Mark Pope Has Fond Memories of Indianapolis; Tennessee's Zeigler Says the Vols Have Best Fans

By Jamie H. Vaught

KySportsStyle.com Magazine

INDIANAPOLIS -- As Kentucky coach Mark Pope and his 24-11 Wildcats prepare for Friday night's NCAA Sweet Sixteen showdown with Tennessee (TBS and truTV, 7:39 pm ET) at Lucas Oil Stadium, he has fond memories of the city of Indianapolis, the home of NBA's Indiana Pacers.

UK coach Mark Pope reacts during his team's second-round game with Illinois in the NCAA Tournament last Sunday in Milwaukee. (UK Athletics Photo by Chet White)

Not long after Pope and the 34-2 Wildcats won the 1996 national championship, the 6-foot-10 standout was selected by the Pacers in the second round of the NBA Draft, where he was the 52nd overall pick. Pope played one year in Turkey before joining the Pacers from 1997 to '99.

"I'm the most blessed human being in the world that I got to be here on those great Indiana Pacers teams in this tremendous city, playing for (Coach) Larry Bird and (assistant) Rick Carlisle and the whole crew. I'll never forget it," said Pope in Thursday's press conference. "The Pacers drafted me. It was my first two years here until Coach Bird fired me. And it was two of the most fun, incredible years of my entire life getting to play with these guys, with Reggie (Miller) and Jalen (Rose) and Chris (Mullin) and the Davis boys (Antonio and Dale), (7-foot-4) Rik Smits. It just doesn't get any better, in epic contests, in a really tremendous era of basketball.

"To do that here in Indianapolis is special to me. This is where I met my wife (Lee Anne) and we started our life. It's a really special city to me."

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As a 5-foot-9 senior guard, Zakai Zeigler is one of the shortest scholarship players in the last 45 years at Tennessee. In Thursday's press conference previewing the UK-UT game, the All-Ameircan from Long Island, N.Y., was asked how he became a good player despite his size.

"My mom always told me height don't matter or anything like that," said Zeigler. "As long as I go out do there do what I need to do, you'll be out there on the court. Just really being a dog, playing as hard as I can at all times, just being myself. My mom always told me it was possible. I always believed it. I'm going to prove it every time I'm out on the court."

Zeigler is also a fan of former Kentucky standout Tyler Ulis, a 5-foot-10 guard who played two years for the Wildcats, including the 2015 Final Four team. Ulis earned SEC Player of the Year honors in 2016.

"I was a fan of Tyler Ulis, not Kentucky, but I was a fan Tyler Ulis for sure," he said. "He was somebody that won defensive player of the year and player of the year, the same year. He's about my size. He's a great player, great point guard. Definitely somebody I looked up to."

Zeigler was asked if he and his teammates are feeling extra pressure after losing two games to the Wildcats earlier in the season. He also discussed UT's rabid fan base.

"Well, I wouldn't really say it's extra pressure because we're going out there doing what we do every single day," he said. "You can't really control if the ball goes in the basket or not, but you can control things like our defense and our effort.

"So going out there and just doing what we do and just knowing that Vol Nation will have our back no matter what. We know they're going to have our back and give us energy and whether they're there in the stadium or whether they're (watching on) TV, we feel that energy no matter what.

"Vol Nation, we have the best fan base in the country. Whether they're there or not, they're going to bring the energy and they're going to bring the fight to us. And whatever stadium we play in we know they're going to feed the floor.

"I don't feel any pressure. I know my teammates don't really feel any pressure. We'll just go out there and do what we do."

Jamie H. Vaught, a longtime sports columnist in Kentucky, is the author of six books about UK basketball, including recently-published “Forever Crazy About The Cats: An Improbable Journey of a Kentucky Sportswriter Overcoming Adversity.” Now a retired college professor who taught at Southeast Kentucky Community and Technical College in Middlesboro., he is the editor and founder of KySportsStyle.com Magazine. You can follow him on Twitter @KySportsStyle or reach him via email at KySportsStyle@gmail.com.