Mark Pope left BYU 10 months ago to return to his alma mater Kentucky, where he plied his craft at the direction of legendary coach Rick Pitino. Now, as head coach roaming the sidelines of Rupp Arena, that leap of faith is paying off big time.

The gesture by the Kentucky coach drew praise from all circles, including Louisville men’s basketball coach Pat Kelsey, who typed the words, “Love your neighbor” on a retweet of the video of Pope talking with the fan in the wheelchair. “Great stuff,” Kelsey said.

A former Starkville High School teacher avoided jail time by pleading guilty Monday to molesting a student nearly three years ago. Randy M. Carlisle, 50, of Hickory Grave Road, Starkville, was scheduled to go to trial this week on the felony charge of touching a minor for lustful purposes.

Paired with their win at No. 18 Mississippi State over the weekend ... "I love winning a game where we never felt great," UK coach Mark Pope said. SEC basketball has best product, but league ...

Kentucky is cooking, having dealt Florida its first loss of the season two weeks ago before pulling off hard-nosed wins against ranked conference opponents in Mississippi State and Texas A&M. The Wildcats’ loss at Georgia on Jan. 7 was a bummer, but the response was electric — 16-of-32 shooting on treys and 95 total points in a frenzied Starkville.

Great teams, great players? The SEC has plenty of that. There's also some curious things on the hardwood. Neil Blackmon overreacts to it all.

It was a fair thing to ask. The usually mild-mannered UK guard in Jaxson Robinson, playing against a former team of his in Texas A&M on Tuesday night, was assessed a technical foul after hitting a three in front of the Aggie bench with 1:23 left in the first half. Robinson turned around and made a gesture but didn't remember saying anything.

With three key Kentucky players sidelined, Mark Pope’s team pulled off its most impressive victory of the season. Here’s how the Wildcats did it.

On the court, Golden and the Gators are a national championship contender. They opened the season with 13 straight wins, then pummeled a then-undefeated and top-ranked Tennessee by 30 points in early January. They were ranked No. 21 in the preseason AP poll, but Golden supplemented five key returnees with Florida Atlantic transfer Alijah Martin.

After a brief break, Kentucky is back in action on the road in the SEC. The ninth-ranked Wildcats will travel to Nashville to take on Vanderbilt tomorrow at 2:30 p.m. EST. One week ago, Kentucky fell at home to Alabama,

Mark Pope and the Kentucky Wildcats are getting ready to head to Nashville to take on the Vanderbilt Commodores. There should be a good amount of Kentucky fans

They don't give out national coach of the year awards in January, but if they did, CBS Sports college basketball analyst Gary Parrish is going with Kentucky first-year head coach Mark Pope.