Mark Pope believes opportunity to play No. 1 Purdue at Rupp Arena is 'a gift' from NCAA

In a time when most coaches use their platforms to complain about the NCAA and big-picture decisions that are made to impact collegiate athletics, Mark Pope wants to give credit where it’s due: Kentucky being able to host No. 1 Purdue inside Rupp Arena is awesome.

Until now, exhibitions were approved through a waiver process with proceeds donated to a charity or conducted in private without official scoring, otherwise known as “secret scrimmages” with no fans or media. Then the Division I Men’s Basketball Oversight Committee announced back in January that teams could play up to two preseason exhibition games against any four-year school — including DI teams — starting ahead of the 2025-26 season.

Pope and the Wildcats responded by adding the top-ranked Boilermakers to the schedule, along with a follow-up exhibition battle against the Georgetown Hoyas. And don’t expect them to take the opportunity lightly — Kentucky is playing to win, whether the game counts or not.

“Yes. The answer is yes — especially with this group,” Pope said of his team balancing defensive work, sets and rotation-tweaking vs. winning the game. “This group is — they’re just hardwired that way. They’re going to try and win. They’re going to get mad at me because I’m going to — this is an incredibly, incredibly, incredibly important data collection moment for us, and it’s unbelievable that we get to do this against this Purdue team and Matt Painter.”

On paper, the Wildcats get to test themselves against All-American talent and arguably the best coach in basketball — certainly in Pope’s eyes. He gets to prepare a scout and game plan in late October for that, not a mid-major or NAIA program.

“If he’s not the best coach in college basketball, he’s got to be right up there in the top two or three or four right now. He’s incredible,” Pope said. “And what they’ve done recently with this group, you think about, how often do you get to go test yourselves before the season even starts with the lights on against a team that’s composed of three guys that have been to a national championship game and been to a Sweet 16? … They’ve experienced everything and they’ve been together and they’ve built such a great program.”

With that comes a responsibility, though. These opportunities don’t come around often, so for Kentucky, you have to make the most of it and learn from every second of those 40 minutes. Learn from and grow against the best of the best.

Oh, and go win. Prove you’re a national championship contender against a national championship contender — if not the favorite.

“For us to get this chance to go get this really in-depth look at who we are right now is a gift, right? And so we’re going to take full advantage of that while doing everything we can to win, but still not leave anything on the table in terms of learning about ourselves,” Pope said. “So there’s going to be all kind of push and pull and tug and everything else, but at the end of the day, these guys are hungry to win. Every time that — if we were playing checkers right now, there would be some uproar about who was winning and how they were winning and what they were doing as a competitive group.”

In most cases, this game — especially exhibition No. 1 — is about getting used to the fans and lights, maybe being on TV for the first time. You get to see the officials and media timeouts while getting a feel for the rotations and who works well together against someone other than yourself.

Winning or losing is an afterthought because the competition is, respectfully, so bad.

That won’t be the case Friday night.

“It’s awesome, actually. That’s why I’m so grateful for these games,” Pope said. “Normally, with these exhibition games, the best you’re probably getting out of it is getting your guys under the lights, in front of our fans, getting used to the arena, getting used to the regimen of the day, the emotion, getting all that stuff to a comfort level. ….

“It’s an unbelievable opportunity to go really see who we are at the very highest level. We’re not going to see who we are at a medium level. We get to go compare ourselves to the very, very best right now. It’s going to give us an incredible vision of how we have to grow. It’s a gift. I don’t think ever have I been more of a fan of an NCAA decision than this one. This is awesome.”

Couldn’t agree more — now go win it.