Basketball is often just a game of numbers. It's wins and losses, shooting percentages, turnover margins, and analytical outputs crunched in a lab. But for Mark Pope, Collin Chandler, and the 2025 Kentucky Wildcats, the game is often a reflection of something much deeper and more meaningful.
Following Kentucky’s emotional comeback win over Tennessee in Knoxville, the Kentucky basketball head coach and his sophomore guard shared a quiet moment that had nothing to do with X’s and O’s. They talked about a currant bush.
The story comes from an old parable in the LDS church, originally told by Hugh B. Brown. It tells of a gardener who takes a wild currant bush that is way overgrown, and he prunes it relentlessly. He cuts and cuts, cutting it down until it is nothing but stumps. The bush, in the story, cries out, asking why its growth was destroyed and why it was left in such a bad state. The gardener replies: "I am the gardener here, and I know what I want you to be... I want you to be a currant bush, and someday, when you are laden with fruit, you are going to say, 'Thank you, Mr. Gardener, for loving me enough to cut me down.'"
When asked to elaborate on that conversation before taking on Texas, Mark Pope didn’t shy away from the spiritual foundation that anchors both him and Chandler.
"Yeah, I mean it's a faith-driven story, of course, and I'm a believer 100%," Pope said. "But for me as a person that relies so much on my faith, it's incredibly comforting to know that when I'm facing adversity, it's really not the end of the story. It's just a necessary part of the process."
Last season Pope said he played Joy In The Morning al ot and it had become his favorite song. He believes good things are always around the corner if you just keep going.
A necessary pain to be great
For a Kentucky team that has undergone massive struggles this year, blowout losses, roster doubts, and public criticism, the metaphor hits home. The team hasn't just been losing; they have been pruned.
Pope believes that the pain this team has endured wasn't a punishment. It was preparation for something special.
"I believe that for our team when we're facing adversity, it's not the end of the story. It's a necessary, painful part of the process for us to actually become something great."
He related it to the very nature of athletics: You go into the weight room to literally tear your muscles down so they can grow back stronger. But without that tearing, without the cutting of the currant bush, there is no fruit. There is only potential that never materializes. You get stronger after you get weaker.
"It's my whole life as an athlete. It's my life as a parent and a husband, and it's everything that I've lived through. So, it rings true to me and I believe it. It brings you incredible peace when you're going through the adversity, right? Just to know that there's a purpose, and the purpose is all about growing and learning."
Kentucky is finally starting to see the first signs of fruit on the vine. The comeback wins and the toughness in hostile environments are proof that the roots are growing deep. They just have to keep it going.
"I love the talk," Pope said. "I love the parable. I love the whole thing."
Joy will come in the morning.