“It was terrifying but turned out to be a real blessing”: Mark Pope highlights the strengths of the current Kentucky roster he ‘feels great’ about

By Rishabh

Modified May 14, 2024 21:56 GMT

Mark Pope talks about his current Kentucky's roster

Former BYU coach Mark Pope has had a busy month since being named the coach of Kentucky Wildcats, days after John Calipari surprisingly announced his decision to join Arkansas to start a new chapter in his life. Up first was a recruiting sprint focused on landing transfers.

"It was terrifying, but it actually turned out to be a real blessing that we got to start from scratch here," Pope said on "College Hoops Today with John Rothstein" on Monday. "We got to handpick guys that fit perfectly into the way that we play. I feel great about our roster right now.

"We have a couple of really, really important pieces that we still have to fit in. We're at 10 scholarships right now. I have two really, really important pieces that I have to add."

When Mark Pope arrived in Kentucky, he found himself in a position where he had to build a roster from scratch. Five Wildcats followed Calipari to Arkansas. Meanwhile, other key players like Reed Sheppard, Rob Dillingham and Justin Edwards, declared for the NBA draft.

Travis Perry was the last from the 2024 recruiting class who didn't decommit from Kentucky. However, Mark Pope has been able to secure seven players in the past few weeks.

Amari Williams, a 6-foot-11 big man, was the first player to be added by Mark Pope from the transfer portal. He was a three-time Colonial Athletic Conference Defensive Player of the Year for Drexel.

Guard Lamont Butler, a two-time Moutain West Defensive Player of the Year, led San Diego State to the NCAA championship game against UConn in the 2023 March Madness. He averaged 9.3 points, 2.6 rebounds and 3.0 assists per game in 2023-24.

Another big signing was Kerr Kriisa, who played his three seasons with the Arizona Wildcats. He is a big-game player known for his shooting skills after averaging 42.4% of his 3-pointer attempts in 2023-24.

Kentucky also added forward Andrew Car from Wake Forest, center Brandon Garrison from Oklahoma State and guard Koby Brea from Dayton.

The Wildcats also signed four-star recruit Trent Noah from Harlan County.

Mark Pope humorously described what his movie character would look like in the podcast

Jon Rothstein started his podcast by asking a fascinating question to new Kentucky coach Mark Pope. Jon asked who would play Pope if his life was a movie, to which Pope replied humorously:

"I don't know, it has to be somebody that had very low intelligence and very little charisma. But otherwise, you can take anybody you wanted."

Pope's answer made Rothstein laugh as Wildcats's head coach showed his funny side while deprecating himself. The rest of the podcast included questions about his life at Kentucky when Mark Pope called UK a "basketball heaven" in his answer.