“There are programs that don’t get this kind of crowd for five games. UK is here for a press conference, that is awesome. That is awesome,” said UK Athletic Director Mitch Barnhart.

Pope started the conference with an official address to Kentucky fans. One point that ran clear is that the expectation is championships and his goal is to get Kentucky back to that standard.

As a member of Kentucky’s 1996 national championship team, he has experience doing that firsthand.

He then took questions from the media while a sold out Rupp Arena listened.