The standard of playing for Kentucky basketball is certainly special. As a former player at Kentucky under Rick Pitino, Mark Pope knows all about that standard and what comes with playing at Kentucky, including the fanbase, expectations, and the big stage.

That’s something Pope wanted to instill in his team when he first got to Lexington. Now, Pope and his staff is using last season’s team as an example of the standard that comes with playing in front of twenty thousand fans inside Rupp Arena, representing the name across your chest with pride. Pope’s first team at Kentucky understood that perfectly.

“There’s nowhere like this, and if you come in here not understanding or appreciating that, I actually think you’re chances of success are not very high. Nobody can really understand this until you live it. But the guys that are really successful here come in with a healthy respect for what this is, because it requires more actually. It requires more ability to be non-distracted. It requires more of a giving heart. It requires more of an idea that there’s something bigger than yourself. It requires more of an ability to sacrifice a little bit, and understanding that by sacrificing a little bit of yourself, it actually elevates you. …If you’re gonna accept the incredible opportunity to come play here, you gotta understand that. If you don’t understand it, you’re just not gonna be successful (at Kentucky). If you do understand it, you’re gonna be crazy successful. Our guys last season set a beautiful, brilliant standard of what it means to be a Kentucky basketball player and we actually are leaning on them a lot as we try and describe this.”

– Pope on the program’s standard.

Last season’s squad was filled with players who were grateful for the opportunity to play at Kentucky, and Mark Pope said from the beginning, when he first arrived in Lexington, that he wanted players who understand and appreciate what it means to be able to play at Kentucky, in front of the best fanbase in the country, Big Blue Nation.

The standard of Kentucky basketball in the Mark Pope Era was set at a high bar after his first season, and it seems like the players coming in are understanding that exact standard already without even stepping on the court yet.