Rupp Arena exploded. A beat later, Pope smiled, paused for long moment, and said, “Sometimes no words are the most powerful words of all.”
Pope meant SHEPHERD, as in men with a shepherd’s crook tending sheep. The audience heard SHEPPARD, as in phenomenal freshman Reed Sheppardwho may or may not snub the NBA for a sophomore season in Lexington.
“I promise he didn’t mean to do that,” Lee Anne said. “He uses that phrase all the time and has for years.”Lee Anne Pope was still laughing while emphatically attempting to explain her husband’s hilarious faux pas in front of 22,000 Kentucky basketball fans Sunday at Rupp Arena.During his introductory press conference, Mark Pope was explaining a coach’s responsibility to nurture and development players, saying simply, “Our job as coaches is we get to be shepherds.”
I talk about being a shepherd all the time because it’s an important part of coaching,” Pope explained one day later on his first radio show. “The most important part of coaching is shepherding these young kids through this incredible experience and helping them take full advantage of the opportunity to grow.”
Given his devout stand for God, that’s easy to believe. But everyone must admit, even if an accident, it was brilliant. As I heard the word come out of my mouth, I’m like, you know, let’s just let this hang in the air for just a second,” Pope said. “And in the perfect simpatico relationship that we have with Big Blue Nation, everybody jumped on it really quick. It was brilliant. I actually loved it.”
Shep is one of my great friends,” Pope said. “We’ve battled together and had an unbelievable experience together. We lived in each other’s relative mess as roommates and the whole deal. So just to have that in front of all of Big Blue Nation, and to see him react, was delightful to me. I actually loved that.”For the record, Pope wasn’t lobbying, but he wouldn’t argue if No. 15 decided to return to Kentucky.”Reed is in that elite air status where he’s a lottery pick,” Pope said. “He’s going to be the fourth or fifth or sixth or seventh pick in the NBA draft and that is not something to be taken lightly. It’s really extraordinary.