What Kentucky’s Mark Pope said on Gonzaga matchup: 'It's gonna be an epic adventure'

Wildcats head coach anticipates quite a battle Saturday when his team faces the Zags

Kentucky head coach Mark Pope. / Ken Ruinard-Imagn Images

Mark Pope doesn't often visit Seattle, the place he started his college basketball playing career at the University of Washington in the early 1990s, though the Kentucky head coach looks forward to any opportunity he gets to reunite with his old teammates from his days in the Pacific Northwest.

Pope expects his trip back to Seattle on Saturday will be "quite the adventure" as he and the No. 4 Wildcats take on No. 7 Gonzaga at Climate Pledge Arena. Pope has plenty of experience with the Bulldogs from his years as the head coach of BYU, back when the Cougars were in the West Coast Conference.

"They know who exactly who they are," Pope said of the Bulldogs. "You could almost take the names off the jerseys, and you would know if you're watching a Gonzaga team by the way they play, schematically, approach to the game and, you know, they win. So it's gonna be an epic adventure."

Here's more from Kentucky's head coach on the matchup with the Zags.

On his relationship with Gonzaga head coach Mark Few:

“I got to know coach pretty well. He's been a great friend. He's one of the best people in the business. He's just a special person. I'll never forget my first head coaching job at Utah Valley. We did a buy game at Gonzaga, and I had known coach as an assistant and so we went up there to play, and we were kind of in the game, and then it got away from us like you would expect it would at the end. And so you're trying to collect yourself in the locker room after the media and after everything, and I finally walked out of the locker room, and coach Few — there's nobody left in that building — and coach Few was just waiting out there to talk. That's just who he is. He's really special. And what he's done in basketball is just almost unfathomable.”

On what makes Gonzaga’s offense so potent:

“They'll just actually run a ball screen just to get a post catch. And so it's kind of like, even if they don't get the switch, even it's not a roast, just run the ball screen, let them roll, and we'll stay on the same side. We'll enter from the same side. And that's kind of been a hallmark of Few, just a way where he feels really comfortable. Post entry is complicated sometimes, and he feels really comfortable being able to set up his sets. So that would be the only thing that is a little bit unique to them, schematically, in terms of how they get post entries, but they pretty much do it all … they beat you in transition, they beat you to the 3-point line. They have three incredibly, incredibly explosive guards that are getting a ton of work done right now. They're a dangerous, dangerous team.”

On Gonzaga’s guard play:

“I mean this [Ryan] Nembhard, I don’t know he’s at [10.8 assists] per game? That's ridiculous. Those numbers are crazy. They're really potent. [Khalif] Battle’s playing super, super aggressive. I know that the BBN is really familiar with him, and Hickman is a terrific player, and they got some young kids off the bench that are really good. I don't know what they're ranked right now, but it's a Final Four-type team.”

MORE GONZAGA NEWS & ANALYSIS

• Gonzaga’s Michael Ajayi is ready ‘to put on a show’ in Seattle vs. Kentucky

• What Gonzaga's Nolan Hickman said ahead of Kentucky matchup in Seattle

• 2025 NCAA Tournament Bracketology: Gonzaga clings to top seed in West Region

• Gonzaga's Ryan Nembhard rises to the challenge his senior year: 'It was time for a big jump'

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