With the college basketball year well past the midseason point and many teams starting to take their ultimate shape, awards conversations are heating up for players and coaches alike.

Kentucky fans have long clamored for Mark Pope’s name to be in the coach of the year conversation, and thanks to CBS’ Gary Parrish, they aren’t alone.

In a segment called “3&D”, Parrish named his top three candidates for the honor. Third was Jon Scheyer, head coach of the Duke Blue Devils. In second place, Auburn’s Bruce Pearl.

First: Mark Pope.

A Perfect Choice

Parrish cited a multitude of reasons for his first-place choice, including the narrative effectivity of it all: “I just love the story at Kentucky. He was not their first choice to replace John Calipari, but he’s been a perfect choice..”

“14-4 this season, he’s re-engaged that fanbase, he’s got a legitimate final four contender…” he continued.

Parrish makes a moving point. Given Kentucky’s recent success, the widespread expectation via the national media that they’d be an SEC bottom feeder has been swept under the rug. Pope’s case for NCOTY becomes far more prevalent considering just about everybody had counted him out across the board.

“There are other first-year coaches around the country doing great work… but nobody is doing more than Mark Pope at Kentucky.”

Parrish was quick to mention Louisville’s Pat Kelsey, who’s led the Cards to an 15-5 (8-1) record, as well as second place in the ACC. He also noted Darian Devries at WVU, who has mounted one of the most compelling resumes in the country for the 23-rd ranked Mountaineers. Both coaches are certainly worthy candidates…

“Nobody is Doing More”

But again, in the words of Parrish, “nobody is doing more” than Pope, who’s taken a team of last-minute transfers and made them legitimate championship contenders, as well as awoken a fanbase who’d been long asleep.

It’s more than the product on the floor, but at 14-4, he’s done well there too. Kentucky will have to keep winning for Coach Pope to stay in the conversation, but if he and the team retain their momentum, there won’t be a better pick for the award than the rightful heir of Camelot himself.

Gary Parrish isn’t alone in his opinion, as multiple other analysts, including ESPN’s Jay Williams, have Pope has their choice for Coach of the Year as well.

Many Kentucky fans have been waiting eagerly hoping for an injury update on Kerr Kriisa, and on Monday evening Coach Pope gave us an update.

During his weekly radio show Mark Pope had this to say on Kerr Kriisa’s injury, “Kerr is getting to that point where his recovery has been completely predictable and scripted,” Pope said. “We’re going to know more in the next few weeks about whether this is going to kind of turn the corner and be really quick on the quicker side, or if this is going to be a more complicated recovery.

Kriisa suffered a broken foot in the game vs Gonzaga on December 7th. The original timeline for Kriisa’s injury was 3-6 weeks, we are currently already at the 6-week mark for his injury.

Although this update doesn’t lead us to believe that Kerr will be returning in the very near future, he has made some strides in his recovery. Kriisa has been spending small segments where he is moving around without his walking boot which is a positive.

From the sounds of the update, don’t expect Kriisa to return in the next couple of weeks. We are most likely looking at a timeline that is very late in the regular season or possibly even during the SEC Tournament play.

However, if Kriisa isn’t able to return this season he will have a great argument to earn a medical redshirt and return to Kentucky for another season.

Andrew Carr

Another key injury that Kentucky has been dealing with lately is the injury with Andrew Carr. Carr has been playing through a lower back injury for weeks now. You can clearly see the injury affecting him during game time as he does not look 100%

Carr was only able to contribute 18 minutes in Saturday’s game against Alabama although that was partly due to foul trouble as well.

“[He’s] undergoing every treatment under the sun,” Pope said Monday. “He was with a specialist today and got a new treatment that we’re hopeful about. He’s working hard. We have the best performance team there is.” Pope said Monday via his Radio Show.

“When you go back and watch film of the game Saturday, there are times when you can see the pain just plastered all over his face as he’s trying to run back and transition defense,” Pope said on Andrew Carr.

Pope also added how difficult lower back injuries can be for players and more specifically for big men.

Coach Pope is hopeful that this bye week can help get Andrew Carr back to full strength.

Kentucky will be back in action Saturday when they travel to Nashville for a face-off with Vanderbilt.

Kentucky came into the matchup versus the Tide as a slight favorite after a big win over No. 11 Texas A&M. Kentucky was playing host to a top-five team nationally and one of the best guards in the nation Mark Sears.

Kentucky fought and battled with the Crimson Tide till the last buzzer but fell short of their sixth straight win over a top-15 opponent Alabama’s Mark Sears and Grant Nelson were a major factor in Alabama’s win combining for 49 points and 11 assists which propelled the tide over the Cats, who scored 102 points.

Giving up that many points is not a recipe for success, but it has been a trend as the Wildcats have given up 80 or more points in seven of their last eight games against power opponents.

Nate Oats knows a little bit about that as Alabama made a Final Four last season, with a late-season defensive turnaround. He believes Kentucky is capable of doing that this year.

“I’m sure (Mark Pope) is going to try to get them to be a little better than we were last year, because we weren’t very good,” Oats said, referencing his Final Four team from last season “I think we weren’t even in the top 100 there to close the year out. If your offense is good enough, you can get yourself enough wins. Again, I think they’ve got the personnel to be a pretty good defensive team.”

Oats went on to highlight Lamont Butler and Amari Williams who both won Defensive Player of the Year awards before their time at Kentucky, and even Andrew Carr who he complimented on his toughness and intelligence.

Kentucky’s next game is Saturday against the Vanderbilt Commodores in Nashville at 2:30 EST and the game can be found on ESPN as the Cats take on the Upset mined Commodores who look to take down their second straight top 10 team last being Tennessee.