Rick Pitino had to forbid Mark Pope from biking after he got into an accident as a player at UK

Mark Pope is a Peloton man, starting his mornings off with a ride on the stationary bike. He’s a big fan of the Tour de France. His love for bike-riding goes back to his college days, before he even arrived at Kentucky. He finds beauty in the struggles that come with the strains it puts on his muscles.

“Lynn Nance was my coach at the University of Washington after my freshman year,” Pope began when asked Thursday about what resonates with him about long bike excursions. “He was like, ‘Ah, man, you got to get bigger and stronger.’ So he told me, he’s like, ‘I want you to get on a bike. I want your legs to get stronger so you can take more of a beating.’

“And I don’t know if that’s actually what I would suggest to anybody else, but that began my saga with cycling. And, of course, me, I took everything to the extreme. I was riding from Bellevue (Washington) all the way to University of Washington every day.”

For those wondering, that’s about a seven-mile one-way ride. Pope carried that newfound love of biking with him to Lexington once he transferred to Kentucky after two seasons at Washington. Soon after he met teammate Jeff Sheppard (still a friend to this day) during the 1993-94 season, when Pope had to sit out due to transfer rules, the two became even more immersed in biking. At one point, they even biked all the way from Lexington to London, KY, to meet with Jeff’s future wife, Stacey.

But one wrong turn eventually led to head coach Rick Pitino shutting it all down.

“And then I got here, and Shep and I started riding together, just because I had kind of taken a — I started to find some enjoyment in it, and talked Shep into jumping in. My first ever 100-miler here, we did here on the outskirts of Lexington. And then I had an accident. Car turned right in front of me as I was driving down the street.

“… Then coach (Pitino) forbid me from ever getting on a bike again.”

Both Pope and Sheppard would become rather important pieces to the 1994-95 and 1995-96 Kentucky teams, the latter winning a national championship, so we can understand Pitino’s new rules at the time. But that didn’t stop Pope from getting back on the seat after his time at UK wrapped up. He enjoys the challenges that come with stressing the limits of the human body — just like he enjoys the challenges that come with being the head coach of Kentucky men’s basketball.

“There’s something really beautiful about just seeing how far you can push yourself,” Pope added. “There is, about pushing your limits. Can you turn the pedals one more time? Can you just do it one more time? And can you do it a little bit faster? And there’s not a lot of skill involved, but there’s a lot of will involved. And I think the test of wills is a great thing. I think living in a space where you’re being tested all the time is a really happy place for me, and I think it’s a happy place for our guys.”

Pope’s Wildcats are certainly being tested right now as the regular season is quickly coming to a close. Time will tell if they can continue to dig a little bit deeper and make a postseason run.

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