Marc Pope acquired many of his coaching skills while playing for Rick Pitino in the best team he has ever assembled Kentucky. Pope will show Saturday in Atlanta if resilience was one of those traits.
If ever the student needed to show what he had learned in front of the teacher, this is when struggling Wildcats face Pitino and St. John’s in the CBS Sports Classic.
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UK might be the most disappointing team in college basketball during the non-conference portion of the season, falling from 9th in the preseason to unranked in Week 6 of the polls. The lowest point has arrived in Wildcats’ 35-point loss to Gonzaga in Nashville, while being booed by their own fans.
St. John’s also hasn’t lived up to expectations thus far, although the move from preseason No. 6 to current No. 20 hasn’t been as precipitous as the Cats’ fall.
Both programs are desperate to win in this game. And it took that desperation for Pope to reach into his bag for what he had learned from Pitino.
After losing to the first four Quad I opponents the Cats faced, Pope resorted to the bench to motivate himself in a way he never had before. His instructions became more orders than guidelines, as he had a clearer advantage on the sidelines.
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The result produced UK’s victory over Indiana and could provide the breakthrough they needed.
The Cats badly need to build on the positives from this win where their perimeter shooting was still lacking, but their heart and enthusiasm propelled them.
Kentucky’s defense also took a big step forward against the Hoosiers, holding them to a season low with 60 points on 16 percent 3-point shooting.
This win won’t mean much if the Cats don’t follow it up with a strong performance against the Red Storm.
This is where Pope will have the opportunity to show Pitino what kind of coach he is. UK shooting was supposed to be its strength thanks to a team specially assembled to have a multitude of shooters.
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In their five games against major conference opponents, the Cats rank 105th in adjusted offense, according to BartTorvik.com. Pitino’s defense was worse.
In the Red Storm’s three games against Quad I opponents (Alabama, Iowa State, Auburn), they ranked 133rd in adjusted defense and allowed their opponents to shoot 36% from 3-point range.
The opportunity seems there for the UK.
Pitino doesn’t lose much to the former assistant coaches and players who make up his coaching tree. He was particularly harsh on the players.
Billy Donovan is the most accomplished former player turned coach under Pitino. He coached Florida to back-to-back national titles in 2006 and 2007 and made two more trips to the Final Four in 2000 and 2014.
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Before Donovan left college to start coaching in the NBA in 2015, the only thing he left without doing was beat his former coach.
Pitino was 7-0 against Donovan, including when leading Louisville ahead of the Gators in the 2012 Elite Eight in their last meeting.
Travis Ford and Steve Masiello are the only two former players to beat Pitino on a list that includes Scott Padgett and John Pelphrey. Pitino’s 18-4 record against his former students and three of those losses came while he was coaching at Iona in 2021 and 2022.
Ford — who led Massachusetts past Louisville 72-68 on Dec. 13, 2006 — is the only former player to beat Pitino when he was at UK, at UofL and now at St. John’s.
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The only time Pope faced Pitino, Utah Valley lost to Louisville 98-68 on Dec. 23, 2015, was his first season as head coach. He’s learned a lot about coaching over the last decade, but the best way to prove it is to beat Pitino and show he can still give UK a spot at the top of the class this season.
Contact sports columnist CL Brown at [email protected]follow him on @CLBrownHoops and subscribe to his newsletter on profile.courier-journal.com/newsletters/cl-browns-latest to be sure to never miss one of his columnss.
This article was originally published in the Louisville Courier Journal: Kentucky vs. St. John’s game gives Mark Pope an opportunity against Rick Pitino
