“I’m super passionate about it”: Kentucky HC Mark Pope dishes words of wisdom to explain team’s “gratitude circle”

With Thanksgiving just a couple of days away, Kentucky head coach Mark Pope took the opportunity to discuss gratitude on the first episode of his radio show, 'The Mark Pope Show.' Notably, Pope shared that he doesn't limit his celebrations to Thanksgiving Day or the surrounding week.

Speaking on his call-in show, he revealed the importance of daily gratitude for both himself and his team.

"We talked about this from day one, it’s something that is near and dear to my heart. One of the things about the successful makeup of a team, one of the foundational principles. We have a core philosophy... one of them is gratitude," Pope said during his call-in radio show on Nov. 25. "Gratitude needs to be practiced. I’ll say this, and you’ll hear me say this a million times, but there are very few things that I will say are absolute, 100% truths."

"Everything I tell my players, it’s all the numbers, ‘Well, there is a 62% chance you’ll have this outcome.’ A 100% truth, as much as I know anything in life, is that you cannot be more happy than you are grateful. This is just a true principle of life," he added. "I’m super passionate about it."

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Pope brought the concept of the gratitude circle from BYU this season, and the Wildcats have embraced it since his first day on the job.

"We have a gratitude circle where we practice gratitude. You can actually get better at being grateful, you can actually practice it," Pope said. "Our guys practice it and they’re great at it."

"We do a gratitude circle after practice where we’ll go around and play gratitude tag. One of the guys will say what they’re grateful for, then tag someone else on the team... They talk about what they’re grateful for and it’s a beautiful thing." he concluded.

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Mark Pope and the Wildcats are off to a hot start this season

In Pope's first season with Kentucky, he's led them to a 5-0 start, including a win over Cooper Flagg and Duke. Pope will hope this hot start translates to long-term success as he begins his tenure in Kentucky.

Their next outing on the parquet will see them take on Georgia State on November 29 at the Rupp Arena.