‘Hang the 9th banner’: Mark Pope’s goals are clear at Kentucky. It’s how he attacks them that sets him apart

Mark Pope understands the pressures and expectations that come with playing and coaching at Kentucky — better than just about anyone.

Mark Pope’s goals are clear at Kentucky. It’s about national championships. There’s no secondary goal or anticipation. Having lived through it and taken home one of the banners that hang inside Rupp Arena, he is the one who knows that better than everyone else.

However, he also realizes that it takes time to get the desired result and that if one becomes overly focused on it, the steps taken to get there may be obscured and lost.

So, what makes him unique is the way he approaches the objectives.

During the SEC Spring Meetings, Pope stated on the Paul Finebaum show, “Our goals and expectations are clear and they are different than anywhere else.” It’s the ninth. That is the topic of our daily conversations. It is our responsibility to come to University of Kentucky and raise the ninth banner; anything less will not be tolerated.

“With that understood as the goal, there’s this dichotomy, that you have that on the horizon but what your focus has to be every day is getting better every day. That’s how you get there.”

While it may be cliche, it’s honest. It’s transparent. It’s also effective in the fact that just two months ago when he took the job at UK, he had a roster of 0.

It’s been as hectic a first two months on the job that a new coach can have. However, Mark Pope thinks it actually allowed him to be set up for success, not failure.

“It’s really exhilarating esepcially for us. We play a — we push the envelope on style of play. We’re very, very much pushing a pro style of play so it’s a unique style to college basketball,” Pope said. “So getting to jump in the portal and handpick guys that fit the way we play exactly and do it from the beginning has been really exhilarating. We are really excited about the roster we’ve put together.”

Players will arrive on campus on June 10. That’s their ‘onboarding’ week. The fundamentals of what Kentucky will be out. Then, June 17 is full steam ahead.

That’s when it’s about the details of progress every day that will set him and his team apart. Because at the end of the day, they need to be progressing daily, every single day, if they want to reach the end goal of Banner 9.

“The most important thing is we walk off the court a little better than we walked on. And we will accept nothing less,” Pope said. “We will be tyrannic about that and that’s how you achieve that long term goal of banner number nine, is getting better every day and that’s why our guys are coming here.”

Three high school prospects and nine transfers make up “our guys.” Probably, this completes the roster.

Who are his guys exactly?

“We’re recruiting guys where that name on the front of the jersey means something,” Pope Francis stated. “The fact that they are University of Kentucky athletes here will mean more to them every day. It is an extremely significant aspect of our work.”

Thus, nothing changes from the current situation as the summer months arrive and the crucial offseason for teaching and development begins.

“Daily goal-setting,” stated Pope. “Having a metric you can record and analyzing growth every single day.”