Kentucky men’s basketball coach Mark Pope reacts to March Madness loss
Following a 78-65 loss to Tennessee in the 2025 NCAA men’s basketball March Madness tournament, Kentucky coach Mark Pope expressed pride for his players. “We’ll be talking about these guys 10 years from now,” Pope.
Karl-Anthony Towns on Friday was inducted into the UK Athletics Hall of Fame.The 2014-15 Kentucky roster featured nine future NBA players, including Towns and Devin Booker.Towns credits the team’s success and 38-0 start to the players’ willingness to sacrifice for the group.He advised the current Kentucky team to appreciate the present moment and the honor of playing for the program.
LEXINGTON — In terms of a collection of talent, few teams — if any — can rival Kentucky basketball‘s 2014-15 roster. Nine members of that squad went on to play in the NBA; some more than others. That group of Wildcats always will be remembered fondly by UK fans. And it continues to be lauded outside of the Bluegrass State for its awe-inspiring figure of future professionals.
Karl-Anthony Towns hopes that’s not the only way history recalls he and his teammates.
As he noted Friday evening, college basketball has been littered with clubs featuring soon-to-be pros up and down the roster.
It’s a far shorter list of teams that can rival the array of accomplishments of the iconic Kentucky group of a decade ago.
“Assembling talent, and having talent work together, is two different things. … (Not all talented teams can) work with each other,” Towns said Friday, prior to his induction into the UK Athletics Hall of Fame. “I think what makes us so special was the amount of sacrifice to have someone like D-Book (Devin Booker) — who now, the whole Kentucky team is wearing his shoes — be on the bench for our team. It just shows the depth our team had.”
That team, the most recent from UK to reach the Final Four, won its first 38 games. Though it fell to Wisconsin in the national semifinals, Towns couldn’t be prouder.
“It shows the sacrifice everyone was willing to make, that we were willing to get Kentucky, the team, wins more than what we thought could raise our draft stocks,” he said. “Us sacrificing for each other, and for Lexington, rose all our draft stocks to a level that I don’t think many of us could have thought of, let alone for me being the No. 1 pick.”
Towns made another point clear Friday: While he’s part of UK’s 2025 induction class, it’s not his honor alone.
“We made the Hall of Fame,” he said. “This is me just representing my whole team, the coaching staff that was with me and all the amazing fans that supported us. For us to make the Hall of Fame is really important, and I think that it just speaks volumes to the legacy we were all able to leave here as a team.”
The second-leading scorer, leading rebounder and shot blocker, All-SEC first-team selection and consensus second-team All-American for the 2014-15 Wildcats, Towns was one of six inductees in the UK Hall of Fame’s 2025 class, joining Abbey Cheek-Ramsey (softball), Makayla Epps (women’s basketball), Doug Flynn (baseball/men’s basketball/broadcaster), Sonia Hahn (women’s tennis) and Josh Hines-Allen (football).
Legacy was on Towns’ mind well before he arrived to Friday’s ceremony, though. Earlier that day, he met with the current crop of UK men’s basketball players.
He imparted upon them the same advice he received when he was in their shoes: Be in the present.
“Let’s not kid ourselves: When you got ‘Kentucky’ across your chest and you’re playing for the basketball team, you’re the rock stars in Lexington. You’re the most famous athletes and people in all Lexington,” Towns said. “So my advice to them was, ‘Just try to make everyone proud. Show everyone what it truly means to be a Kentucky Wildcat. Treat everyone with respect, have tremendous amounts of humility and appreciate this moment.’
“Not many people get to call themselves a Kentucky Wildcat. Not many people get the chance to step into Rupp Arena and represent the crowd here and the amazing fan base we have here.”
Much as Mark Pope has frequently stated since taking over the program, Towns believes wearing UK’s blue-and-white uniform is “one of the biggest honors” a basketball player can obtain.
“Don’t worry about the future. Don’t worry about the possibility of the NBA and money and all that stuff,” he said, recalling more of his message to the 2025-26 crew. “I just want them to live in the present and enjoy this moment. You may never be in another room with that much talent ever again.
“If anyone could tell them that, I definitely can.”
Reach Kentucky men’s basketball and football reporter Ryan Black at rblack@gannett.com and follow him on X at @RyanABlack.