What Mark Pope said about Gonzaga before the game: “Dangerous, dangerous team”

Mark Pope, the head coach of the Kentucky Wildcats, met with the media the other day to talk about their loss to Clemson and look ahead to their game against Gonzaga. As the head coach of both BYU and Utah Valley, Pope has played against the Bulldogs almost a dozen times. He knows how they play. He talked about what it’s like to play Gonzaga:

“”Their style is very unique, and they know exactly who they are.” You could almost tell which team it is by the way they play, even if the names weren’t on the jerseys. That’s how they plan and approach the game. It’s going to be an epic journey because they win.”

He was asked to describe the links between Gonzaga and Clemson. A lot of experts have said that the teams are a lot alike, and Pope agrees. He laughed and said that it’s likely that they are friends and trade notes.

“”The head coach of Clemson and Mark Few must be friends. They must be going over what they said. There are some differences, though. They play a lot faster than Michigan, but their post-play is a lot alike. They can use point-to-post, high-low post, side-ball screen away from the ball, and cross-screen movement to get post play. They are used in very similar ways.”

— Mark Pope

He said this about Gonzaga’s game plan against Kentucky: “They pretty much do everything to get the ball into the post.” They want their big men to get the ball and do their thing. You can’t rule out the guards, though, because that may be their best skill. Pope said, “They can beat you in transition, they can beat you from three-point range…”They have three guards who are very dangerous and are very busy right now. “That team is very dangerous.”

He named Khalif Battle and Nolan Hickman as players he has been watching, but he focused on their point guard, Ryan Dembhard. “Ryan Dembhard has about 10.3 assists for every turnover right now.” “Those numbers are crazy; that’s not true.”

Vatican is looking forward to the game and describes it as a “final four type matchup.”