UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY BASKETBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

October 6, 2025

Mark Pope

Press Conference

Q. If there was a movie, what would be the actor to play you?

MARK POPE: Could I hire you to do it? You're handsome. You're well-spoken. You got a lot of swag. You remind me so much of myself (laughing).

Q. I think Brad Pitt.

MARK POPE: I will take it. He would make me look way better. Great question. Thank you, my friend.

Q. We know you lot of the analytics and all of that. I'm curious, how many times during a game or over the course of a season do you say, Analytics are telling me this, my gut tells me this, but I'm going that way?

MARK POPE: Every day. Every day. I love the numbers because they can be great teachers, but the numbers also -- you can cook the books in a million different ways, and so you can actually manufacture the numbers to say whatever you want them to say, and sometimes there's a real use for that also.

So it's just one part of the stew. It's something we're always trying to dig into, because they can be a great teacher, but they can also -- you know, our sample sizes never get big enough to make it a sure thing or completely reliable. Analytics are really there to make you ask more questions, but it is not a rule book. I think if you use it that way, you're really short-changing all the other aspects of the game.

Q. When you were evaluating Jaland obviously his shooting percentages weren't there last year. What did you see that made you think --

MARK POPE: You guys set this up, right, because you're going to have me say, you don't always trust the analytics, and then you're telling me to go to the analytics.

A bunch of things. One of the things that really stood out to me is there's a really useful, functional shot quality metric. So what it essentially does is it kind of does a comparison and contrast between every type of shot in the average college basketball player. So if it's a pull-up two from the left wing, it will take all of those shots and kind of give you an expected value from the average college basketball player. If it's a pull-up three in transition, if it's a post move where a second defender comes, it kind of breaks it down that way. It's kind of a shot quality metric, and it takes into account a player's history.

So one of the interesting things about Jaland was, for whatever reason, last year he was in the 95th, 93rd percentile of players in the country taking shots in the bottom 20% of shot quality numbers. We love when we see things like that, because those are things that it doesn't depend on increased skill, it depend doesn't on hours and hours in the gym. It just relies on a new understanding, a new style of play, maybe a new environment, a new way for J-Lowe to approach the game. We can see quick, huge, massive changes when you see numbers like that.

So that's one tiny slice of it. I like the way he owns the shot. I like the way he finishes the shot. I like his fearless nature. All those things translate well to him being a way more efficient player. I like the fact that he can get wherever he wants, whenever he wants off the bounce. That translates him into having huge capacity to being way more efficient. We have big-time expectations.

We got to see a very similar transition from Lamont Butler. He made huge strides, like almost inconceivable strides last year based on a little bit different but a similar trajectory.

Q. What is one thing that you and the staff nailed? What's one thing that surprised you guys good or bad?

MARK POPE: I'm going to keep coming back to this because this is overwhelming every day. This is a competitive group. They love to compete. We have competitive souls on this group.

It's interesting. I'll take D.A. and J-Lowe as examples. They're probably best friends off the court, and then on the court they are just torturing each other every single day. It's so fun to watch.

You know, you have a guy like Collin Chandler, who has grown so much, who is the most kind, mild-mannered, loving guy off the court, and he just wants to rip your heart out on the court right now.

Mo Dioubate has just brought this beautiful, competitive, bully mentality to our team. I could go down the list. That's been really fun.

I do think one of the things I think we're way more mobile. I think we're really, really mobile at all five positions. I think we have a ton of growing ball-handling, ball-moving capacity that I think is going to bode well for us.

Q. Where is an area where maybe you are behind where you were at this stage last preseason?

MARK POPE: The only thing I will say is we're not quite as veteran as we were last year, and that's just going to be a work in progress. We were blessed last year. We had seven super seniors to start the season on the roster. That's hard to replace in that sense.

Our in-game experience was so huge last year in terms of guys. Even though we were brand new, guys hadn't played together. They'd been on the court for an inordinate amount of reps. That's the one thing where I'm, like, Hey, there will be a little bit of a growing process there. Otherwise, I like where we are.

I think our staff has done an unbelievable job, and I think our guys have really tried to buy in. You guys are going to laugh. I'm really excited about this group. Really excited.

Q. Last year you talked about the amazing scorers that brought these guys here to Kentucky and how they were all different. This year you're coming in with returners. You got freshmen. You've got transfers coming in. You got a guy that returns as preseason All American. How is it different handling that pressure and that preseason high from last year? What's this team going to be? I know you say you sign up for this when you come here. What's that like being different to last year?

MARK POPE: It's always the same. It's just always the same. That's what I think anybody outside of Kentucky just will never understand.

Some people might say last year, a veteran team, so there's a lot of pressure to win. This year you have a deep team, so there's a lot of pressure to win. Next year is will be something else.

What you don't understand if you are not here at Kentucky is that this is all the pressure, always. If we had three players on this roster, the expectation would be we would still go one a national championship. That never changes here. It's one of the things that sets Kentucky apart from everyone else.

I don't know what the difference is in the pressure or the expectations. It's the same, and that's why this place is so great, right? It's why we all get to be together in this room together. Even everybody squished in the back, right?

It's Kentucky. It's what it is. You are right about that. That's why you come here, and it is not the right fit for everybody, because you have to love the way that we love it to want to be here. That's a pretty cool thing.

Q. Mark, you think the vigor of this roster makes you guys more -- I guess an improved rebounding team from a physical standpoint?

MARK POPE: Yeah, our staff and our players have done an unbelievable job about making that 100. We have three 100s that we talked about, and so we chart every single wedge, effort, every single live possession of every single practice all summer long. We made great progress.

I do think our mobility -- you know, one of the things that leads to offensive rebounding opportunities is pace, space, and mobility in terms of continuous cutting hard, because it's harder to block out moving targets, especially when they're moving and shots are a little bit unpredictable.

I'm really pleased with where we are there. We're going to have to translate it into games, but I think the focus has been great, both by players and staff.

Q. What's the value of playing games like Purdue and Georgetown?

MARK POPE: We're going to find out. I'm really grateful for it. You know, we thought that this rule was going to pass last year. We thought that last year we were going to be able to play Division 1 opponents in the preseason exhibition games. I love it.

You guys are going to hear me say this over and over again. Man, can we get to 41? I would like to get to 41 games now, but this in a sense let's us go from kind of 31 to kind of 33, and our added 33 is the No. 1 team in the country and a Georgetown team that's going to be really, really good. Ed is in the process of really turning this thing around.

I think it's fun for our fans. I think it's elite for us. Not only do we get to play the preseason No. 1 ranked team in the country, and we get to do it before the season even starts, but they're also a veteran, veteran, veteran team that functions probably better together than any team in the country.

So it's going to test us before the season even starts in a really special way, and we need that. We need that. It gives us great data points to grow and figure things out and challenge us. I love it. I'm really grateful. You know, Matt is probably -- if he's not the best coach in the country, he's one of them, and he's proven that he can do it his way with the guys he does, and he's established a really unique, relevant, incredible culture.

So the fact that we get to start that way, and then follow it up with Ed Cooley, who is just an elite, elite, elite. I can't think of any better way to prepare to start the season than to get to face those two teams.

Q. The only hard thing is they don't know the guys. The transfers that are coming in new. Some of the guys transferred. (Off microphone.)

MARK POPE: Let me try. Jaland Lowe, cat-quick, leader, competitor. D.A., winner, competitor. I'm going to miss some guys. Mo Dioubate, just -- Mo is unique, okay? I can't do one word, because he's got all these sides.

He's got the motivation side. He's got the Mo-D for Kentucky side. He's got the dog side. He's got the incredible, humble, faithful, devoted side. He's got -- I can be a little emotional about Mo. He's got the side where he's going to protect his teammates at all costs no matter whatever, whatever, whatever. This Mo Dioubate is special.

Cam Williams is so fascinating to me right now, because he's a shooter, shooter, shooter, shooter. You guys know what that feels like for me. He's also -- in our last scrimmage he doubled up every other player on the floor on the glass. It was a ten-rebound guy in just 16 minutes of play.

He's got the capacity to be an elite level defensive player. He's learning how to get downhill and make plays, but man, he's just got a high ceiling and eye quiet swag about him. Special. Who else did I miss? You have a sense of J.Q., right? Yes? I could tell stories for days about him. He was just at the house. It just got so depressing. So he was at the house two nights ago, and he was beating me so bad in a game of chess that we invented a new rule where I get to turn the board one time.

So he was beating me so bad. I'm, like, freeze, I'm going to turn the board and you have to play my position and I play yours, and the best I could come out of it was a draw, barely. That's J.Q. Stories for days.

Reece Potter, guys, is a big-time basketball player. We're really blessed to have Reece Potter here. In this time of rev share and NIL being such a huge part of this, Reece Potter was a guy that said, you know what, I'm coming to be a part of Kentucky, and he has given us so much.

Like, he's really special to me. He's a big-time player, and he's going to have a great future in this game. Who else? That's it? Okay.

Q. (Off microphone.)

MARK POPE: Yeah. We spent a ton of time evaluating last year. There were some personnel changes that hurt us defensively. You know, the first after the season we were pretty -- we were really good defensively, and then we just had a major follow-up. Part of it was personnel-driven; part of it was scheme driven.

So we've attacked that on, like, three different sides. We would like to find a way to be way more aggressive. We want to force teams to be more uncomfortable, says and you can do that a bunch of different ways, and we're really trying.

We're trying to push up the boards more. We're going to take shots to extend the floor more. I think we've positionally addressed some mobility things that were tough for us, even though we might be a little smaller than we were last year.

Then just in our practice time just kind of the urgency of it. We've redefined roles on the staff, on the team, and tried to do a major overhaul. I think we were the 51st ranked defensive team in the country, and we would like to be top 10.

That's a Yeoman's task. We would like to be No. 1. If we can slide in the top 10 space, that's going to serve us really well. That's going to be an every second of every day pursuit.

Q. (Off microphone.)

MARK POPE: Yeah. Man, it is so painful to squeeze these into the schedule. Just this morning I had Denzel Aberdeen for a meeting, and I was double-booked. So we canceled the other event to have his time.

It's hard. The day gets really -- sometimes we're doing late night and early morning meetings, but it is -- you know, this is Billy Donavan, man. It's not preparing practice for the players. It's preparing players for practice.

One of our keys to this season is going to be that all of us stay fully engaged. It's going to be one of the greatest great challenges for us this season in that we all are kind of chasing the same vision.

This individual time is really important. The trick is, it's the thing that I love most about coaching. In that sense maybe it's really selfish, but I think it's really valuable, and I think it's important, and we're going to fight like crazy to keep it alive all season long.

Q. What's the latest on Jayden's timeline of return? How do you analyze wanting him to get back with having him 100% for March and also protecting his long-term future?

MARK POPE: Yep, and I don't know exactly the way to strike that balance, but it's really important. The one thing I can tell you is he is, like, breaking every record known to human kind in terms of his rehab. It's unbelievable.

So a month ago B-Wells and Randy came to me and they were, like, Coach -- so these numbers are just insane, okay? So he was at a 46% asymmetry strength-wise, which is fully expected. A month, five weeks ago they came to me and said, Coach, it's down to 3%. Not only is the asymmetry down to 3%, but he's 20% stronger basic kind of in his full leg functioning, both legs, than the average same body type, same size NBA player right now kind of going through the Kanga Tech data.

That's crazy. This dude is a big, strong, hulking, brilliant, humbling for the head coach player who is going to be really fun to coach this year. So time-wise he's just going so fast, but we are going to proceed with extreme caution, because we're going to do -- as fast as he's recovering, we're still -- there's a balance that we're trying to strike where he's got an incredible, incredible future in this game, and we're going to make sure he gets every opportunity to help this team be great and also have an opportunity to go on and do all the great things he's going to do after Kentucky.

Q. (Off microphone.)

MARK POPE: You know, we're all a little bit lemmings. I think watching OKC-Indiana series has got everybody on edge about extending the floor and seeing what impact that has. I think that's got everyone on it. I think we're going to continue to push the envelope on off-the-ball stuff. The off-the-ball stuff, the -- I think as coaches we used to be really good off-the-ball at coaching actions, and I think what's been interesting over the last couple of years is allowing guys to be incredibly creative, taking two and three and four players off the ball.

I think right now there still continues to be this incredible vibe about trying to shrink the floor in weird areas and then space it and shrink it a little bit. So we're seeing all this on the defensive side kind of this brave extending the floor. On the offensive side, kind of this manipulation away from the ball. I think trends continue to push forward.

Q. (Regarding the jump players took.) Now you've had a summer with these guys, what do you think of your returners? What specific aspects of their game are you looking...

MARK POPE: Yeah, so Trent Noah is a 1.76 points per possession in live play right now. I've never seen that number ever in the history of college basketball. I mean, it's only two weeks and -- is this the first day of week three? Trent has made a massive jump.

Collin Chandler is leading the team in DIM right now, in defensive impact metric. Both those guys have made Herculean, massive jumps. Most impressive of all, Brandon Garrison. Write this down. Brandon Garrison is winning conditioning runs at the end of practice. You want to talk about wanting to feel like I don't even know what planet I'm living on right now. I'm so proud of this kid.

Watching those guys grow, and Otega, of course, has been dealing with his toe, but the way he's grown as a leader. I'm just -- sometimes we get confused in this game. I talk about this all the time. Sometimes we get confused, because get confused that we think that what we're really chasing is achievement, and that is wrong. What we're chasing is growth. It is not achievement. Achievement is like a false, fake. It tricks you. It's growth.

These returning players are actually living that right now. Growth is what brings joy and pride and belief, and it makes you walk in the room different. Achievement is fine, but it's fickle, and so out of these second-year guys, man, we're seeing this amazing growth. They feel it, man. They're different. They walk in the room different. I love it. It's the best thing about coaching.

Q. Can you talk about -- you spoke about it a week ago. You said guys had (indiscernible) but he still loves you. What thoughts do you have about whatever that was?

MARK POPE: Man, I want so badly to have fun with this, guys. I just don't -- I'm not sure what direction to go with it.

I do know, because I'm just going to make all of it up. It was really a big nothing, but I want it to be something. I do think that -- I can't decide if I should make up a story or not. It's just -- listen, it's the beauty of this deal is the rivalries, right? I've said this a lot. I think Indiana is going to be way better. I think Louisville is getting way better.

I think our in-state rivals -- or in-conference rivals continue to get way better, and I love every second of it. It's how it's supposed to be. This game is great.

North Carolina is going to be better this year when and they roll in to Rupp. I love when the competition is elite level, and that's what happens. It gets really fun and salty and competitive.

I also am grateful for these incredible coaches. You know, we're at a fun time right now where there are great coaches that are putting their whole heart and soul into this project. Sometimes that can spill over, and it should spill over sometimes, because if it never spills over, that means you're not in it fully, fully in it with your whole heart and soul.

If you are fully in it, then sometimes you step out of bounds. That's fun for fans, and it's fun for coaches, and it's fun for everybody.

Q. (Regarding moments between year one and year two?

MARK POPE: Oh, man. That's a -- you're making me think here. Say that to me one more time.

Q. Is there a game or a moment that shaped your thinking between that year one and year two for yourself?

MARK POPE: Yeah, so many. I don't even know where to start. I'm a growth junkie, and so even where there's not moments that you take as learning, teaching types, we'll rip it apart until we can find some nugget that we can actually get better from.

I don't even know where to start. It's a great question. I'm not sure where to start on that.

Q. (Off microphone.)

MARK POPE: I was actually incredibly proud of our guys last year. That group we had last year, I mean, it's actually unbelievably cool.

For Big Blue Menace we have families coming back, and we have players coming back. The attachment to that group in my heart will never go away. I love those guys. I felt like they managed all of that in a brilliant way, and I think that this year we're capable of doing it even better.

I actually think that's not just the only part of this depth. You know, when I was here, we had nine players go play in the NBA from my team, and so practices were so brutal. They were so competitive. You know, you got to the games, and it felt easier.

I don't know if we're going to have nine players go to the league from this team or not, but it feels so familiar to me where I'm kind of, like, you know what, I got to get these guys off the floor, because they're going to kill each other right now.

I do think that our depth is making us way better in practice. I think it's going to serve us well as we go through the long season and face all the challenge that you face, including injuries.

Q. Are you curious at all about the mental maturity of your team? (Off microphone.)

MARK POPE: Yeah, if we were to beat Purdue by 30, I would be, like, Wow. I would walk into practice and be, like, what just happened? This Purdue team is great, right, so they're a marker of where we're trying to get.

I actually want it. The one great thing about doing this before the season starts is you get all that time to reconstruct. It's just gathering data.

So right now we're actually in practice trying to create those type of situations so we can learn our guys emotionally.

Q. Mark, what do you know about being a head coach that you didn't know a year ago?

MARK POPE: I don't have a great -- I wish I had a better answer. I've always felt like I kind of had some understanding of what this was.

I thought it was going to be the biggest thing in basketball, and I think it's the biggest thing in basketball. I thought it was going to be the most challenging. It's the most challenging. I thought I would love it more than I've ever loved a job and probably more than I will ever love a job in my entire life, and I'm pretty sure that's true.

I thought this was the greatest fan base where the connection matters so much, and I still think that's true. I think it's just -- I mean, I just am grateful that we get to live in it. I'm really grateful.

Q. You talked about being more aggressive on the defensive end. (Off microphone.)

MARK POPE: Yeah, we're thinking about situationally right now. For the first time in practice we're already there. It's not -- you know, it's not every second of every minute of every game, but some places where we will always look to exert some pressure right now going into the season that we plan to until we get exposed different, and even probably after that we'll probably just try and do better. The answer is yes.

We have the personnel, and I think we have the depth, and I think we have the athleticism and the mobility and the determination and togetherness to find a way to be functional extending pressure, which is hard to do. It's harder in college basketball than it's ever been because guys are so skilled, but I think we can do it.

Q. (Off microphone.)

MARK POPE: It's way different. What's incredibly fun, it's not just my returning players that are growing, but it's our staff that is growing so much. You know, as a head coach you do your best on short and limited information about kind of positioning guys in the responsibilities where they're going to excel the most then there's also this growing process of a year ago at this time our staff still had so many questions about, like, Well, what do you do about this, and how do WE do this, and everything else?

Now I feel like we've gravitated guys more into the places where they can be stars on the staff, and we still have so much growth to accomplish as a staff, but I feel like we're in a way different spot. I'm grateful for that. I think we're functioning well together.

Q. (Off microphone.) Specifically about your group just one year into this you and your staff, can you speak to what that experience is like and also how receptive recruits have been to the method?

MARK POPE: Yeah, I think the process is even more fun than it's ever been. I'll continue to say that the most important part of this process for us is not finding the best, highest-ranked player. You would be shocked at how many times we end up mutually walking away because we know what Kentucky is, and finding the right player here doesn't amount to the sum of just going to find whoever someone is ranking the highest player. You can't know that before you get deep into the recruiting process.

The recruiting process, actually I love it so much. The most important thing is that you get to know each other and understand, like, what is really driving a player, and a player needs to understand what's really driving a program. It's not about -- for me at least, the way we want to do it here at Kentucky it's not just about kind of ignoring that part and just grabbing the right talent.

Our locker room again this year is special. I'm telling you that translates. It's a winning formula, and it also represents this place really, really well.

All of that said, that's why recruiting is so fun for us. Even the kids that we recruit really hard that it ends up this is not the right fit for them, like, we've had a chance to build a great relationship. This world is so small, so we're going to cross paths 100 times.

I love the recruiting process, because it gives us the opportunity to know these incredible, young men and their great families and build relationships that will last. I love the guys that are actually ending up here because it fits. Our locker room could be really complicated right now, and there will be times this season where it is.

But, man, at the heart of this deal is a bunch of really incredibly special guys that it may be challenging for some programs to have a group of guys where representing this university, representing the people of the Commonwealth, representing this Kentucky name where that's secondary. It's not with our group, man. That means something to me.

Q. How do you build those relationships in recruiting the portal?

MARK POPE: I think you're just as honest as you can. Every recruit that I've ever recruited this will be familiar. We're talking, and I'll be, like, Come on, disagree with me, argue with me, ask me the uncomfortable question because that's when we know we've started talking. That's it.

Can I get a recruit and a family to be, like, Coach, that's baloney, man, you just said this. I'm, like, Now we're actually having a conversation. We're trusting each other enough to be honest, to really talk about the things that matter.

What's interesting is a lot of times recruits through the process are going through the process of trying to discover themselves about what really matters to themselves. These are young guys, and so that exploratory process of human nature and kind of where they happen to be at their lives is incredibly dynamic.

Every recruit is so unique, and so the sooner we can get down to, like, trusting each other enough to have honest conversations, the hard conversations, the controversial conversations, you know, the stuff that you feel uncomfortable talking about but you probably need to, like then you know that you're somewhere.

The beautiful thing about it is you don't know where you're going to end up, but at least you're talking.

Q. (Off microphone) -- when you have so many players on this roster that have multiple.

MARK POPE: That has been something we're really -- man, we're really trying to figure that out. It's really complicated.

Again, for the fourth straight year we're in there saying, everything has changed. So, again, for this coming cycle we're working under a totally, like first time ever, set of rules, standards. Working off a cap is just something that is so new, right?

We're modeling every single day, and it's complicated. There's all kind of dynamics about how to do that. I do know that for us right now we're so excited about this team that we have right now that our No. 1 focus is there. Then all the stuff about next year and how that works, we're going to deal with that when next year comes, but right now we feel like we've got a beautiful Ferrari, and we can't wait to take it for a spin.

Am I allowed to say that? Do we have endorsement deals that are going to -- or choose your pick.

Q. (Off microphone) what's it like to finally get your hands on him?

MARK POPE: It's really great to put him in the mix and know that he's going to be in the mix from day one. That's wonderful.

You know, he came in. Listen, summer is important for us, so he came in eight full weeks of study and work behind, and that's hard. The way we play that's so decision intensive and learning intensive. So he is -- since he started in the fall, it's been a mad dash to try and catch up. I think his first couple of weeks he is, like, man, what have I signed up for? He is actually showing in signs of catching up, and he's going to be really fun.

Q. (Off microphone.)

MARK POPE: Yeah, we got three special freshmen. I don't know who to start with. I'll start with B.H. I'll start with Braydon Hawthorne. Braydon Hawthorne, I cannot wait for you guys to spend time with Braydon Hawthorne. He is just joy. He is joy, and if you have ever been privileged to have a friend that has no guile, then you know what I mean about how lucky you are to be around a person that is just unfiltered, just gives you his whole heart. He's not putting up a wall. He's not trying to be too cool. He just is, like, just genuine joy.

I love this kid, and his ceiling -- Tayshaun Prince came and visited us a couple of weeks ago, and I looked at those guys standing shoulder to shoulder, and I'm, like, my gosh, right now B.H. is actually just a little bit broader than Tayshaun, which is crazy.

This is Braydon Hawthorne. He's built special, and I think he has incredible upside.

Jasper Johnson, can't tell you how proud I am of him. The intensity with which he's trying to grow in places that might not have been his strengths, he is digging in on the defensive side and trying so hard to buy into what we're telling him this game is going to demand of him this season. He's doing an unbelievable job.

He's become a much, much more consistent, consistent shooter as well as being dangerous. You know, his percentages are really good right now. I'm incredibly proud of his focus, and he's growing every single day in important ways.

Malachi Moreno, he walked onto the court and was a presence from the very second he walked onto the court. He's going to have some growing pains because he's a freshman, but his impact is incredible. I'm trying to remember if I'm saying these numbers right.

He's in the high 70s, low 80s in terms of field goal percentage right now, and he's our leading rebounder on the team. He just is a dominant force inside. His communication skills are growing. He's got a chance to be really special in a list of bigs that have been incredible here at Kentucky.

Q. (Off microphone.)

MARK POPE: Yeah, guys. I'm so excited about Big Blue Madness, as always. We're introducing something brand new, which is going to be the FanFest, which is going to go from noon to 4:30.

One of the greatest things about Big Blue Madness that separates us from everything else is I think the whole arena is sold out in 29 minutes now maybe. This is going to be open to everybody in the public for free. You don't have to have a ticket to Big Blue. I'm going to be there. The guys are going to be there signing, talking, pictures. We're going to have a bunch of booths there and food there and games there.

It's just an opportunity for us to just reach out and actually touch and hug every single member of Big Blue Nation. It's going to be unbelievable.

What did I miss? It's in the Exhibit Hall. I can't wait. It's going to be so fun. One thing very near and dear and personal to my heart, the Be the Match Program, which now they've just renamed it to the National Marrow Donor Program. Let me tell you a little bit about this.

What this is, and this is something that's really -- Leann and I are incredibly passionate about. What you do is you just come in, and you just take a simple cheek swab, and then they put you in a database. It's really young adults, older teens and young adults, that's really the age where it's most relevant. You could be called, and they could find you as a donor for a bone marrow transplant.

Let me give you the impact of this. I have a manager at BYU who jumped into this program. He was with all my guys on the team. He did a little swab, just a little test. It takes 30 seconds. He got a call like a year later and was given the opportunity to give a bone marrow -- to be a donor, a bone marrow donor, to a young girl, and he went through the surgery and saved her life. It just is incredible. It's the most amazing thing ever.

In this state of Kentucky where we want to be No. 1 at everything, where we don't want to stay is No. 1 in the occurrence, the incidence, and No. 1 in the mortality of cancer. That's where we are right now.

So there's no community I've been around that rallies like this Commonwealth. When you come to this FanFest, if it's in your heart to do this, it takes 30 seconds. It's nothing. It's no commitment, but just to join this donor registry where you literally, literally, could have the chance to save a life. I'm just urging everybody where it's in their heart to do it. It can make a huge difference.