The Kentucky Wildcats have only played the Gonzaga Bulldogs three total times. There isn't much history to work with on the front, but Kentucky's head coach, Mark Pope, has faced Gonzaga 11 times over the course of his career. The results from those contests have been frustrating for Pope. He has only been able to beat them once in those 11 attempts. He's hoping this Kentucky team will lead him to his second victory over Gonzaga.
He's never had the talent level that he's had or will be able to bring in at Gonzaga, and his BYU squad was only able to beat the Bulldogs one time during Pope's tenure in the WCC. It was the 2019 season, in which BYU was ranked 23rd when they faced off against the 2nd-ranked Gonzaga Bulldogs. Pope's Cougars were able to win 91-78.
When asked if his familiarity with Gonzaga would help them in this contest, Pope laughed and said, "Maybe or maybe I just have a lot of PTSD. We'll see." His times coaching against Mark Few have been frustrating, to say the least.
"I'm really familiar with them. Coach [Few] is really familiar with me and the way that we try to approach the game. We've had some epic battles and he's come out on the winning side of too many of those. Hopefully, we will start to even that out a little bit but there's certainly a lot of familiarity between the two coaches. "Mark Pope
The first game that Mark Pope ever coached against Mark Few and Gonzaga was when Pope was coaching at Utah Valley in only his second year as a head coach. It was a buy game for Gonzaga and the very first game of the season. Gonzaga won 92-69. It was Pope's introduction to Few, and he was impressed not only with his ability to coach but also with who Few is as a person.
Pope said this about the first meeting: "He's been a great friend, and he's one of the best people in the business. He's just a special person; I'll never forget my first head coaching job at Utah Valley. We did a buy game at Gonzaga, and I had known Coach [Few] as an assistant... we were in the game, and then it got away from us like you would expect it would in the end...it's early in [my] coaching career, and I'm trying to collect myself in the locker room afterward...Finally, I walked out of the locker room, and Coach Few was just standing there. There's no one left in the building, and Coach Few is just waiting out there to talk."
This sort of memory stuck with Mark Pope as a young coach to be able to learn from and be encouraged by an older coach and veteran coach. While he respects Few and continues to think of him as one of the best coaches in the business, he wants to beat him on Saturday with his new Kentucky lineup. He thinks this is the team to do it.