Mark Pope's KSR debut was a hit with the listeners. Here are 5 takeaways from the conversation.

DrewFranklinKSR

Earlier today, the head coach of Kentucky Basketball was a guest on Kentucky Sports Radio. There’s a sentence I haven’t written in a while, so it was refreshing to hear from the man in charge of the Wildcats for the first time since the 2020-21 season. If you missed it, a replay of the conversation is available at the beginning of the second hour of today’s podcast.

Mark Pope was initially scheduled to join the show last Friday but asked to postpone because he hopped on a last-minute flight out West to secure a commitment from Lamont Butler, the first of Kentucky’s three commitments in three days. KSR is a players-first program, so we happily agreed on the makeup date while Pope added to his first UK roster, which is up to six players since the weekend. Not bad for a staff that has been together for only 72 hours, as Pope noted in his first comments to the show.

Pope told KSR he loves his new staff of Cody Feuger, Jason Hart, Alvin Brooks III, and Mark Fox, calling them his most “eclectic” staff as a head coach. “I think guys are not just bringing unique strengths and unique dimensions to the staff, but also bringing it from wildly different categories. I think the breadth of what we have on the staff has got me super excited,” Pope said.

From there, Matt Jones asked Pope about potential roster additions, scheduling updates, managing expectations, and how he felt walking out of the bus onto Rupp Arena’s floor a couple of Sundays ago. Pope welcomed all topics in the 20-minute conversation, telling Matt he was ready to “get into the weeds” of Kentucky Basketball with KSR and its listeners. The feedback from the conversation has been all positive, and I will now share my takeaways from the show with KSR’s readers.

UK needs to get that wheel fixed

I have plenty to say about Mark Pope’s call into KSR, but if I were limited to one takeaway, it would be the broken wheel on the staff’s recruiting board. So, I’ll start there.

Fix it.

The gold standard of college basketball cannot be using a three-legged whiteboard to build the most important roster in school history, as Pope confessed to KSR in describing the behind-the-scenes of roster construction. “It’s driving me crazy,” Pope said of the lopsided board that won’t roll around the office.

If he were to set that thing outside the Joe Craft Center right now, the Big Blue Nation would have that wheel changed faster than a NASCAR pit crew, but Pope is pushing to take operations digital as he and the staff navigate the transfer portal and look to fill out the remaining pieces on the roster.

Still, somebody get that wheel fixed.

We don’t know the half of it

Many in BBN were losing their minds last week before Pope and Co. added three talented transfers to the roster. For some fans, panic ensued as each new player left the portal for somewhere other than Lexington, Kentucky, making them wonder who’s left for the Wildcats’ roster in 2023-24.

On Monday, Pope shared with KSR that Kentucky’s big board (the one with the flat tire) currently lists 29 potential targets, much more than the outside world can name. I also found it interesting when Pope said he would soon take a “surgical pause” to complete UK’s staff and evaluate the roster, leaving some spots open for players testing the NBA waters.

“We’re talking to a bunch of players in that category,” Pope added. He and the staff keep those names and others internal to help their odds of landing some of them.

[More: Mark Pope says there are 29 targets on Kentucky’s Big Board (which needs a new wheel)]

[More: Recruiting elite high school talent is ‘100 percent’ a priority for Mark Pope]

The other phone ringing

Another fun moment in KSR’s conversation with Mark Pope was when his phone rang while he was on another phone with KSR. Matt offered to cut the interview short in case an important recruit was on the other line, but Pope passed the call off to an assistant and stayed on the air. His juggling of two phones at once was a real-time example of his chaotic life right now.

Pope remained on the line with KSR to continue promoting Club Blue, the UK-endorsed NIL collective that supports Kentucky Basketball. Pope said, “What we’re talking about is the most important thing. Listen, Club Blue is real. This is the focal point of our whole NIL life right now. We have some amazing people helping to run this. There is no overhead with this program. 100% of the money goes exactly where we want it to go.”

Club Blue has a special meet-and-greet event for its members that is coming up in June.

[More: Meet Mark Pope and the Cats on June 15 with Club Blue: “This is the focal point of our NIL life”]

No new opponents on the 2024-25 schedule… yet

With Pope speaking so freely about his operations, Matt Jones tried to get confirmation that Kentucky will add Rick Pitino and St. John’s to the 2024-25 schedule, as Pope teased in his introductory press conference. However, Pope has been so busy building his first coaching staff and roster that he has yet to have time to discuss next season’s schedule.

Pope said that UK will have its first internal meeting about the 2024-25 schedule tomorrow before joking that he may phone KSR into the meeting live on the air during Tuesday’s show.

It’s nice to hear from the head coach again

In my introduction, I joked about how long it had been since the head coach of Kentucky Basketball appeared on KSR’s airwaves. We won’t look in the rearview mirror toward the last relationship, but I do want to express how fun it was to have Pope talk to KSR and its listeners again, and I hope he will continue to call in whenever his schedule allows occasionally. I hope he will be a guest on the many other shows, too, because the Big Blue Nation loves to hear Pope’s passion for the job and everything that comes with it as everyone looks forward to the new era.

Today, Pope could only spare time to answer a handful of questions by phone. Still, he captivated the audience with details of the process, mixed with playful jokes about broken whiteboards and Ryan Lemond. With Pope, there is a strong appreciation for the fans that had been missing lately, too. He says “all of us together” a lot, and that’s gone a long way in his early days on the job.

Again, we’ve missed that banter on KSR, and we’re grateful for Pope’s time and comments on today’s show.