Six months ago, Mark Pope rode into Rupp Arena on a bus in front of tens of thousands of diehard fans ready for a fresh start in a new era of Kentucky basketball. One week from today, the first-year coach in Lexington will return to that same podium inside the same venue to tip off basketball season at Big Blue Madness.

The vision of hanging banners and understanding the assignment that nothing short of greatness is acceptable at Kentucky must now become a reality — his reality. Ready or not, here it comes.

That would be nerve-racking for some, knowing how much is on the line with the weight of Big Blue Nation on your shoulders. For Pope, it’s a privilege, something very few coaches and players get to experience, especially for the first time like most in that locker room.

Madness is one of many key starting points in this journey toward one clear finish line.

“There are so many starting points, right? There have been 100 starting points, and that’s the beautiful thing about starting,” Pope said in an exclusive sit-down interview with KSR on Friday. “Big Blue Madness is really important. The great thing for our guys is Big Blue Madness is the first time our guys get to walk into Rupp Arena and feel that place full and be in there and commune with BBN.

“I’m so excited for our guys to go experience it, I’m so excited for BBN to be in the same building as our guys. It’s going to be super interactive, it’s going to be awesome.”

The emotions he’s experiencing now bring him back to 1993 for his first Big Blue Madness as a player. He had just transferred in from Washington, figuring out life as a Wildcat and what exactly he signed himself up for meeting BBN for the first time.

“When I came here we had it in Memorial Coliseum, and of course, we had tent city around Memorial for like — it seemed like three weeks, I think it was only three or four days. It was just pandemonium and mayhem,” Pope said. “I’ll never forget, it used to be that the weight room — we had a little lounge in our locker, and it was just glass out into Memorial. They had these long vertical blinds. I’ll never forget getting in there and changing or whatever, then pushing over the blinds — it just felt like there were people, there were no seats. It felt like there were literally people hanging off the roof.

“It was so cool, and I’ll never forget it. It’s a special experience I’m excited for our guys to have.”

What can fans expect when they meet Pope and his team for the first time next Friday night at Rupp Arena? A perfect product ready to win every game by a couple dozen points, obviously. 40-0, engrave the trophy for title No. 9 now, NCAA.

“After yesterday’s practice, I was like, ‘You know what? Let’s take the next month off. We’re ready. We’re just ready to roll into games.’”

Really?

“That’s not true at all,” Pope joked.

It’s 12 new scholarship pieces, none coming in with prior experience playing together. A lot is being thrown at them and they’re learning how to play as a team. That’s going to come with highs and lows.

But it’s a start.

“We have so much work to do, but I’m really proud of the guys,” Pope told KSR. “There are a bunch of things they’re doing. One, they’re trying to figure out how to love each other, trying to figure out how to care for each other, trying to figure out how to compete for each other first, then with each other. That’s a huge difference, those are two very separate things that are key. The guys learn how to compete for each other, and then they’ll be great at competing with each other. Those processes are massively important.”

Some days that banner vision feels within reach. Others? Miles away. The same can be said about their continued progress, the speed varying from dial-up to time travel depending on the practice or film session.

The steps are forward, though, and that’s all Pope cares about with the season now here.

“They’re starting to understand how we want to play — it’s hit or miss. We have a little, ‘Oh, this feels like us,’ and then a lot of time where it doesn’t feel like us. That’s just the process,” he said.

Good days, bad days and everything in between, the Kentucky head coach’s belief is unwavering.

Why?

“What we do have is — I will always bet on people. We have unbelievable people here,” Pope said. “The guys on this staff, the men and women on this staff, and these players, top to bottom, side to side, are extraordinary human beings.

“We’re going fast and we’re really excited.”

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