Mark Pope has been part of a lot of Kentucky environments, but even he had something new to learn this week.
Catlanta.
“I was in the hotel yesterday and I did not even know what Catlanta was,” Pope admitted after the win. “It definitely looked like Catlanta out there today. It felt like a home game.”
That is exactly what it was. State Farm Arena looked like Rupp South, a sea of blue swallowing up a neutral site game and turning it into a December statement. On a day where Kentucky had to grind, that crowd mattered.