Play Free Bird: Mark Pope Made Kentucky Watch Tape Of The US/Canada Hockey Fights To Show Them What Toughness Is

[Source] - “A lot of times we think of toughness as the first 30 seconds of the [USA vs. Canada] hockey all-star game, if anybody witnessed that. That was in our film session this morning where guys just threw off the gloves and everyone was in the penalty box in the first 90 seconds. Sometimes we think of toughness as that.”

But for us, toughness is when the whole world is burning around you, you can still be focused on the task at hand. Toughness, to me, is an ability to be completely undistractable. Like, there is nothing that can distract you from the moment, whether it’s your own fears or concerns or whether it’s a referee’s whistle or whether it’s something the opposing team does, or a mistake that you just made on the last play, or the crowd or the arena or injuries or anything else."

Hell yeah. This is what I needed to hear today. We pissed away a winnable game at Texas, don't care that we are down all 3 point guards. You win that game if you're tough. Mark Pope said we weren't tough enough and I'm not doubting this man. I'm not doubting a man who has Kentucky as a top-4 seed in year 1 and beating all the top teams. I'm not doubting a man who knows what it's take and decided to show the boys some toughness 

It's February, you gotta find ways to get the boys fired up on a regular basis during the sprint to March. If they need to fight everyone on Vanderbilt tomorrow night, so be it. I don't need them watching tape. They know how to shoot. They know how to pass. Maybe some shell drills on defense. But goddamnit I love Mark Pope telling the boys toughness is throwing hands. Once again, I'm reminded we made the right hire. A guy who gets it. A guy who understands from time to time you gotta show the boys wearing red, white and blue throwing hands. 

Beat Vanderbilt. Beat Canada. Play Free Bird.