Mark Story: Mark Pope showed his coaching mettle on one of college basketball's biggest stages

ATLANTA — The history books will show that Mark Pope was named the University of Kentucky’s head men’s basketball coach on April 12, 2024.

But it was on Nov. 12, 2024, when Pope made the UK coaching job his.

On one of men’s college basketball’s biggest regular-season stages, Kentucky coaching made a decisive difference as the No. 19 Wildcats upset No. 6 Duke 77-72 in the Champions Classic before an exuberant crowd of 16,107 at State Farm Arena.

The Big Blue Nation is forever tormented by the words “and now, here’s a long pass to Laettner.” Coming into Tuesday night’s game, Duke had beaten Kentucky in nine of the previous 11 meetings between the teams.

In what was only Pope’s third game as UK head man, the Wildcats rallied from 10 down in the first half and nine down in the final 13 minutes to score the kind of victory that helps a new coach stake claim to a job.

Clutch play from Andrew Carr (17 points, five rebounds, three assists) and Otega Oweh (15 points, six rebounds, three assists, two steals) allowed the Cats to overcome 26 points and 12 rebounds from Duke super-freshman Cooper Flagg.

“Give Kentucky credit for the plays they made,” Blue Devils coach Jon Scheyer said. “I thought they showed incredible maturity. Their experience came out in the second half.”

Pope’s fingerprints were all over Kentucky’s victory.

UK’s playing rotation of super-seniors and other grizzled veterans of college basketball turned in a genuinely shaky first half. The Wildcats missed nine of their final 11 first-half treys; missed five first-half free throws; and turned the ball over seven times.

The Cats were fortunate to only be behind 46-39 at the break.

At halftime, Pope got his team settled. The Kentucky offense was not great in the second half — but it was the Wildcats who were able to execute under game-deciding pressure down the stretch of the season’s first big game.

Late in the contest, Pope found an offensive matchup that was favorable and worked it to take control of the game.

Utilized as a “small ball” center, Andrew Carr scored or assisted on seven straight Kentucky points from 3:57 through 1:19 as UK went from 67-64 down to 71-70 ahead.

At his previous school, Wake Forest, Carr went 2-2 head-to-head against the Dookies, averaging 12.8 points and 4.5 rebounds and hitting 50% of his shots (20 for 40) in those four games.

“He made some big plays,” Scheyer said. “We’ve competed against him for a couple of years. Yeah, Andrew’s a good player.”

With the game in the balance, Duke, in a display of hoops sagacity, put the ball in the hands of Flagg. The 6-foot-9, 205-pound basketball wunderkind had spent most of Tuesday night’s game looking every bit like a prospect worthy of being the No. 1 overall pick in the 2025 NBA draft — which is where he is all but unanimously projected to go.

After Kentucky worked through Carr, Ansley Almonor, Koby Brea and a retinue of switching post players in trying to defend Flagg, UK ran the 6-4 Oweh on Flagg as a double team in the paint with the game on the line.

The Oklahoma transfer took the ball away from Flagg.

Afterward, Oweh spoke words that had to sound like Beethoven to UK backers. “Wearing Kentucky on your chest is a privilege,” Oweh said. “You’re not just playing for yourself. It’s a dream to play for Kentucky.”

That UK was in position to have players coming up huge down the stretch owed in no small part to Pope making liberal use of a nine-man rotation.

In a manner that hearkened back to Tubby Smith and the Comeback Cats wearing down Duke and rallying from 17 back in the final 10 minutes to beat the Blue Devils in the 1998 NCAA Elite Eight, UK’s relentlessness and depth Tuesday night again appeared to take the starch out of a more-talented Duke roster.

“We’re just going to keep coming at your guys. We are coming at your guys throughout the game, over and over and over again until we go on that run or come back and make an impact on that game,” Carr said in explaining UK’s playing credo.

Winning in the Champions Classic in November guarantees a team nothing when it matters most in March Madness, of course.

But as Pope seeks to put his imprint on the Kentucky program, to prove himself worthy of occupying the coaching seat from which five men have led UK to NCAA championships, wins like the one Kentucky produced against Duke in Atlanta are only slightly less valuable than gold.

As good coaches do, Pope was spreading the credit after the victory.

“It’s not about me,” the new Kentucky coach said. “When winning can be about us, that is when it is magic. That is the gospel. That’s life. This team has really gotten it.”

On the night when Pope took a giant step in legitimizing his standing as Kentucky men’s basketball’s top Cat, you might say that was the basketball gospel of Mark.

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