"This team has way more potential than people maybe think" - Kentucky HC Mark Pope gets real about his first practice stint with the Wildcats

Mark Pope and the Kentucky Wildcats' roster of transfer portal signees held their first practice on Monday. From June through August, teams are allowed to practice for four hours before the start of the semester.

Speaking to the Lexington Herald-Leader before the practice, Mark Pope said:

“You guys are going to get tired of me talking about connective tissue, but to build the connective tissue and the special sauce of what makes teams great, I’m just grateful that we’re here right now and we can start doing that in massive earnest. I think this team has way more potential than maybe people think."

“The question is, how good can we be at tapping into it and helping all the pieces fit together with a synergy that makes our whole way bigger than the sum of our parts?”

Following John Calipari's resignation, the entire Kentucky team entered the transfer portal and high recruits decommitted. This meant that Coach Pope and his staff had to rebuild the roster entirely with pieces from the transfer portal. Pope also signed some of his high recruits from his previous BYU team to the Wildcats.

Mark Pope and Kentucky get off to a great start with practice session 1

The official Kentucky MBB X handle posted clips from the practice session later with all players practicing their shooting and passing skills. When talking to the players before the start of practice, Mark Pope said;

“Be creative and figure it out. Today, we’re going to go superfast. I’m going to throw a ton of terms at you guys. You guys know all the concepts. You just don’t know my words for them. We’re gonna go fast.

“I want you to take all of the information you can, and I want you to go 100%, full speed ahead, ok? If we make mistakes, we’ll correct them. That’s what we do out here. We go out on the practice court, and we make mistakes, ok? Ton of joy. Ton of juice. Let’s go!”

Previously, Mark Pope shared his goals for the upcoming season and added that the championship was what they were aiming for.

"If you want to posture for, like, ‘Hey, we’re gonna build this and we’re gonna go step by step, and we’re gonna celebrate a Final Four,’ then go to any other school in the country. You can’t do that here at Kentucky,” he said to WDRB's Tyler Greever (via On3)

The team would need time to build chemistry before they can achieve results on the court and these practice sessions are crucial to assess the Wildcats' chances for the season.

What do you think of the new roster? Do you think Mark Pope has all the pieces needed to win Kentucky's ninth championship? Let us know in the comment section below.