Mark Pope has a favorite SEC Tournament memory. ‘One of the most special games in my life’
Asked on the eve of his first SEC Tournament appearance as the Kentucky Wildcats head coach if he had any favorite memories of the event from his playing days, Mark Pope said there were “so many” to look back on.
But one, in particular, stands out. And anyone who was a UK fan at the time surely remembers it fondly, too.
“We played in a championship game against Arkansas my junior year that will forever be one of the most special games in my life,” Pope said.
In that game in Atlanta, the Razorbacks were the defending national champions and had handed the Wildcats one of their only two losses in SEC play in the lone regular-season meeting between the two sides. Rick Pitino’s Cats were ranked No. 3 nationally going into the tournament title game. Coach Nolan Richardson’s Hogs were No. 5 in the country.
Pope, who would be the first to tell you is a man prone to hyperbole, remembered UK being down 17 points during regulation and eight behind in overtime with the SEC crown on the line. Here, the UK coach — a junior post player on that team — got it wrong the other way. Kentucky actually trailed by as many as 19 points in the first half before Pope helped get them to within 50-44 at the break.
After that came “the whole Rod Rhodes saga” and “Anthony Epps and the whole thing” — Pope fondly remembered Wednesday afternoon at the Wildcats’ team hotel in Nashville — a couple of sights that are surely etched in the memories of all UK fans of a certain age.
With the game tied at 80, Rhodes came up with a steal and got fouled, going to the line with 1.3 seconds left with two chances to basically win the SEC title with a single shot. He missed both free throws and ended up in tears on the Kentucky bench. Rhodes didn’t play in the extra period that followed.
In overtime, the Cats got down 91-82 at one point before storming back. Epps came up with a late steal and hit what were ultimately the winning free throws — to put Kentucky ahead 94-93 with 17 seconds left — before Tony Delk added another free throw to set the final score at 95-93.
“This is basketball heaven,” Pope said that day. “It just can’t get any better.”
Funnily enough, his reminiscing over that win in the 1995 SEC Tournament title game came 30 years to the day after it happened. On Thursday night, he’ll coach his first postseason game as the leader of the Wildcats.
“And, you know, those are special,” he said Wednesday of the victory over Arkansas. “Those are the types of games that let you walk into a room different.”
Pope then referenced a comment he made last week, resharing the saying from his wife, Lee Anne, who has told him more than once in the past that “birds are never afraid to land on a branch, not knowing whether it’s going to break or not, because they can fly.”
That, Pope said, could apply to postseason basketball, too.
“And you go through some of that,” he said of his own experience. “That’s what I wish for my guys. And they’ve been through it. They did it against Duke. They did it against Gonzaga. They’ve had a bunch of moments where things looked really bad and they just, as a group, just picked themselves up. But that’s what makes you walk into a room different for the rest of your life, because you know that — if things go wrong — you can fix them.
“And so, clearly, the details of that game are super special.”
Kentucky will play either Georgia or Oklahoma in its first SEC Tournament game Thursday night. A win there would give the Cats another shot at Alabama — a team that beat them twice in the regular season — on Friday in Bridgestone Arena.
Pope reiterated Wednesday that his team — the 6 seed in the bracket — came to Nashville intent on winning the SEC Tournament, and he knows the type of turnout that UK fans typically display at this event year after year. He’s expecting the same in the 2025 edition.
“It’s Kentucky, right? There’s no fan base like this in the world. And it means so much. And that’s part of the reason why it means so much to us. And there is nothing in the world that my guys would like more than to gift BBN an incredible week here. That means a lot to us, and so we’re really devoted to doing everything we can — humanly possible, as a team — to make that happen.”
This story was originally published March 12, 2025 at 2:07 PM with the headline "Mark Pope has a favorite SEC Tournament memory. ‘One of the most special games in my life’."
