Kentucky coach Mark Pope has been a proponent of expanding the regular season in college basketball.
Pope just may eventually get his wish, one step at a time. Starting this season, teams will be allowed to play 32 games, up from 31 last year. Counting the postseason, many collegiate teams could play between 35-40 games in a single season.
“I’m pushing these 40 games, this 40-game season,” he said. “We got to 32 so I was shooting for nine more games.”
As part of its eight-week summer workouts, Pope and his staff integrated a scrimmage against La Familia, a team comprised of mostly former Kentucky players who competed in The Basketball Tournament last week. The winner of the 64-team event will receive a $1 million prize. La Familia reached the quarterfinals before losing to Eberlein Drive last Tuesday.
Pope said the scrimmage against veteran players “puts you in an environment” and “the vibe of it gives you some direction for these eight weeks.”
“It's great to go out and compete in a real game with real minutes and real stats,” he said.
What did the scrimmage reveal about Pope’s second Kentucky team?
“I think we have some space to find some great pace with this team, actually, for a lot of reasons,” Pope said. “One, because we have some personnel that I think have motors. I think we have some guys with special motors. I think we have some depth that we can really rely on that's going to help us. I think we have a versatile group of bigs, once they're all together, that he has a chance to be really special attack the game in several different ways. I like, I like the possibility of pace.”
In addition, the scrimmage against La Familia allowed the current squad to meet the school’s former players, including Archie Goodwin, Willie Cauley-Stein and Andrew and Aaron Harrison.
“I think it was fun to see the relationship that's been built over a very short time between these former players and our current players,” Pope said. “That is important (and) that's part of what makes Kentucky so special. We do a lot of things, where we're building relationships, trying to tighten the bonds between our former players and current players and this is one of them. That's also really important. That's actually a very, very important part of the Kentucky experience."
In the future, Pope would like to see summer league scrimmage games adopted and approved by the NCAA and incorporated into the summer schedule.
“I know not every team is playing the same is using the same eight weeks,” he said. “I know a lot of guys have different groupings on the floor, but that's fine. Let us work around it. Let's go find other teams that have a similar eight-week schedule, and let's go.”
For the first time, college teams will compete against Division I opponents in exhibition games this year. Kentucky will host Purdue and Georgetown in a pair of exhibition games at Rupp Arena in October.
Mark Pope likes the idea of playing a couple of scrimmages in the summer. (Keith Taylor/Kentucky Today)
