WATCH: Mark Pope, Kentucky players talk season-opening win over Nicholls

It was a tale of two halves for Kentucky in Tuesday night’s season-opening win over Nicholls, but the result was still a 77-51 win for the Wildcats.

Kentucky struggled heavily with shooting the ball in the first half, but responded in the second half with a 61 percent clip as a team. The defense was stout throughout, though, holding Nicholls to just 15 first-half points and a combined 30 percent shooting clip from the field. Four Wildcats scored in double-figures as Kentucky opened the 2025-26 season with a 1-0 record.

After the action, head coach Mark Pope took the podium to discuss the victory. He touched on the impressive play of Denzel Aberdeen, provided an injury update on Trent Noah, praised Collin Chandler‘s highlight dunk, what went wrong for the offense in the first half (plus what went right for the defense), and plenty more.

You can hear everything Pope had to say during his postgame press conference in the video below, along with additional postgame thoughts from Aberdeen, Chandler, and Mo Dioubate.

MARK POPE

COLLIN CHANDLER, MO DIOUBATE, DENZEL ABERDEEN

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