Arkansas basketball will continue its 2024-25 season against No. 12 Kentucky on Saturday at Rupp Arena in Lexington, and Wildcats' head coach Mark Pope spoke to the media Thursday to preview the matchup.
Kentucky is off to a solid start to SEC play, as it sits with a 4-3 league record with wins over teams such as Florida, Mississippi State, Texas A&M and Tennessee but losses to Georgia, Alabama and Vanderbilt. The Wildcats also defeated Duke, Gonzaga, Louisville and Ohio State in non-conference play.
A former Kentucky basketball player who was drafted 52nd overall in the 1996 NBA Draft, Pope was a head coach at Utah Valley and BYU before joining the Wildcats this season. All time, Pope sports a 202-113 overall record as a head coach.
This will mark the 51st meeting between the two teams, as Kentucky leads the series 36-14. Arkansas has lost its last three matchups against the Wildcats, with its most recent victory coming in 2023.
Here's everything Pope had to say about John Calipari, the Razorbacks and Saturday's game:
On the charitable work Calipari has done during his career:
Pope: "Everybody in college basketball was touched and moved and kind of trying to follow the lead of the incredible work that Cal did in the community. He was such an incredible ambassador for college basketball and Kentucky basketball for so long and he was so active out in the community. It was a real gift to this entire community."
On the national attention for this game:
Pope: "I don't know if I have a lot of comments on it. I love the drama. I think it's Kentucky, right? It follows us and everything we do. It's one of the beautiful things about getting to coach here and play here, be associated with this program, is we care. People feel how much we care and so they care to be interested and so I love that people are interested in what's happening here. They can be super dramatic, so I think it's great. It's something to write about and talk about and enjoy and celebrate."
On Coach Calipari:
Pope: "On a personal level, I love competing against people that I admire and look up to and love, and Cal is certainly one of those people. He's a Hall of Fame coach and a legend in the sport. He's re-written a lot of the book on how things are done and he's one of the best that there ever was, and he's also got an unbelievable legacy here at the University of Kentucky."
On Adou Thiero's breakout season:
Pope: "Yeah he's a monster. He's playing elite level basketball and he's just devastating physically. He's playing with such incredible intensity and motor and physicality. He's great downhill, great at the rim, he actually has a pretty functional midrange. He really guards, he's a 1-through-5 defensive player and BBN knows him better than I do. He's putting together a really special season and he's a handful for sure. There's no easy answers for him."
On Zvonimir Ivisic:
Pope: "Well, I did get the change to talk to him a couple times. Clearly, I liked him a lot more than he liked me. I think he's a terrific talent, I mean, what a talent. What a great talent. In my interaction with him, I love him as a young man too which is not uncommon. I think so many times the key to athletes making their way to this level is they end up being really, really good, special people. I think that is so often the case and certainly in my experience with him, that would be the case.
"I think he's incredibly talented, I think his skill set is really unique for his size, I think he's got a moxy about him that's pretty fun and he poses problems. He's a top-10 rim protector in the country, which is incredible and he's shooting 40% from the three-point line and he can go to work in the post and he can really pass the ball. He's a terrific player and he's a big challenge for us as we prepare."
