Mark Pope asked UK fans for questions. He gave some interesting answers
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- UK basketball coach Mark Pope has been answering social media questions from fans.
- Pope’s responses have addressed topics such as recruiting and roster construction.
- Kentucky currently has 12 players in place for the 2026-27 season.
Mark Pope is taking a distinct approach this offseason to communicating with members of Big Blue Nation.
On Tuesday night, Pope posted a call-to-action video on his X page. He asked Kentucky fans to submit questions for him to answer.
As you could imagine, feedback was plentiful.
More than 2,600 comments were posted to Pope’s video on X alone, and the UK coach said there were 5,000 questions submitted between that platform and Instagram. The questions posed to Pope ranged from inquires about UK’s roster construction process to comments related to specific players who are set for big roles on next season’s team.
Pope posted video responses both Wednesday and Thursday to some of the questions.
While not all the questions were of the hard-hitting variety — at one point Pope responded to an invitation to attend a fan’s wedding — several of Pope’s responses contained substantive remarks.
Here’s what Pope had to say about a variety of Kentucky basketball topics.
Mark Pope talks about UK’s high school, transfer portal recruiting
Pope tackled some of the meatiest subjects right from the start of his Wednesday video.
He responded affirmatively to a question asking if UK is being used as leverage by players to secure more money when pursuing college options.
“Yes, we’re the biggest brand in basketball,” Pope said.
Pope followed that up by fielding a question about Kentucky’s recruiting woes with the 2026 high school class. The Cats missed on all of their highly-ranked targets from the high school senior group.
Kentucky’s only two commitments from the 2026 recruiting class are four-star point guard Mason Williams, who is a son of new assistant coach Mo Williams, and Zyon Hawthorne, an unranked guard who is a younger brother of freshman forward Braydon Hawthorne.
UK made runs at a number of top prospects in the 2026 class with no success. Notable misses included top-ranked prospect Tyran Stokes (Kansas), Jordan Smith Jr. (Arkansas), Caleb Holt (Arizona), Jason Crowe Jr. (Missouri), Anthony Thompson (Ohio State), Christian Collins (Southern California), Deron Rippey Jr. (Duke), Taylen Kinney (Kansas), Bryson Howard (Duke) and Obinna Ekezie Jr. (Louisville).
Pope was asked about the disconnect between hosting top-ranked high school recruits on visits to UK only for those players to not commit to the Cats.
Pope began his response by stating he would like to get every top prospect to come to Lexington for a visit, and that he’d like to “land a few” high-level recruits.
“This year we were chasing a generational talent, and we fell a little short,” Pope said, referencing UK’s unsuccessful recruitment of Stokes. “But we weren’t sitting on our hands. We’ve put together a roster that we are going to love watching crush it in Rupp Arena.”
Mark Pope discusses UK’s plans at center
In response to a question about UK’s plans at center, Pope said retaining 7-foot freshman big Malachi Moreno was the focal point of the offseason for the Cats.
“Malachi Moreno was the number one priority for us going into this portal season,” Pope said. “We think that he’s going to be the best center in all of college basketball next year here at Kentucky.”
Moreno has announced that he is going through the NBA draft process and will play for Kentucky next season if he returns to college basketball. Moreno has until May 27 to withdraw from the draft and maintain his NCAA eligibility. Next week, Moreno will be attending the NBA Draft Combine in Chicago.
“We’re supporting him every step of the way,” Pope said. “This is the place where basketball dreams come true, and Malachi has two dreams: He’s dreaming of hanging a banner at Kentucky, and he’s dreaming of playing in the NBA. And so we’re supporting him chasing both of those.”
Pope added that Kentucky is still working in the transfer portal to add players at center.
Kentucky’s 12 projected players for the 2026-27 campaign include just one player, Moreno, who is listed as a center.
UK’s expected frontcourt for next season also consists of forwards junior Trent Noah (a 6-5 returnee), senior Justin McBride (a 6-7 transfer from James Madison), freshman Braydon Hawthorne (a 6-8 returnee who redshirted this past season), Ousmane N’Diaye (a 6-11 international newcomer from Senegal) and junior Reece Potter (a 7-1 returnee who also redshirted this past season).
Mark Pope talks additions of Zoom Diallo, Alex Wilkins
Kentucky has added four players from the transfer portal so far this offseason.
While UK has officially announced the additions of Zoom Diallo, McBride, Jerone Morton and Alex Wilkins for next season’s team, none of Kentucky’s news releases about those players included quotes from Pope.
So when Pope addressed the additions of Diallo, a 6-4 rising junior guard from Washington, and Wilkins, a 6-5 rising sophomore guard from Furman, in his video, it represented Pope’s first public comments about either player.
“One of the top priorities for us going into the portal was finding creators, and these are two of the elite creators in all of college basketball,” Pope said of Diallo and Wilkins. “They’re going to form a dynamic duo for Kentucky basketball. They are both over 30% assist rate... This is going to be awesome.”
Mark Pope explains Kentucky’s process for identifying international players
Pope has brought in two international players from overseas in his three offseasons as Kentucky’s coach.
The first was Andrija Jelavic in 2025. He averaged 5.5 points and 4.0 rebounds for the Cats while emerging as a starter during SEC play, before transferring to Ohio State this offseason.
The second is N’Diaye, who is from Senegal but has played internationally in Germany, Italy and Spain.
Pope was asked about the process that he and his coaching staff use to scout international players and specifically how those players will adapt to the SEC.
“We go by film, we go by analytics, we go by league... We evaluate age and trajectory,” Pope said. “We have innumerable contacts in the (United) States, in the NBA and in EuroLeague that we can go to for references to get feedback on players. And then most importantly when we can, we need to go see guys... Laying eyes on guys can be the difference maker.”
Pope was also asked specifically about N’Diaye, who has averaged 9.8 points and 6.8 rebounds in 28 games this season with Vanoli Cremona in the top division of Italian basketball. Pope emphasized the size and length that N’Diaye offers on the court.
Is Kam Williams ready to take a step forward for UK basketball?
One of the bright spots toward the end of the 2025-26 season for Kentucky was the return of wing Kam Williams.
After suffering a broken left foot in January and missing seven weeks, Williams returned for the Cats at the start of the SEC Tournament. While he only played 66 combined minutes across Kentucky’s five postseason games, the 6-8 Williams brings an important dimension to the floor as a 3-point shooting threat on offense and as a rangy defender.
Pope was asked if Williams is ready to make the jump to being a regular starter for Kentucky.
Pope said Williams is ready for that challenge, specifically highlighting his defensive statistics and plus-minus numbers from the 24 games he played for the Cats this past season.
Williams was listed at 205 pounds on UK’s 2025-26 roster, but he’s since bulked up to 210 pounds, Pope said, noting that Williams texted him a photo of a scale showing that weight.
