Walker thinks Pope needs to show tough love
Published 7:00 am Tuesday, February 3, 2026
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Kentucky men’s basketball coach Mark Pope’s demeanor might be better suited for NBA players instead of college players, according to former UK All-American Kenny Walker. (VICKY GRAFF)
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Kentucky volleyball coach Craig Skinner anticipates Notre Dame transfer Morgan Gaerte will make a big jump in her play at UK. (VICKY GRAFF)
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Greg Williams, father of Kentucky sophomore Kam Williams, believes it just took time for players to learn their roles and how to win. (KENTUCKY ATHLETICS)
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Peyton Plotts hit a team-best .359 for Kentucky last year, but coach Rachel Lawson says she can make hard contact on a bigger variety of pitches this season. (VICKY GRAFF)
Former Kentucky All-American Kenny Walker knows UK fans are unhappy with how men’s basketball coach Mark Pope’s team has played much of this season and some were even questioning if Pope should be back for a third season before Kentucky’s upset win at Arkansas last Saturday.
“I am not one to get into anything about firing anyone. I know it takes a special (person) to be the coach at Kentucky with all the press (media) and great coaches you are following and being compared to all of them,” Walker said. “Those are some big shoes to fill. I want the best for him. He’s a good guy, a former UK player.”
Walker played in the 1984 Final Four at Kentucky and was a consensus first-team All-American in 1986. He was a two-time SEC Player of the Year and the fifth overall pick in the 1986 NBA Draft who won the NBA slam dunk contest in 1989. He scored 2,080 points, grabbed 942 rebounds, handed out 153 assists, blocked 122 shots and made 118 steals in 132 career games at Kentucky. He trails only Dan Issel (2,138) and Jack Givens (2,080) on UK’s all-time scoring list.
His 1984 team lost 63-58 at Tennessee, a game Walker knew UK should have won. It reminded him of the 80-55 beatdown that Kentucky took at Vanderbilt last week.
“After the game we got into the locker room and there was UK president Otis Singletary and athletic director Cliff Hagan along with (coach) Joe Hall. Coach Hall told us how disappointed he was that nobody showed up to play. The president got on us. Cliff Hagan chewed us out. That was our last loss until we played Georgetown in the Final Four,” Walker said.
“You hate to lose but the president, AD and coach and everybody else is holding you accountable and demanding that you play with more effort and heart than you showed, that’s a strong message that propelled us to get back to business.
“At some point Mark has got to try and do something to get the attention of these guys and make them understand the great opportunity they have at Kentucky. Mark is an outstanding guy and outstanding coach but he has to make some very tough decisions about playing time, personnel, offensive/defensive philosophy. He has to do some soul searching.”
Pope obviously did that before Kentucky played at Arkansas. He tinkered with practice routines and for the first time this season UK did not fall behind by double digits in a game away from Rupp Arena. The win put UK at 6-3 in Southeastern Conference play after an 0-2 start, but overall UK is still 15-7 with some perplexing losses.
Oklahoma at home and South Carolina could still be the only remaining games UK will be favored to win this season. Kentucky has a 4-7 record after its win over Arkansas against teams projected to make the NCAA Tournament or are bubble teams in ESPN’s Bracketology.
Walker understands the team has had injuries to key players Jaland Lowe, Jayden Quaintance and Kam Williams. However, that does not excuse other players from not playing with maximum effort.
“If you are going to show up, let’s play and give whatever we have got. To just repeatedly see us start the games the way we do too often is very frustrating to me,” Walker said. “You can change your style of play.
“I don’t care about NIL deals. You go out and play for the team and the pride of your teammates. If you give effort and lose, Kentucky fans can live with that. But if you don’t give maximum effort, Kentucky fans are not going to be happy and I don’t blame them.”
Otega Oweh, UK’s leading scorer again this year, understands what Walker means.
“The last time we played (against Vanderbilt) we didn’t do a good job representing Kentucky,” Oweh said after scoring 24 points against Arkansas. “We had to sit with that for a few days and then come back and clean this up. We had a bad outing (at Vanderbilt). That’s not who we are.”
Pope’s first Kentucky team probably overachieved and reached the Sweet 16. His second team has been way more up and down, with road wins at Tennessee and Arkansas but beatdowns against other teams.
“Last year’s team had good 3-point shooters and fifth-year seniors who knew it was their last year of college basketball and needed to show what they could do. They all played hard, played together, were good 3-point shooters and a big man (Amari Williams) who could play the high pick and roll very well,” Walker said.
“I want Pope to go get a big name national high school recruit or two and then go to the portal and instead of getting guys who have been backup players go for starters like Florida did with Boogie Fland (of Arkansas). You got to swing big in the portal. He also has to get guys who are healthy and can contribute right away.”
Pope’s demeanor has also been questioned by many, especially after huge losses to Gonzaga, Michigan State and others. He’s mild mannered on the sideline and can come across as being too nice even though he did get hit with a technical foul at Arkansas.
“If he was a NBA coach with a veteran team he would be the perfect coach. Older guys know their responsibilities. In college, you have to teach and coach and show tough love. Coach Hall was a nice guy publicly and did the right things with fans, but there was a darker side of him in practice that he had to have. Thank God there was no social media or talk shows then,” Walker said.
“Nice is great. Tubby (Smith) is a perfect example of a nice guy, but you could see on the sideline his eyes were about to pop out of his head if you screwed up. I don’t know what he said behind closed doors but he was steaming. Rick Pitino would explode. You can only be a nice guy to a certain extent before you have to put your foot down.”
Walker said sometimes that tough love/discipline can mean making an example out of star players if they are not playing team basketball.
“You have to punish star players like anybody else. That is old-school thinking, but now if you don’t like what a coach is doing a player can go to the NBA or to another team. Rules hamper coaches from having that old-school mentality as much, but you have to have some of it. You can’t just give in to them and be their buddy,” Walker said.
Walker didn’t see the huge win coming at Arkansas. Now he hopes the win can be a turning point for UK.
“A lot of times when we get down it turns into a lot of one-on-one basketball. Confidence drops and you see a lot of bickering on the court. But when this team is fighting and playing together like it did against Arkansas your confidence goes way up,” Walker said. “You have to be able to sustain that. Whether you are winning or not, play with that attitude every night, give yourself a chance and Kentucky fans will embrace you.”
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Kentucky volleyball added Eva Hudson of Purdue and Molly Berezowitz of Marquette in the 2025 transfer portal. Coach Craig Skinner’s team reached the national title game, with Hudson earning SEC Player of the Year honors and Berezowitz becoming one of the team’s inspirational leaders.
Kentucky lost three players — Brooke Bultema, Ava Sarafa and Jordan Dailey — to the transfer portal this offseason but also added Notre Dame outside hitter Morgan Gaerte, who has two years of eligibility left.
The 6-foot-5 Gaerte was a first-team all-ACC selection. She started 28 matches and had 497 kills, the most by a Notre Dame player in the rally-scoring era and third most ever by a Notre Dame player. She averaged 4.64 kills per set and had 10 or more kills in 22 straight matches.
“Excited for Morgan and what she currently can do, but I think more importantly what she will be able to do once she gets immersed in our training and our strength program,” Skinner said. “She’s an incredible point scorer.
“We don’t know exactly what that looks like. Is it on the left (or) is it on the right, but she has the ability to terminate the ball, and when you’re scoring the way she was on a team, a non-NCAA tournament team, that tells you a lot.
“Everyone knew where the ball was going when she was playing at Notre Dame. For someone as tall as she is to be able to serve, receive with a decent ability to block … her blocking presence, even if she doesn’t block, it will make people think about where to attack the ball when she’s there. Just the quality of kid she is and the confidence and belief that she has in herself, I think there’s endless possibilities with a player like her.”
The Angola, Indiana, native was the No. 5 ranked player in her recruiting class by Volleyball Magazine in 2023. Her club coach was Lloy Ball, a four-time Olympian and 2008 gold medalist. Skinner and Ball have known each other since college.
“I trust his instincts and what he’s saying about people. He knows me and knows our program and what type of players work well with me and what we’re doing,” Skinner said. “Programs like this aren’t for everybody.
“We’re trying to be really good, so it’s time consuming and he knows that is what she’s wants. You put a lot of faith in your people and then people that you know around the volleyball world when you are deciding about who to bring into your program.”
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Sophomore Kam Williams seemed to be getting more and more comfortable in coach Mark Pope’s offense, but now he could be out for the year after needing surgery to repair a bone fracture in his foot.
Williams’ father, Greg, believes there were still more things his son had in his game to show UK fans.
“There are things that you haven’t seen that he can do, but there’s a dynamic on any team,” Greg Williams said. “When he came to Kentucky, there’s no doubt that this was Otega Oweh’s team. You have to defer to that guy. But then you also have other people who were the guy on their teams.
“Jaland Lowe, he was a leader at Pitt. Denzel Aberdeen, although he was a reserve at Florida, is a very good player. You have to kind of fit in to have everything flow.”
Greg Williams credits Oweh, UK’s leading scorer, and Aberdeen for telling Williams he needed to do more.
“I think Kam got comfortable like that. They are doing the same thing for Jasper (Johnson), Malachi (Moreno) and even (Andrija) Jelavic,” Greg Williams said. “They are saying, ‘If you feel it flow, then do. Just don’t do anything crazy.’ ”
Greg Williams said Pope “basically wants every player to do what he was brought in to do without fear” and cherish the playing time he gets.
“Jelavic is a 6-foot-11 stretch guy. He can shoot the 3. The last few games, he’s not afraid to pull the 3,” Greg Williams said. “He’s out there defending. Jelavic has finally seen Mark Pope’s vision for him and is embracing it.
“What you were seeing from Kam was coach Pope telling him to do what he can do from 3 or backing the guy down. That’s what Pope wants him to do.”
Greg Williams understands the struggles freshman Jasper Johnson has had understanding his role.
“He was brought here to shoot the 3, defend, make a great pass,” he said. “He is a scoring two guard that’s being asked to be a distributing point guard. That’s tough, but Jasper is doing what they are asking of him and doing all he can to help the team.”
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Junior outfielder Peyton Plotts hit a team-best 359 and also led Kentucky with 16 home runs, 15 doubles and 54 RBIs in 2025.
“She has not exceeded any of my expectations because I think she is that good,” Kentucky softball coach Rachel Lawson said. “Every year I tell players that their goal is to increase what you do.”
Plotts was ranked as the No. 38 overall player for this class by Extra Innings Softball coming out of Tates Creek High School. She hit .306 her freshman season at UK with eight homers in 50 games.
She has started 86 games in two seasons and played in 109 games. She has a career .339 batting average with 98 hits, 80 RBIs, 24 homers and 21 doubles. Lawson believes she can be even better this year.
“Peyton has really taken it to heart to improve and the number of pitches she can make hard contact on has gone way up. She has always had a great spray chart. She has a great mind for the game,” Lawson said.
“Even this winter you could tell she had made some slight adjustments to get to other pitches the other teams used to get here out. I have watched her continue to grow. She is a very humble athlete who just does the work.”
Plotts leads in her own way.
“She is a genius and an incredibly high emotional leader. Her ACT (test score) was off the chart,” the Kentucky coach said. “She is not loud-spoken, but when she speaks it is gold and people listen.
“She is more the type to pull people aside and say, ‘Try thinking this way.’ Her parents are that way and she takes that role in her leadership aspect.”
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Quote of the Week: “He continues to grow in his understanding and attempts to scheme and manipulate with our guys in how to do it. He’s got an unbelievable future as a passing big. He’s barely scratching the surface, but the surface is pretty good,” Kentucky coach Mark Pope, on Malachi Moreno’s passing skills.
Quote of the Week 2: “I heard this place looks pretty awesome during the spring and in the summer when everything gets green again. I haven’t really had anything to do with horses in my life, but I’d definitely like to catch a horse race or something during the spring. I heard it’s a pretty cool experience,” Alabama offensive line transfer Olaus Alinen of Finland, on adjusting to life in Kentucky.
Quote of the Week 3: “The statement is they want any smoke that comes their way. It don’t matter if they don’t have a point guard if they play defense like that. They can get buckets in transition because they have some great athletes,” SEC Network analyst Ron Slay, on UK’s win at Arkansas.
