The college basketball season is right around the corner, which means the Kentucky Wildcats are getting ready for a pivotal 2024-25 season. This also means that Kentucky head coach Mark Pope is getting ready to make his debut as the head coach of the Wildcats.

Oftentimes, in college basketball, when a team is made up of transfer portal players, that team has trouble becoming close and learning to play as a team. At a press conference a few months ago, Coach Pope addressed this and discussed how he and his staff are making sure that won’t be an issue for this team.

Coach Pope talked about how the only way to do this is to make sure the players are close on and off the floor. Becoming buddies off the court will help these players be closer on the floor and be able to stay together when facing adversity.

In college basketball over the years, there have been teams that have received preseason hype thanks to a loaded transfer portal class, but they end up not being very good. Often, this is because all of these transfers were the star players at their previous stops and can have issues playing a role at a new school. With this in mind, Coach Pope has worked tirelessly to make sure that won’t be a problem for his team this season.

This Kentucky team bonding off the floor will lead to success on the floor, and Coach Pope is the one who made sure this would be the case ahead of the 2024-25 season.