{"id":146226,"date":"2025-08-14T22:46:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-14T22:46:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/146226\/"},"modified":"2025-08-14T22:46:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-14T22:46:10","slug":"mark-pope-wants-kentucky-to-play-the-countrys-toughest-schedule-every-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/146226\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Pope wants Kentucky to play the country’s toughest schedule every season"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mark Pope<\/a><\/strong> isn\u2019t ducking the smoke. <\/p>\n

The head coach of Kentucky men\u2019s basketball is all about taking on any would-be challengers, especially those considered to be in the top tier of competition. The Wildcats ranked third in the country last season in terms of Strength of Schedule, per KenPom<\/a>, checking in behind only two other SEC programs, Alabama and Auburn, respectively. Pope and his squad came out of that season with 24 wins and the most victories against Quad 1 opponents in school history. <\/p>\n

And yet, Kentucky\u2019s 2025-26 schedule is shaping up to be even tougher \u2014 and that\u2019s exactly how Pope wants it. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re just so hungry to play every great game we can,\u201d Pope told Matt Norlander this week on CBS Sports\u2019 Summer Shootaround<\/a>. \u201cI understand that this is Kentucky, right? I think last year we fell a little short; we had the third-hardest schedule in the country. We should be number one every year. That\u2019s something that\u2019s really important to us. <\/strong>We don\u2019t have full autonomy in how we do it, but we do the best we can because great games, that\u2019s why we play. To play great games.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the SEC might not be as deeply talented as it was in 2024-25, which resulted in a record-setting 14 teams making the NCAA Tournament, there will still be plenty of postseason-caliber groups from top to bottom. Five SEC teams, not counting UK, make up ESPN\u2019s latest Way-Too-Early Top 25 rankings<\/a> update \u2014 and some of them will face the \u2018Cats twice this season, including twice against defending champion Florida. ESPN Bracketologist Joe Lunardi actually thinks the SEC will repeat with 14 teams<\/a> making the 2026 NCAA Tournament. <\/p>\n

Kentucky ended up finishing 10-8 in league play last season, but still earned a 3-seed in the Big Dance \u2014 the resume was plenty beefed up thanks to a rigorous schedule. The league could look similar this season, although Pope\u2019s Wildcats will be expected to break that 10-win mark. The real challenge, however, could come before SEC action even begins. <\/p>\n

In the non-conference, Kentucky will take on the likes of Louisville, Michigan State, North Carolina, Gonzaga, Indiana, and St. John\u2019s. Indiana is the only team not mentioned in ESPN\u2019s latest Way-Too-Early Top 25 rankings. Louisville and St. John\u2019s will be preseason top 10 candidates. That doesn\u2019t account for Purdue either, the nation\u2019s preseason number one team and one of the Wildcats\u2019 two exhibition opponents. Combining both non-conference and conference games, UK could be looking at facing over a dozen ranked opponents in 2025-26. <\/p>\n

\u201cI love our schedule this year,\u201d Pope added. \u201cWe\u2019re getting tested in major, major ways.\u201d<\/p>\n

The tests begin early and often. Louisville is the third game of the season, Michigan State the fifth. Ahead of the final non-conference matchup with Bellarmine, Kentucky will face Indiana and St. John\u2019s back-to-back. The SEC schedule opens with Alabama on the road and ends with Florida coming to Rupp Arena. There will be no \u201ctrap\u201d games on this schedule \u2014 everyone is a capable foe. <\/p>\n

Pope can\u2019t wait to get started, either. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou know there is only one acceptable thing here at Kentucky, and that\u2019s to win all the games,\u201d Pope said. \u201cI\u2019m not going to undershoot the expectation here, we got to go win them all.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Join KSR Plus! With a KSR Plus membership, you get access to bonus content and KSBoard, KSR\u2019s message board, to chat with fellow Cats fans and get exclusive scoop.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mark Pope isn\u2019t ducking the smoke. The head coach of Kentucky men\u2019s basketball is all about taking on…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":146227,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[1339,70678,1317,1337,1338,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-146226","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-basketball","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-mark-pope-91-newport-senior","10":"tag-ncaa","11":"tag-ncaa-basketball","12":"tag-ncaabasketball","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-united-states","15":"tag-unitedstates","16":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115029552929498355","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146226","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=146226"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146226\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/146227"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=146226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=146226"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=146226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}