All week, Big Blue Nation has been buzzing about one of Mark Pope's mysterious quotes from his pre-Eastern Illinois press conference. He mentioned a strange "pregame experience at Louisville" that was "out of character" for his team, but refused to elaborate.
After the EIU game, he was asked to finally explain what he meant.
His answer was a bizarre, hilarious, and incredibly media-savvy rant about... Taylor Swift?
“You guys know I’m a big Taylor Swift fan and I just like to leave out these little things that keep everybody wondering and guessing,” Pope said with a smile. “There’s really not much to it. At some point, I will tell you the story. But I would like you guys to prognosticate on that for a couple of more days.”
He wasn't done. He openly admitted to "teasing" the media and the fanbase.
“Thanks for letting that float around for a while. It’s fun, right? It gives you something to write about and guess about and tweet about. I’m going to give you something else today, I’ve got to figure out what it is.”
What was Pope's 'out of character' story?
The coach is fully aware of the narrative-driven world he lives in and is actively playing the game. After joking, however, he did clarify that the original comment was not meaningless.
“By the way, the comment was very genuine, it was super genuine. I’m genuinely trying to, you know, I’m genuinely trying to learn this group for sure. So it wasn’t nonsense,” he said.
He confirmed the "story" was about the "emotional level of our team" and "how we responded."
So, what really happened? We still don't know. But Mark Pope is having fun making us all guess, and in the meantime, he's taking all the pressure off his players and putting it squarely on his own post-game quotes.
Drew Holbrook is an avid Kentucky fan who has been covering the Cats for over 10 years. In his free time he enjoys downtime with his family and Premier League soccer. You can find him on X here. Micah 7:7. #UptheAlbion