Just three days after former Kentucky coach John Calipari guided a team that only took 20 3-pointers, and made a mere five of them, in a neutral-court loss to a Big 12 team that had just lost to a West Coast Conference opponent by 38 points, Mark Pope's Wildcats came out firing Tuesday night.
Seven of UK's first 12 shots were 3-pointers.
Five of them went in.
All of a sudden, the same fanbase that spent most of last season frustrated while watching one-and-done top-10 picks Reed Sheppard and Rob Dillingham come off of the bench for a team that ultimately lost to Oakland in the first round of the 2024 NCAA Tournament was turning Atlanta's State Farm Arena into what old-head UK fans will remember as "Catlanta," the nickname once given to the city when Wildcat supporters would overwhelm the place during SEC Tournaments conquered.
Final score: Kentucky 77, Duke 72.
So, just nine days, and three games, into his first season coaching his alma mater, Pope already has a signature victory over a blue blood program. It's a big one that represents the first time Kentucky has topped Duke since 2015. It snapped UK's four-game losing streak in the Champions Classic.
And perhaps the most encouraging aspect of it for Kentucky fans is that I don't think many watched it and left with the impression that the Wildcats even played all that well. They were up and down. They trailed by 10 points. But there was a clear purpose to everything they did, a sensible approach to the matchup, and enough composure down the stretch to take advantage of a Duke team that was obviously more talented, but way younger, and ill-equipped to deal with an older group that looked stronger and more together.
"I'm really proud of our guys," Pope said during his televised postgame interview. "Our first half was a little shaky. We had a lot of things that felt a little weird tonight. But they're just fighting spirits that just continue to come through -- and I know that sounds so cliche, but these games, when you have two great teams going against each other, it comes down to the connective tissue of the team. And it comes down to, like, all the little extra stuff. And our guys just kept battling. I was most proud of their resilience with their emotion. Their emotion was incredibly resilient. Everybody on the roster contributed. And so, Otega [Oweh] makes a huge play [in the final seconds]. In fact, we talked about it on the floor. I told him, 'It's time for you to make a big-time defensive play.' And he delivered like he normally does."
Boy, did he ever. Twice, really.
The big plays sealed the victory and appropriately summarized the closing minutes of the game that saw Duke freshman Kon Knueppel struggling from the field (5-of-20), Duke freshman Khaman Maluach battling cramps and Duke freshman Cooper Flagg turn the ball over twice in the final 15 seconds. The first big play from Oweh involved him helping on Flagg and taking the ball with 14.1 seconds remaining, leading to a transition opportunity, a foul and two made free throws that made it 74-72, Duke, with 10.1 seconds remaining. After that, Flagg turned it over again, leading to a quick foul that brought Kentucky's Lamont Butler, a transfer from San Diego State who hit the most memorable shot of the 2023 NCAA Tournament, to the free throw line with 5.1 seconds left. He made the first to push the lead to 75-72 but missed the second, giving Duke life -- as long as the Blue Devils secured the rebound.
They didn't, though.
Oweh, once again, made a huge play by pushing Flagg, the projected No. 1 pick of the 2025 NBA Draft, under the goal and securing the offensive rebound. The game ended on that sequence -- a sequence that served as a reminder that as great as Flagg is, and don't let the late turnovers make you forget that he finished with 26 points and 12 rebounds in 32 minutes, he's still just a 17 year-old who won't turn 18 until four days before Christmas.
Flagg is, and will be, terrific. Duke is, and will be, fine.
But Tuesday night wasn't about Flagg stumbling in the final seconds, or Duke squandering a double-digit lead, as much as it was about Pope putting his stamp on the program he helped win the national championship as a player in April 1996 before taking over as the coach in April 2024 after Calipari left under pressure for Arkansas. Pope, previously the coach at BYU, wasn't UK athletic director Mitch Barnhart's first choice, nor should he have been. But, for a while now, Pope has felt like the perfect choice to lead Big Blue Nation.
He inherited nothing from Calipari.
He started from scratch.
But Pope has already won the hearts and minds of the fanbase -- mostly because he's quickly built a competent team that's fun to watch and easy to root for, but also because he's done it all while going out of his way to make the in-state media and diehard supporters feel like they matter again.
Bottom line, Mark Pope has just been really, really smart and good every step of the way.
He earned the Tuesday night he lived.
And, if I were guessing, even bigger days are on the way.
