Kentucky Basketball - LIVE BREATHE BLUE - Mark Pope: Positively Awesome or Just Plain Weird?

(MILWAUKEE, WI) – Be honest—Mark Pope has done what most of us thought was impossible. A first-year coach, with a team cobbled together like a last-minute group project and riddled with injuries, now has Kentucky dancing into the Sweet Sixteen.

Few expected Kentucky to survive the brutal SEC grind intact, much less advance through the first tournament weekend. But if there’s one thing we’ve learned about this Kentucky team, it’s that the third-seeded Wildcats are as unpredictable as they are resilient. A 76 – 57 first-round thrashing over fourteenth-seeded Troy was no surprise to anyone, but a rather methodical 85 – 74 follow-up thumping of a talented sixth-seeded Illinois squad had many in Big Blue Nation doing a double take.

So what’s Pope’s secret? X’s and O’s? Analytics? His Big Blue pedigree? Nope—it’s relentless, almost absurd, positivity. The guy could be down 20 at halftime and still be hyping up the postgame celebration. In a world of glass half full, Pope’s cup is overflowing—and he’s passing out refills.

How much of Pope’s relentless positivity is real and sincere? And how much of it is just plain weird?

His players certainly have bought in. “You can kind of see his personality, he's always positive regardless of the situation,” said Amari Williams, Kentucky’s seven-foot center. “I feel like there was never a moment we felt down because we lost players. He always kept our heads high.”

Pope’s relentless optimism is inspiring—or downright bizarre, depending on your perspective. At times, it’s like he’s running a modern-day monastery instead of a powerhouse basketball program.

When asked about his mindset, Pope credited his faith.

“I think that my life view, most of it comes from my faith,” Pope acknowledged. “And I'm a believer. And that makes—it just makes you see the world different. I think it's really hard to not be positive, not be joyful, not be happy if you work really hard at gratitude. I mean, if we all take the time in our day to sit down and start listing the things that we could be grateful for, starting from the very basic level, how can we not love life and be so incredibly full of joy and positivity.”

That’s an awesome answer—if you’re at a church retreat. But at Kentucky? A fanbase that treats basketball as life and death? Preaching gratitude after a gut-wrenching loss might get you run out of Rupp.

People of faith understand where Pope’s coming from. But here’s where things start spiraling into the realm of the weird. There’s almost a Zen-like quality to Mark Pope’s preachings. When he starts spewing forth rhetorical questions about love and happiness, he starts sounding more and more like a youthful Phil Jackson (not that there’s anything wrong with that).

Pope even dropped a TED Talk on us mid-tournament. Something about how waking up tomorrow is worth more than $10 million. Which is nice and all—but let’s win the game first. 

Truthfully speaking, waxing poetically about enlightenment becomes a bit too New Age for a traditionalist like me. A good occasional Kumbaya story around the campfire is nice. But at Kentucky, we want wins, not wisdom. Or better yet, give us both. I’ll take the chicken AND the steak, the $10 million AND the wake-up call.

So let’s beat Tennessee, knock off Houston or Purdue, and then go get banner No. 9. Save the deep thoughts for Dan Hurley and Buzz Williams. 

Remember, we’re here for rings, not reflections.

No. 3 Midwest Regional seed Kentucky tips off against No. 2 seed Tennessee at 7:39 pm EDT, Friday, in Indianapolis’ Lucas Oil Stadium. For fans unable to make the trip, the game will be televised by TBS.

Dr. John Huang is a retired orthodontist, military veteran, and award-winning author. Currently serving as a columnist for Nolan Group Media, he invites readers to follow him on social media @KYHuangs. Explore his debut novel— “Name, Image, and Murder”—and all his books at https://www.Amazon.com/stores/Dr.-John-Huang/author/B092RKJBRD