What Mark Pope is searching for in his first season as UK coach is a beautiful thing
Kentucky basketball drops the curtain Monday on the Mark Pope era, and you may think the key to a successful first season is talent level, or team chemistry, or 3-point shooting or lock-down defense.
While all those matter, what truly matters when it comes to the Cats is this: Karma.
No, not John Lennon’s “Instant Karma!” is going to get you, or bad karma, or Karma Gifts, or Karma Nuts or even the Taylor Swift song, featuring Ice Spice, titled “Karma.”
We’re talking basketball karma.
After Kentucky’s 98-67 exhibition victory over Minnesota State on Tuesday, Pope was answering a question about his team’s offensive approach when, in the course of his answer, he mentioned, “The karma of this game matters. It is wildly important.”
So I asked him to explain and expound:
“You guys have all been around the system. BBN knows this game. We know this game,” the coach said. “We know what it feels like when there’s penetration and then you come to two feet and there is a kick and extra pass and extra pass and you follow the ball and you know where it’s going to end up.
“You know it’s going to end up in the corner because everybody made the right play. You know that ball is going in. And it goes in at some ridiculous, insane percentage of the time. And that’s the karma of the game.”
I love that. In fact, I can’t tell you how much I love that.
Yes, soccer is known as “The Beautiful Game” but, when executed correctly, there is a definite beauty to basketball, be it through player movement or passing or shooting or even defending with intensity.
You’ll hear basketball coaches say, “we need to be more physical” or “we need to match their physicality.” And there is a definite physical element to the game. You don’t want to get pushed around. But, to me, what makes basketball a joy to watch has little to do with which team can beat up on the other team.
I think back to that San Antonio Spurs team that defeated the Miami Heat in the 2014 NBA Finals. Coached by Gregg Popovich, led by Tim Duncan, Kawhi Leonard, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili, the Spurs put on a clinic in passing, ball movement and unselfishness.
ESPN’s Jackie MacMullan wrote of the Spurs’ 41-point first quarter and 71-point first half in Game 3 that led to a 111-92 win over the Heat: “Here, too, something extraordinary was unfolding, yet it was remarkable for the acts not of a player but a team, one that had melded together to create a lyrical, mesmerizing stretch of basketball that was astonishing in both its elegance and its efficiency — the opening burst of a three-game stretch of arguably the greatest basketball ever played.”
That’s the way Pope wants his team to play.
“When you play this game right, the game rewards you,” Pope said. “It’s a living, breathing thing and it’s really special. It’s partly because our guys know it. You can feel it when you’re playing and you’re on the floor and the ball is going right. The rare occasion you end up missing that shot, if you’re playing right, you end up getting the offensive rebound. That’s just the way this game is for the most part. I can give you 100 examples of karma, how it works, but when you play it right it honors you.”
Can Pope’s first Kentucky team honor the game? It has the ingredients. For starters, it may be the most experienced team in UK’s storied history. In its two exhibition games, it showed the unselfishness required to record 60 assists on 85 made baskets. It did so while making 34 of 79 3-point shots.
“How you earn those shots matter,” said Pope after the Minnesota State game. “The karma of this game matters.”
And if you honor the game, the game will honor you. And if Kentucky plays that way in Mark Pope’s first season, it will truly be a beautiful thing.
This story was originally published November 1, 2024 at 7:00 AM.
