JEFF SHEPPARD

On new Kentucky coach Mark Pope’s personality ...

“What you see is what you get with Mark. Mark uses words like ‘Hard work, 24/7. Gratitude. Humility.’ All of those things, they’re not just words in Mark’s vocabulary. It’s how he lives his life. So he has the ability to then take that message and translate it over to coaches, to fans, to family, to former players, to his current players. That’s going to be special to watch.

“There are going to be a lot of words spoken between now and the first game — and that’s great. It’s what makes Kentucky basketball so fun. We love to talk about it and everything. But Mark knows — as he said so (well) in the beginning, he ‘understands the assignment.’ He has work to do. He knows he has work to do. But it’s what he lives for. He lives for hard work. He enjoys it.”

On whether he ever foresaw Mark Pope going into coaching ...

“You give us too much credit as players. We’re not thinking about anything when we’re players and we’re college students — and neither did you. You can’t ask me, ‘What did I think when I was a college student?’ What did you think when you were a college student that you were gonna be doing at 50? Nobody operates that way. But, when you look back on it now and you put the pieces together, you say, ‘Well, this is how Mark worked. This is how Mark treated us as teammates. This is how he treated fans when he was a player. This is how he responded to (then Kentucky) coach (Rick Pitino) when he was yelled at.’ This is how he did all of these aspects. You’re like, ‘That adds up. That adds up. That adds up. That adds up.’ Now it makes sense.

“Now he’s a leader in a different role. He’s always been a leader. And he always leads by example. He’s always been wonderful being able to communicate, connect, draw people in with phenomenal passion, with phenomenal personal work. What I love about Mark is, he gets in the trenches with you. As soon as I was pulling in, I was hearing reports he was out with the fans. And I was like, ‘Yeah, that’s Mark. That’s exactly who he is.’ If it wouldn’t have caused a mob scene, he would have (run) up into the stands. And so Mark Pope is just being Mark Pope. I’m excited to be linked, arm in arm with him, to figure out this next part of the journey.”