Mark Pope has set the tone for the upcoming Kentucky basketball season with a quote from his introductory press conference, “ When Mitch (Barnhart) called me and talked to me about being the head coach here at Kentucky, I understood the assignment. We are here to win banners,” said Mark Pope.

It made the fans realize that they are going through a major shift in their coaching role. From Coach Calipari being at Kentucky for 15 years, there is going to be a lot to get used to. 

Coach Pope is a great fit for Kentucky, because he gives a hyped up vibe to fans that have been disappointed and upset, year after year. 

Mark Pope just knows the ways of Kentucky basketball, because he played for the Wildcats in 1994-1996, also being a huge part of the 1996 National Championship team.

At the beginning of Pope’s head coaching career he went 77-56 through four seasons with Utah Valley University. 

Then, he eventually went to coach at BYU in 2019, and went 110-52 throughout five seasons. He also went to the NCAA tournament twice within those seasons with BYU.

This season Pope brought in nine different transfers from around the country. Some of those players came from big name programs like; Oklahoma, BYU, and Wake Forest. 

This reconstructed team brings a new presence of experienced players that have been playing at this level of basketball for years.

Graduate Student Lamont Butler transferred from San Diego State University and will be one of the stars for this year’s team and definitely a defensive anchor.

In his past four years, Butler has been the 2024 Mountain West Defensive Player of the Year, 2023 Third-team All-Mountain West, and a three time Mountain West All-Defensive Team player. 

Two seasons ago, Butler had an amazing run in the NCAA Tournament. He hit the game-winning buzzer beater, sending San Diego State to the National Championship. If we don’t have Butler during the season, then we will be missing a key veteran play-maker. 

Another all-out defensive player this year is going to be Amari Williams, a seven-foot graduate student from Drexel University. He won defensive player of the year three times in a row for the CAA (Coastal Athletic Association) and he was also on the First-Team ALL-CAA. 

Williams is going to be the best player on the team this season. He brings a huge defensive presence. He is also a key part for the rebounding side, because he is a dog in the paint.

Jaxson Robinson is a player that will be contributing more on the offensive side, being a very efficient shooter from the 3-point line. He was named Big 12 Sixth Man of the Year in 2024. He was also named SEC preseason second team.

Robinson, being the best “basketball player” or scorer on the team is a huge role, but he isn’t the best contributor for the team overall. 

Alongside those standout players from previous seasons, we are also gaining multiple guys that can drain threes upon threes. 

Through four years at Dayton University, Koby Brea shot 49% from the three. He is the best shooter on the team, and in the country. He has hit 10 threes through two games already. We will have an amazing three point shooting team and he just adds a huge part to it. Also through four years at Arizona and West Virginia, Kerr Kriisa shot 42%. 

During his high school career, Trent Noah shot 43%. Travis Perry, all-time leading scorer for Kentucky high school basketball, has hit 712 threes throughout his career, which is also second all time in the country.

With those sharp shooters on the team, they will fit perfectly fine with Pope’s playing style, which is fast paced and non-stop threes. 

For a change, Pope will actually want to win every single game that we can this season, so that means his practices will be much harder than they have been for Kentucky teams in the past. Which also means he will actually value the SEC tournament to get a good spot in the NCAA tournament. 

Kentucky’s two preseason exhibition games were both blowouts, with one being a 70-plus-point win and a 30 plus point win, versus the D2 National Champions. 

In our first regular season game, Kentucky beat Wright State by 41 points. In recent years with Coach Calipari, that game would not have been a blowout like this one. 

With Kentucky having a rough schedule this season, it will be hard to say exactly how good we will actually be. Kentucky plays ten preseason ranked teams and 13 teams that reached the NCAA tournament last year, from the beginning of the season to the very end.

Early in the season, Kentucky is being tested with multiple good teams like; Duke, Clemson, and Gonzaga. 

If we win all of those games then it will show how serious we are about winning this ninth National Championship and show the college basketball world that Kentucky Basketball is back.

This season you can just tell that there is a vibe with this team. It makes it feel like there is actually something brewing with this new era of basketball.