Mark Pope has a ‘secret ingredient’ baked into his first UK men’s hoops roster
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Mark Pope has constructed a Kentucky men’s basketball team that has a whopping 586 career college starts spread over its roster.
Pope’s first UK squad features nine players who have started at least 21 college hoops contests.
The 2024-25 Wildcats boast six super-seniors — using the “free COVID year” the NCAA offered to all athletes enrolled during the 2020-21 school year — who are playing college basketball for a fifth season.
Yet with all that, perhaps the biggest difference in the current iteration of Kentucky men’s basketball from the Wildcats’ freshman-centric recent past is this:
UK currently has multiple players who have already been a part of genuinely historic moments in men’s college hoops.
That was on vivid display Tuesday at Kentucky’s annual media day. With even a smidgen of historical hoops knowledge, one could traverse the men’s hoops practice court at the Joe Craft Center and get answers from various current Cats to questions such as:
1. What is it like to hit a game-winning shot in the Final Four?
“It was amazing. It was amazing,” Lamont Butler said with repetitive emphasis. “Probably one of the most special moments of my life.”
You will recall that there was one second showing on the playing clock when Butler, then a San Diego State standout, launched a jump shot with his Aztecs trailing Florida Atlantic 71-70 in the 2023 men’s NCAA Tournament national semifinals in Houston.
The final horn had already rung out in the NRG Stadium when Butler’s jumper ripped through the net to make SDSU a 72-71 winner in its first-ever Final Four game.
“Doing that for my family, my family was there in the crowd,” Butler recalled. “Doing it for the school. I felt more happy for everyone else than myself, actually. It was great. Just very grateful to get that moment.”
2. What is the impact when you are a player whose team pulls off one of the greatest upsets in the history of American sports?
New UK forward Ansley Almonor was a starter for Farleigh Dickinson in the 2023 NCAA Tournament round of 64 when the No. 16 seed Knights shocked No. 1 seed Purdue with a 63-58 upset.
It was, of course, only the second win in men’s NCAA tourney history for a No. 16 seed over a No. 1.
“It definitely changes you, especially confidence-wise,” Almonor said. “When you go into a game where virtually nobody in the world thinks you can win and you pull off the, basically, impossible, it makes you more confident as a player and a person. Being a part of that, it definitely did change me. Something I’ll never forget.”
3. What is it like to play a leading role in ending a long home-court win streak in one of the most venerable playing venues in college basketball?
Last Feb. 27, new Kentucky wing Jaxson Robinson had a team-high 18 points to lead his immediate-past team, BYU, to a come-from-behind 76-68 win over No. 7 Kansas at Allen Fieldhouse in Lawrence.
The BYU victory snapped a 19-game KU home win streak.
It was also the first time a top 10-rated Kansas team had lost at home to an unranked foe since 2018.
“That was probably my favorite game I have ever played basketball, honestly,” Robinson said.
Such a win “does give you confidence,” Robinson added. “You feel like it doesn’t necessarily matter who the competition is.”
That it is Kentucky, previously the longtime capital of the “one-and-done nation,” that now not only boasts a collection of veterans, but also players who have already left significant imprints on college basketball history is disorienting.
“It is definitely a little bit weird,” said UK freshman guard Travis Perry, the former Lyon County High School star. “It’s not your typical ‘Kentucky-basketball-looking team.’”
Even though the ending went flat, there was much to commend Kentucky basketball’s “one and done” period.
From John Wall to Anthony Davis; from Karl-Anthony Towns to Tyrese Maxey; and from Fox and Monk through Rob and Reed, John Calipari put an electric collection of talents into Kentucky blue and white.
For the coming season, UK does not appear to have even one player certain to hear his name called in the 2025 NBA draft.
What Kentucky does have is a deep collection of “good players” who have played a WHOLE LOT of college basketball. The ample experience levels of the teams that have won the past nine NCAA titles speak to the benefits that can be derived from a veteran roster.
Yet, on top of all that, having multiple players who carry the confidence that comes from having already been a part of genuinely historic college hoops moments could be the secret ingredient for Mark Pope’s first UK team.
This story was originally published October 10, 2024 at 6:30 AM.
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