On Friday, Mark Pope was requested what his reminiscences of the Kentucky vs. Louisville rivalry are and gave a easy reply: “profitable.” Turns out it goes just a little deeper than that. Upon additional evaluate Friday night time, Pope remembered that he really misplaced to the Cardinals in his first season as a Wildcat, which prompted a panic assault.
“You guys know I’ve a horrible reminiscence. I really was with Lee Anne yesterday, and it was final night time as we’re sitting there making an attempt to determine, ? So I regarded up the 2 video games that I really performed in, and the sport my junior yr, we misplaced by two at Louisville. And once I noticed it, I used to be like, wait, what?”
It’s true. Kentucky misplaced to Louisville 88-86 in Freedom Hall on Jan. 1, 1995, with Pope scoring 9 factors on 4-10 from the ground, 1-2 from the free-throw line. He additionally had a team-high 10 rebounds, however none of that mattered on the bus trip again to Lexington.
“And then I keep in mind, I promise you, I keep in mind now it was like, locked away. The bus trip house from Louisville, I used to be in a full-on, like, teary-eyed sweat final night time. I had blocked it out of my reminiscence and rapidly, all of it got here dashing again. I imply, I’m beginning to sweat proper now. You get locked within the bus with Coach [Pitino] for an hour and a half after a two-point loss towards Louisville? Holy. I wouldn’t want that on any of you really. I guess solely half of you guys would come out alive, I child you not.”
Kentucky gained in Pope’s senior season 89-66, however one thing tells me it didn’t do a lot to take the sting off that loss the earlier season. Hopefully, tonight’s 93-85 win over the Cards, his first as Kentucky’s head coach, did.
Pope on the Kentucky Legends video
This morning, Kentucky launched a video wherein 15 former gamers learn letters they wrote to the 15 present gamers concerning the Louiville rivalry. Each of the previous Cats featured had massive moments towards the Cards and had been wanting to cross the information on to the brand new guys. As a fan, it was emotional sufficient listening to Ramel Bradley, Kenny “Sky” Walker, Tayshaun Prince, Willie Cauley-Stein, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, Dominique Hawkins, John Pelphrey, Travis Ford, Darius Miller, Patrick Sparks, Tony Delk, Deron Feldhaus and Jim Master speak concerning the rivalry. I can solely think about what it was like as a participant.
After sharing his personal Louisville reminiscences, Pope gave a shoutout to Kentucky’s employees for placing the video collectively. As he stated, it’s the very best testomony to what the rivalry means.
“Nathan Schwake, Jake Most, and Billy Toombs and our media and alumni staff did one thing actually cool that I believed was so particular,” Pope stated. “They discovered 15 gamers, former gamers, and so they had them every write a letter to our 15 present gamers about what this sport means to them and that in all probability says it higher than I ever might.
“If you haven’t seen it, check out it. It’s actually particular to our guys, and I feel it’s what Kentucky basketball is, man. It’s technology after technology being linked and understanding what it means. But these letters, I’ve received a duplicate of every of them on my desk. They’re actually, actually particular to me, and I feel they’re particular to our guys. And a while, 5, 10, 15, 20 years from now, our guys are going to be writing letters to the following technology of gamers, and holding this connection going. And that’s actually particular. It’s tremendous cool.”
You can watch the gamers learn their particular person letters from the previous Cats right here. Sounds like a good way to rejoice one other massive win over the Cards.
