Mark Pope, Pat Kelsey poke fun at rumored fight between coaches

In September, reports surfaced claiming Kentucky‘s Mark Pope and Louisville‘s Pat Kelsey had a heated verbal dispute at four-star recruit Taylen Kinney‘s home. Both coaches reportedly traveled to Atlanta to visit Kinney as soon as the in-person visit period opened at midnight.

Pope had the midnight slot but, when he was a several minutes late to the visit, Kelsey went ahead and met with Kinney. When Kelsey and his assistants came out of Kinney’s residence, Pope reportedly was upset that the Louisville staff had entered the home during his scheduled time.

The pair reportedly exchanged some choice words before going their separate ways. At Kentucky men’s basketball media day on Monday, Pope opened up for the first time on the reported altercation.

“I want so badly to have fun with this, guys,” Pope said. “I’m not sure what direction to go with it. I do know because all of it, I’m just gonna make all of it up. It was really a big nothing. But like, I want it to be something. I can’t decide if I should make up a story or not. Listen, the beauty of this deal is the rivalries.

“I love when the competition is elite level, and that’s what happens. It gets really fun and salty and competitive… We’re at a fun time right now, where there are great coaches that are putting their whole heart and soul into this project. And sometimes, that could spill over, and it should spill over sometimes because if it never spills over, that means you’re not fully, fully in it with your whole heart and soul.”

Pope and Kelsey are each entering their second season at their respective schools. Kentucky got the best of the Cardinals last season, winning 93-85 in Rupp Arena. The Wildcats will visit Louisville on Nov. 11 in the upcoming season.

Pope isn’t the only one who attempted to downplay the altercation that occurred in September. At a luncheon in Louisville on Sept. 25, Kelsey jokingly addressed the rumors.

“The dream was that this was a UFC fight,” Kelsey joked. “Dana White, President of the UFC, is here. This place is packed just like this with 1,000 people. I get there and look up (weird dream) and the headliner event, the main bout, is Kelsey vs. Pope. So you see stuff on social media and stuff like that. That dude’s a competitor and I’m a competitor.

“He’s the head coach at one of the best programs in the country and so am I. We compete on the court, recruiting and we go at it. But you know what, we really respect each other. I think Mark Pope is one of the finest human beings in coaching. World-class father and world-class husband and I still wanna tear his face off when we play them.”