Mark Pope tests Kentucky's competitive fire with unique punishment: Losers do laundry

We’ve heard several tales about how competitive this Kentucky Basketball team is. From arguing over who should be atop the daily “winner’s board” at practice to breaking dining room chairs over dice games, this group refuses to lose at anything. This week, Mark Pope put that competitive fire to the test with a very unique punishment.

The NCAA requires teams to take 12 days off during their 42-day preseason practice period. Kentucky’s mandatory day off this week was Tuesday, so on Monday, Pope pushed his team extra hard. Whichever squad, Blue or White, lost in practice had to take over laundry duty for the team managers, a lengthy, tedious chore.

“We had a really, really hard practice, and it was incredibly competitive,” Pope said at today’s pre-Georgetown press conference. “We’re always looking for things to put on the line to even make it more competitive. And so what we did was, we were doing an underneath out-of-bounds game, Blue versus White versus Scout. And so it just came to me that this was the time to do it.

“So the penalty for the losing team, either Blue or White, was going to be that they, not the managers, had to do the laundry after practice, which is an ordeal. That’s a three-hour process, and it was going to be really good for our guys.”

Who was the unlucky squad? The White Team, thanks to graduate assistant Willis Mackey Jr., who got the best of Collin Chandler to secure the victory.

“At the end of our scout film, our prep film for today, we showed the video of when Willis Mackey, who’s one of our GAs, who’s an unbelievable player and a great human being who’s going to be a superstar coach, actually found a mismatch and made a quick against Collin Chandler — I’m sorry, Collin, I’m throwing you under the bus.

“And the gym went crazy. I had Mikhail McLean, Coach McLean, running around in circles like Jim Valvano, looking for someone to hug. And I had managers jumping up and down and crying and laughing and celebrating, and all of that comes back to the beautiful competitive nature of this team.”

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Plot Twist!

The problem? The White Team wiggled their way out of the punishment by having one player stay in the gym for a few extra hours to shoot.

“So, I’ll tell you the truth, so you guys can hold White accountable,” Pope said. “So, the White Team lost. They had to do the laundry. So, they started to go do the laundry, but one of their teammates stayed after for like two hours shooting, semi-on-purpose. And so, unbeknownst to me, our managers bailed them out.”

They’re not off the hook yet. Pope said that the reason the staff showed the video of Mackey’s shot in practice today is because, on Friday, “there’s gonna be a big payday.” I can’t wait to hear how Pope either rewards the managers or punishes the White Team. I also can’t wait to see this team use that competitive fire against another team, Georgetown, on Thursday night.

“This team has a competitive nature,” Pope said. “We have to foster it. We’ve got to grow it. We’ve got to cultivate it. But the heart of this team is to want to go compete. We have a little bit of grittiness to ourselves, and so if we can continue growing that throughout the season, that’s what this team is going to be remembered for, is this team just loves to walk into the gym and compete. It makes practice so much fun. It’s really beautiful.”

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