KSR GAMEDAY: Kentucky vs. St. John's -- and Mark Pope vs. Rick Pitino

When Mark Pope was going through his checklist of top talking points during his introductory press conference, one of the loudest Rupp Arena pops came when he discussed the possibility of putting Rick Pitino and the St. John’s Red Storm on the schedule — potentially to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the 1996 national championship team.

20 months later, the captain is taking on his former coach in Catlanta in the CBS Sports Classic. How about that for a full-circle moment?

It won’t be as warm and fuzzy as Pitino’s return for Pope’s very first Big Blue Madness as head coach, wearing blue and sporting a UK logo on his chest as the active head coach of an opposing high-profile Big East competitor. This time around, he’s going to try to beat his former player and school by a hundred while they try to do the same right back.

Pitino is 18-4 all-time when coaching former players and 1-0 against Pope during his time at Utah Valley. Is the second-year Kentucky coach ready for that pressure, juggling his respect for his old coach and just how much his Wildcats need to win this basketball game?

“I don’t think I’ll juggle them at all,” Pope said of balancing those emotions. “Like, we have one job, and only one job, and that’s to go win. And they’re not actually — all of my emotions towards Coach, they’re all focused in exactly the same direction. So I love him, and so we’re going to go try and beat him. And he’s one of the best all-time coaches in the history of college basketball, so we’re going to try and go beat him. And, I mean, it’s all the same. Like, it all kind of leads to the same end desire.”

Neither team is where they’d like to be at this point in the season with a combined seven losses and just two wins against Quad 1 competition ahead of conference play, but this afternoon could change quite a bit for both with a win.

Kentucky vs. St. John’s: How to Watch, Listen

• Tipoff: 12:30 p.m. ET
• TV: CBS (Brad Nessler, Bill Raftery, Bruce Pearl)
• Local Radio: UK Sports Network (Tom Leach, Goose Givens)
• AM: 840 WHAS, 630 WLAP
• FM: 98.1 WBUL
• Online: iHeart Radio
• Sirius XM: 106 or 190

You can also follow along on the KSR LIVE BLOG, which will start a few hours before tipoff, and join the conversation on KSBoard.

Join KSR Plus! With a KSR Plus membership, you get access to bonus content and KSBoard, KSR’s message board, to chat with fellow Cats fans and get exclusive scoop.

Mark Pope previews St. John’s

We know about the Pitino angle, but what else did Pope have to say about the Red Storm before heading down to Catlanta? Expect another gritty, gutsy back-and-forth against his former coach with St. John’s led by two big-time standouts in Bryce Hopkins (14.0 PPG) and Zuby Ejiofor (13.9 PPG).

“They play with great pace. They’re really, really physical,” Pope said. “It’s interesting. We’ve played some teams where their leading scorers are their four and five. They kind of lead the way for them, and certainly St. John’s is in that space. They’re going to take every opportunity they can to pressure and hack and foul and grab and scratch and claw. It’ll be a 94-foot game, for sure.”

Rick Pitino previews Kentucky

How does Pitino feel about taking on No. 41 after the two accomplished so much together in Lexington way back when? He wants to win, obviously, but in case he loses, he’d rather do it against someone he respects like Pope.

“If I lose, and I don’t know the guy really well, I’m totally pissed off,” he said leading up to the matchup. “If I lose to my son, if I lose to a close friend, if I lose to my ex-player, I give him a big hug, and I’m happy for him.”

Pope confirmed Pitino called him up after the Michigan State loss and told him to ‘get his act together.’ The latter dug deeper into what that meant ahead of the CBS Sports Classic.

“I called him up and I told him, ‘Listen, man, you’re beating yourself up in front of the media too much. Don’t ever show weakness to the media,’” he continued. “He’s got a great team, but it just takes time. He felt early on that they were a much better shooting team than they are, and he found out they’re not. So he’s made all the good adjustments, and now they’re a great rebounding team. His defense has improved immensely the last two weeks. You get to find out your blemishes against good talent.”

Red Storm open as slight favorites

What do the oddsmakers think of the Wildcats’ chances? According to our friends at BetMGM, St. John’s is a 3.5-point favorite to beat Kentucky in the CBS Sports Classic with the total set at 155.5 points, which averages out to a projected score of approximately 79-76.

That adds up with the computer numbers, too, with KenPom giving St. John’s a 53 percent chance to beat Kentucky with a projected final score of 78-77. BartTorvik isn’t too far off, either, giving the Red Storm a 61 percent chance to win with a final score of 79-76. How about some good UK mojo? ESPN Analytics is giving Pope’s squad a 51.5 percent chance to pull out the victory.

Jayden Quaintance plans to make Kentucky debut

This should change things somewhat. In fact, the line has already moved to St. John’s -1.5 as of this morning following the news.

Pope was in wait-and-see mode with Jayden Quaintance on Thursday, but following one final evaluation ahead of the team’s trip down to Atlanta on Friday, it was determined that the star forward is good to go against St. John’s — assuming all goes well leading up to tipoff — sources tell KSR.

Quaintance is nine months removed from surgery to repair a torn ACL following a dominant freshman campaign at Arizona State, averaging 9.4 points, 7.9 rebounds, 2.6 blocks, 1.5 assists and 1.1 steals in 29.7 minutes in year one. What does he have in year two as a Wildcat? We’re about to find out.

Kentucky WBB defeats Wright State

It’s a big weekend for the Kentucky Wildcats across all sports, starting with volleyball in the Final Four on Thursday, followed by Pope vs. Pitino on Saturday and the VB national championship on Sunday. Don’t let it slip through the cracks, though, that Kenny Brooks and the women’s basketball program took care of business on Friday, too, defeating Wright State 96-53 to move to 12-1 on the season ahead of SEC play.

Despite missing standout forward Teonni Key due to injury (day-to-day), the Wildcats still managed to shoot 44.6 percent from the field, 38.5 percent from three and 83.3 percent at the line to earn the 43-point victory in Lexington.

Clara Strack led the way with 26 points, seven rebounds, four blocks and three assists, followed by Tonie Morgan with 18 points, six assists and six rebounds, Kaelyn Carroll with 18 points, five rebounds and two steals and Asia Boone with 17 points and four assists.

Next up? A nine-day break for the holidays, next taking on Hofstra at HMC on Dec. 28 at 2 p.m. ET, live on SECN+.

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Let’s have a day, folks. Welcome to the show, JQ.