When Mark Pope was first hired by Kentucky in April, the biggest concern was if he could recruit. Within weeks, he assembled a staff and recruited the fifth-ranked transfer portal, including the likes of Jaxson Robinson, Amari Williams, and Lamont Butler.

Now nearly six months later, Pope has gotten some big high school recruiting victories, receiving commitments from five-star prospects Malachi Moreno and Jasper Johnson. While early, the Cats currently have a top-five class for 2025 and are the only program with multiple five-star commitments. Still going after multiple top names, the class is far from finished. In fact, another commitment may be on the horizon.

In an interview with the Sources Say Podcast, talking about his recruiting, Pope said that is currently in a chess match for one recruit.

“Recently, in the fall — I can’t name names, but we’re trying all kinds of different things,” Pope said. “I’m a terrible, terrible chess player, but I love doing it. I do have one intense chess match on the board with a recruit that is for a commitment.”

“We’ll see if that comes to fruition. We’ll see. Details to come.”

Who could this player be? The Wildcats are still pursuing multiple five-star targets, but Pope’s comments are likely about Acaden Lewis or Caleb Wilson.

The former, a four-star combo guard, is expected to make a decision in early November, and will be in town for Big Blue Madness this Friday. The latter, a unanimous top-10 prospect, has been rumored to move his timeline up as well, however, there have been conflicting reports.

Only time will tell…

In recent years, one of Kentucky fans’ biggest complaints outside of the lack of NCAA Tournament success has been the ugly, unsymmetrical Central Bank decals that have disgraced the Rupp Arena court.

“No excuse for a place like KENTUCKY to have makeshift stickers on its playing floor for the past three seasons,” Chris Fisher wrote on X/Twitter. “None.”

After three years of complaints, Rupp Arena finally paid $200,000 for a new hardwood court to be installed last season. A beautiful two-toned court that featured symmetrical logos and an outline of the state of Kentucky.

However, it was used for just one game, which was an 80-73 loss to UNC-Wilmington. For the remainder of the season, the old court was used with little explanation as to why. There was speculation that the old court was faulty and the manufacturer has now confirmed it.

“The floor had a little bit more flexibility in it than what we like,” Kevin Price, the regional manager of Robbins, the company that manufactured the court, said.

Robbins is looking to sell that one-off court at a discounted price. Fortunately, they have replaced and installed a new technically improved court at Rupp Arena this summer. This year’s team has already had the opportunity to practice on it.

As for the old court, which was used from 2001 to last season, it is set to be cut and sold in pieces to fans. “From a paperweight to a piece of furniture,” Brian Sipe, the general manager of Central Bank Center said.

With the manufacturer admitting the court was faulty, can we smudge that loss to UNC-Wilmington off the record books?

Playing basketball at the University of Kentucky isn’t for everyone. In the history of the program, hundreds of athletes have had to deal with the good and bad of representing the program, and many have struggled. Only more recently has it become more acceptable for athletes to open up about their struggles with mental health.

In just the last couple of seasons, multiple Wildcats have done so, such as Jacob Toppin, Justin Edwards, and Zvonimir Ivisic. To help each of those players, John Calipari contacted renowned sports psychologist Bob Rotella and each player has credited Rotella in their path towards better mental health.

Mark Pope is using sports psychologists to help his players as well, doing so on a daily basis.

In a practice update, UK Sports Network’s Cameron Mills shared that Pope had contacted the UK Department of Psychology and asked for their expertise. What that led to was a licensed psychologist attending every practice, yet to miss one. What are they watching for? Body language and visual cues that may suggest things like negative feelings or a lack of confidence.

In attendance for practice earlier this week, Mills recounted talking to one of the psychologists. In that practice, she had noticed a player who looked to be losing confidence. She went straight to Coach Pope to inform him, which caused his interactions with that player to change for the rest of practice to raise that confidence.

Sports psychology is not new, nor is it new at Kentucky. However, this is the first time that it is being monitored daily in the program, which is certainly a positive. Keeping player’s minds right will help them on and off the court.