Mark Pope, No. 4 Kentucky brace for stern test vs. No. 7 Gonzaga

Excuse new Kentucky coach Mark Pope if he'd rather the schedule he inherited didn't include Gonzaga and coach Mark Few. The former BYU coach has endured nothing but rough times against the Bulldogs during his coaching career. He will take another swipe at a rare victory when the No. 4 Wildcats face No. 7 Gonzaga on Saturday night in the Battle in Seattle. Pope is just 1-9 against Gonzaga -- losing once at Utah Valley to open the 2016-17 season before going 1-8 against the Zags during his five seasons at BYU. "I'm really familiar with them. Coach (Few) is really familiar with me and the way we approach the game," Pope said. "We've had some epic battles, and he's come out on the winning side of too many of those, so hopefully, we'll start to even that out a little bit." Pope's lone win over the Bulldogs came in his first season with the Cougars and it was a big one -- a 91-78 home win over No. 2 Gonzaga. Now Pope is hoping to steer Kentucky (7-1) to a big win over the Bulldogs (7-1). The Wildcats were undefeated before losing 70-66 at Clemson on Tuesday. Gonzaga's lone blemish was a 78-72 overtime loss to West Virginia in the opening round of the Battle 4 Atlantis tourney. Kentucky's biggest win was over then-No. 6 Duke. The Bulldogs have victories over then-No. 8 Baylor and then-No. 14 Indiana. "Some of us went out and played really, really good schedules," Few said this week. "Nobody's going to make it through this thing undefeated, and there's probably going to be a handful of losses on everybody's schedule because of that parity." Gonzaga has another big showdown on Dec. 14 when it takes on two-time defending national champion UConn in New York. The Bulldogs beat Davidson 90-65 on Nov. 29 in their most recent contest, the fifth-place game of the Battle 4 Atlantis. Ben Gregg scored a career-best 24 points on 8-of-10 shooting, Graham Ike had 18 points and 10 rebounds and Ryan Nembhard handed out a career-high 14 assists. Nembhard leads the nation in assists (10.8) while also averaging 10.6 points. He has committed just 14 turnovers. Nolan Hickman has made a team-best 18 3-pointers while averaging 11.5 points. He's been looking forward to this matchup due to being a Seattle native and a former Kentucky commit under then-coach John Calipari before switching his allegiance to the Zags. "It's my senior year so I want to end every (game) with a bang, but especially this one back at home, in the hometown, backyard, definitely," Hickman said. "I don't want to give this one away." In the loss to Clemson, the Wildcats shot 38.1 percent from the field and a woeful 7 of 27 from 3-point range. Otega Oweh led Kentucky with 17 points. Lamont Butler added 16 and Jaxson Robinson had 12. "Everyone is still confident," Robinson said. "One loss doesn't define our season. The ultimate goal is to win a national championship and this is just one step in it." Robinson is familiar with Gonzaga after playing two seasons at BYU before following Pope to Kentucky. He had outings of 17 and 10 points against the Bulldogs during the 2022-23 season before the Cougars left the West Coast Conference and joined the Big 12. Gonzaga has won two of the three previous meetings, including an 89-85 win in Lexington last season behind Ike's 23 points. The Bulldogs are 9-5 all-time in the Battle in Seattle. --Field Level Media