Blue Nation, please welcome home Your head coach of Kentucky.

Ma Oh.

And Pat out Rupp Arena yesterday to welcome Mark Pope back to Kentucky.

Pope was a player on the 1996 National Championship team.

Some of his fellow teammates were with him.

You saw him.

Now, Pope is the new coach of the men's basketball team, replacing John Calipari during yesterday's news conference.

Coach Pope talked about what the team will look like in the future, how the Cats will approach the NCAA tournament and how Kentucky compares to other basketball programs.

We're talking to all the guys on the current team, all the guys that have been recruited, and just about every single player in the portal right now.

And we're going to find we're going to go and we're going to find the guys who fit here the way we play and the guys that will come here and understand what a gift it is to play here at the University of Kentucky.

What is your plan to make sure that this march you guys win is a program again farther in the tournament?

Listen, that's the job, guys.

That is the job.

We're not ducking it.

That is the assignment.

We know the assignment.

That's what it is.

Right.

And frankly, if you're too cautious or too worried to take on that challenge, don't come to Kentucky because there's nothing else that's acceptable.

I would say there is no doubt that there are great programs all around this country.

There are great programs.

There's no doubt.

And that's true.

And it's also true that there is nowhere like the University of Kentucky is nowhere.

There's nowhere.

Listen.

Listen, you guys are living proof of that, as it were.

We had a little call to arms, a little call to help.

And you can't even sit in all the Kentucky people in this building this evening.

Right.

There is nowhere like this, guys.

And listen, don't you think that you are not making a difference because this video is going out to every recruit in America right now.

Coach Bogue says he understands the assignment.

He says this Cats will work hard and aim to win every game and get those banners in the rafters.

He says when they do lose, they will be resilient, adjust and work to win the next game.

Good luck.