And just like that, Mark Pope has brought back Kentucky basketball

It took 3 games for Kentucky to come back to college hoops prominence, but in reality, it took much more than that.

It took nights in gyms across mid-major conferences over the past several years, fruitless Big 12 campaigns, and ugly first-round NCAA Tournament losses. No, uglier than the ones UK endured as a top seed.

Kentucky’s new recipe, after teams of underachieving one-and-dones, is a group of underrated veterans who see Kentucky not as another stop on the NBA climb but as the destination on a journey to college basketball glory. Who saw this perfect fit coming? Precious few.

That tear-down of Kentucky basketball in the spring was complete. Hall of Fame coach John Calipari? Gone. His entire roster? Gone. The hopes of one of college basketball’s most passionate (maybe insane) fan bases? If not gone, at least going into hibernation. The rebuild was on.

Kentucky looked inward. It hired former ‘Cat Mark Pope from BYU to run the program. He of zero NCAA Tournament wins, as a coach, anyway. Pope tagged a group of transfer-portal loaners: guys who had been a step slow or an inch short or a consistent jump shot shy of being ready for the NBA, but ready to move on from Drexel or Wake Forest or Oklahoma. He added a couple freshmen but prepared for a season with a group of zero NBA needle movers.

Expectations were not high. The media in Birmingham picked the ‘Cats to finish 8th in the SEC. Both the media and coaches, scanning Kentucky’s roster, picked BYU transfer Jaxson Robinson for an All-SEC third-team slot and moved on to greener pastures.

But after 3 games, Kentucky is back. Tuesday night merely confirmed it: No. 19 Kentucky 77, No. 6 Duke 72.

Except it took much more than 3 games.

Who led the charge to victory? Guys who are new to Kentucky but were anything but new to college basketball; guys who need Kentucky’s legitimacy as much as the Wildcats’ need their spark and scrap and hustle.

Last night was Andrew Carr’s 120th college basketball game. He has played 1 NCAA Tournament game, a 20-point loss as a No. 15 seed at Delaware. Carr worked over, under and around Duke’s post players with the game in the balance, scoring 17 points, wheeling and dealing in the post like a 32-year-old NBA player with a receding hair line and a quest for a championship ring.

Last night was Amari Williams’ 108th college basketball game. He has played 1 NCAA Tournament game, playing 4 minutes as a freshman in a 1 vs. 16 game of his Drexel team against Illinois (they lost by 29). Williams went 1-on-1 with Cooper Flagg, already the consensus No. 1 pick in the 2025 NBA Draft, in the game’s biggest possession and forced Flagg to stumble out of bounds with the game on the line.

Last night was Otega Oweh’s 63rd college basketball game. He’s never played in the NCAA Tournament. Oweh outjumped and outfought Flagg for the rebound that clinched Kentucky’s victory. With 15 points and 6 rebounds, Oweh keyed Kentucky’s upset.

When guys like Carr and Oweh talk in platitudes about crowd support, about team focus, about the opportunity to play for championships in March, they’re speaking from a place of knowledge. They understand the tick and whir of college basketball and have played enough to realize that excellence isn’t something to take for granted.

The appreciation from new-old guys like Carr was obvious. He delivered the opening statement of Tuesday’s night’s post-game press conference.

“All the Kentucky fans who showed up tonight, it was an incredible atmosphere,” Carr said.

Turning to the game, Carr was succinct but spoke with the voice of experience, “I felt like we did an unbelievable job being resilient tonight and in a really special way to come out with a win.”

All those years of NIT bids and first-round NCAA bouncings and long bus rides built a fire that Pope has done a remarkable job of rekindling for Kentucky. Remember, Pope once was like them: He transferred from Washington to Kentucky and helped the ‘Cats win the 1996 NCAA Tournament.

“We all had a common goal to win big, so we knew, if we want to do that, we have to come together in hard situations,” Oweh said after the game.

A group of experienced players coming together is how the Wildcats ended up taking the upper hand over Duke and Flagg, who is a generational talent. A generational talent in his 3rd college game. A generational talent in his 3rd college game who isn’t used to grizzled old veterans who need the win more than he did.

Kentucky will probably still have bumps in the road, but how rapidly the script has turned from Kentucky being the team of NBA lottery talents who have to learn to play college basketball. The trade for a group of steady, greybeard college basketball players is one BBN welcomed after last night.

Joe Cox

Joe Cox is a columnist for Saturday Down South. He has also written or assisted in writing five books, and his most recent, Almost Perfect (a study of baseball pitchers’ near-miss attempts at perfect games), is available on Amazon or at many local bookstores.