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Mark Pope admits he had a sleepless night worrying about status of Lamont Butler, Jaxson Robinson
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Mark Pope has had enough to worry about lately, with his Kentucky team having lost 4 of 5, including last Saturday’s embarrassing home loss to John Calipari and Arkansas.
Then a double-digit loss at Ole Miss followed earlier this week, so the head coach of the 14th-ranked team in the country was really feeling the pressure going into Saturday afternoon’s home tilt against South Carolina. Making matters worse for Pope was the uncertain status of Jaxson Robinson and Lamont Butler, who are the Wildcats’ second- and third-leading scorers, respectively.
Butler had missed the previous 3 games, having not played since Jan. 25 because of a shoulder injury. Robinson played in the loss to Ole Miss but suffered an apparent wrist injury in practice. Both Kentucky star players were game-time decisions for the crucial game against the Gamecocks on Saturday, which translated into a sleepless Friday night for their head coach.
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“Every game is the biggest game we’ve ever played. I woke up at 2 o’clock in the morning after sleeping for 2 hours and couldn’t go back to sleep,” said Pope. “I didn’t genuinely know if I was going to walk into the gym and have no Lamont and no Jaxson.”
Everything turned out just fine for Kentucky and Pope, with both players playing on Saturday. They only combined for 14 points — Robinson had 6 points, Butler had 8 — but they didn’t need to play a lot of minutes because the Wildcats rolled to a much-needed 80-57 victory to improve to 16-7 overall and get back to .500 in the SEC at 5-5.
Eventually, Pope did fall back to sleep and then Saturday came, and the Wildcats took out their frustrations on the Gamecocks. Saturday night should provide a much better night of sleep for Pope, although the next worry for the head coach will be Tuesday night’s home showdown against No. 4 Tennessee.
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
