Mark Pope hasn’t been shy about Kentucky‘s goal entering postseason play, starting with the SEC Tournament in Nashville. It’s the same message he shared during his introductory press conference in April, then the same one he shared ahead of the regular season finale at Missouri — a big-time road victory to tie the all-time record for most top-15 wins in college basketball history.
This SEC Tournament matters,” Pope said last week. “It’s the best league maybe that’s ever been in any year of college basketball, and this SEC matters. So, we’re heading to Nashville with all of our successes and confidence and warts and holes that we got to plug and we’re going there with one goal, which is to go win.”
When asked about the team’s trip to NashVegas on Monday — he actually asked Big Blue Nation to come up with a better nickname than that, so start workshopping one for this week — he made it clear they’re not backing down from those expectations.
If you’re going to play in the best league in the history of the sport, why not bring home the hardware to make it worth your while? Some coaches say they ‘don’t care about the conference tournament’ — and you know exactly who they are.
Not this Kentucky coach.
“We’re going to win. That’s why we’re going down there,” Pope said during his call-in radio show Monday night. “And that doesn’t guarantee us the win, but we’re very clear on that objective, and we understand how important this is and what it means to BBN and what it means to our guys. So we’re going to go chase it as hard as we can. It’s going to be a challenge from the get go. This league is so fantastic, but why would you want anything less?”
How are the Wildcats preparing for such a tournament, one featuring as many as 13 NCAA Tournament teams, according to the latest Bracketology? The Kentucky coaching staff is actually preparing not one, not two, but three scouting reports to get the team ready to roll in Nashville
It’s actually busier than ever. We’re doing three scouts,” Pope said. “We’re doing a pretty intensive self-scout right now and we’re doing a scout on both Oklahoma and Georgia. So it’s like three times the work. Luckily, we have a couple extra days to fill it in and it’s fun.”
That’s why you do what you do, why you take on this job. It’s hard and exhausting, but the reward is something you could never buy. It’s a fulfilling reward just four wins away, starting Thursday night in Nashville.
And then from there, it’ll be six wins away from hanging banner No. 9 — the assignment from day one. That opportunity is something this team is not taking for granted.
“This is the best time of year. It just is,” Pope said. “It’s when magic things happen, so we’re really excited to kind of get started.”
