lot of defensive lapses in the first few minutes. Seemed like a lot of miscommunication out there, and then it looked like a switch kind of flipped. What was the change there?

Pope: Well, it was a little bit personnel and kind of dialing into – it was just a new approach. I want to single out Mikhail McLean. This was his scout, and it was a different scout. We had a different defensive scheme than we’ve played all season long in multiple ways, and I’ve been pestering him for the last 72 hours. I called him late last night, early this morning, four or five different times, pestering him with questions. And he was like, ‘Coach, trust me, this is the way we need to play this game. This is how we need to do it.’ And so he did an unbelievable job coming up with (and) implementing a game plan for our guys, and we didn’t execute it very well the first five minutes. But we stuck with it, and the guys did much better as time went on. We moved our pickup point back a little bit. We got our bigs off the ball on the pickup as soon as the guard picked it up, and when we did that, and then our bottoms – with this team, you can really zone them up, and they didn’t understand exactly what that was gonna feel like in the context of this game, but they grew into it. So those three pieces came together much better in the last 35 minutes than they did in the first five. And we never actually went away from it. I was so worried about this. We had backup. We had backup plan B, C and D, and we never went away to them. It’s hard as an assistant coach to have the confidence and the courage to take a stand and stay with your conviction. And a huge kudos to Mikhail. Just an unbelievable job on this game.

Q: You had your starting lineup out there minus Jaland, who you subbed for, Kam Williams, and you kind of road that unit for a little bit. Even when Mississippi State got back within one you trusted them to kind of overcome that. And they really did help set the tone for what would go on to be a blowout. What can you say about that group and how they responded?

Pope: I thought they were good. We’re -- I don’t know how long we were -- two minutes and 47 seconds into the game. and the game started poorly, and then we’re missing our point guard again. So there’s some weirdness in the dynamics there. But I thought those guys responded well. I thought DA was really good. He’s put up bigger numbers in a couple games against high majors, but this was his most solid outing where the game really made sense, and it made sense with his team. So I thought he responded well. Like I said, I thought Kam and Otegah andMalachi were special. Thought AJ gave us good minutes off the bench, too

Q: Coach, two questions. First question, do you have an update on Jaland? And then the next question is, I asked you after the Alabama game about Kam’s playing time, and you said he has to make the most of the minutes he’s getting. What’s shifted for him? Because it seemed like last game and tonight, he really took advantage of the opportunities he received.

Pope: Yeah. I was proud of him tonight. For me, the marker with him is, he’s so explosive and long and effective downhill. And when I see him getting downhill, I’m like, ‘The world is good.’ And it’s a part of his game he’s growing into. His confidence is growing in that area, and his ability to see the opportunities he has is growing. And it’s really important, because that’s gonna round out his offensive game so much. And this was the best game he’s had that way. So I’m proud of his progress. He’s doing a terrific job. So Jaland, we’ll know more tomorrow. He just tweaked his shoulder. And so we’ll kind of see how it responds in the morning and we’ll see where we are with that.

Q: Coach, forgetting the the wins and losses and all the other noise. Is there anything you’re seeing, or your team is seeing with the process metrics or data that shows you this team is really going in the right direction, even if it’s a little bit at a time?

Pope: Missouri was such a disaster. But for example, it was a 105 offensive efficiency, which is the best we’ve had, really against a high-major team since Louisville. And then tonight, I know the numbers are going to be significantly better than that. So, so we’re making some progress understanding each other a little bit. I thought our guys’ attention to the scout, and the build of the scout was really good. I think that’s positive. The 21 assists is, like I said, it’s our high-major record by a lot. And then to be a 21-nine (turnover) was really important for us tonight. I thought our guys did a terrific job there, and it’s a space where we need to grow. You know, it helps when you make shots, but I think you make shots when you pass your teammate the ball. And so for us to shoot at 41% and 55% clearly that helps a lot, but I think that’s a residual of, like, dialing in on that defensive end so you buy yourself some good opportunities and really working hard to make plays for your teammate. It’s such a simple concept, but to actually put it to work is hard. So tonight, the guys were excellent doing that for 34 minutes, and we need to carry that on. It’s fun to play the game that way, and it’s something where we’re going to learn and grab on to and it’ll make us a better team.

Q: Mark, just to follow up on Jaland for a quick second, this obviously isn’t the first time that he’s reaggravated that right shoulder during this season. I know you don’t have all the information yet, but as you continue to think about the future of this season, how much consideration you give to maybe even shutting him down for a few games versus the rest of the season, and just what does that process of decision making look like for you guys as you try to find a rhythm and do what’s best for him?

Pope: Yeah, I think all options are on the table. He’ll meet with the doctors tonight, and then we’ll have some (information). It’s always the next morning. You kind of get a little bit more data, information, just from how it responds and I think we’ll start the process of making an educated decision. It could be no games, it could be a few games, it could be all the games,. It could be any of those things. These guys have great futures in basketball, but they’re dying to play right now. And so there’s just a balance, right? You want to protect their future, but you don’t want to steal their present from them. So we’ll go through that conversation. We have the best performance team in the world, so they’ll help give great advice . Q: Mark following up on Malachi’s performance, what does it say just about him and his mindset that you’re down 12, you’re starting to see some body language out there, the crowd’s grumbling. A freshman is able to kind of lift you guys out of that.

Pope: I thought it was a special night for Malachi. I thought this was his best performance all season by far. And it was a time where we really needed him to be great, and he knew that the team needed him to be great. I think he’s getting more and more comfortable. I think we put the ball in his hands deliberately more than we have, and we’ll find different ways to do that also, but the way we’re playing – he also had more space to operate. I mean, frankly, just with the way we played tonight, he had a little more space to operate. So all those things work together. But Malachi is a leader. He was a leader in his high school, on the court and off the court. He will grow into a great leader here, and he certainly was a great leader on the court tonight.

Q: Mark, you mentioned DA. It didn’t seem like the ball was sticking as much tonight when he was running point. And I assume that was a point of -- something you all worked on in practice?

Pope: Yeah, we’re working on it. And it’s fun. I mean, it’s unbelievable how fun this game can be when you play it with your team. It just is unbelievable how fun and inspiring and contagious it can be. Like, it’s contagious. We’ve seen that in runs when we’re getting out in transition, and guys kind of fall in love with making plays for each other. We just haven’t seen it very much in the halfcourt. And guys did a terrific job against a team that’s held both their opponents on the road and at home in the first two games under a 90 offensive efficiency. I’m pretty sure that’s the best defensive marker. I’m pretty sure – I’m sure that’s the best defensive marker in the league, I think, to start the year. So I thought DA was really good tonight, just making the team function. That’s a new space for him that he’s trying to grow into, and I was proud of him tonight. Also, Jasper Johnson I thought was terrific off the bench. I thought Jasper, I thought he was great. I thought this was his best high-major game making sense of the game. I thought he was really good. And so he’s gonna have to step up, maybe here, and carry some significant minutes, and this was a really good sign for him. These young guys grow, man, and he’s been really hungry and working hard, and I expect that he’ll continue to grow. But he had a really good night for us tonight. Q: It seemed like there’s so many things you can take away from the night that were positives for the team, but just kind of in the immediacy of it, what is it that you walk away happiest about, obviously other than getting the win?

Pope: It’s the 21. It’s the 21. Like, the 21-9. I mean, that’s what our teams have always been. I’m happy with the 21-9, very much. I’m actually really grateful for the disastrous start, because it gave the guys another chance to prove that they can be resilient and tough and strong and do it. So I’m really pleased with those two things most

. Q: Hey, coach, just wanted to ask, it seemed like after that slow start, you guys kind of pushed the tempo tonight and kind of created your own pace. Just talk about that a little bit.

Pope: Well, Mississippi State was really pressuring. So they were not, -- you know, we expected that they would be a little bit more zoned up, but they weren’t. Their guards were out. As we’re kind of running our flow action, they were like, bodying up the corner, staying with their own, fighting through screens, were really, really physical. And so you know what we did as the game wore on is we started finishing hard cuts better, right? But it does open up some space for us if you can take advantage of it. And we didn’t do that well early, but I think we did it well late, and I thought our guys performed well that way.