Like the Kentucky basketball players he has rooted for his entire life, Jack Hughes shot his shot.
Hughes, a junior finance major at Kentucky who grew up in Lexington, knew how to contact Kentucky basketball coach Mark Pope. One email later and Hughes was on his way to his first NCAA Tournament game, with his gas money comped by Pope himself.
“It was surreal,” Hughes said.
Hughes was one of a few fans to take advantage of a pledge Pope, a 1996 national champion with Kentucky and the school’s first-year coach, made Monday. The day after Kentucky found out it would head to Milwaukee for a first-round game against Troy, Pope called for the members of “Big Blue Nation,” Kentucky’s fan base, to make the trip, with an incentive.
“It’s only a seven-hour drive. If anybody is having trouble with gas money, hit me up. Let’s go. Let’s get all of BBN out there,” Pope said on his radio show. “I’m not going to tell you how to hit me up because I’m nervous about how many people are about to hit me up.”
Hughes knew how. As a Kentucky student, Hughes said he had access to Pope’s email address. So he sent him an email.
“If you could throw me some gas money or a ticket, I’d drive myself and my girlfriend up to Milwaukee to catch your first tournament game as head coach here at UK,” Hughes wrote.
Two days later, Pope’s executive assistant, Megan Summers, replied.
“Coach Pope would love to take care of your gas money!” she wrote. All Hughes had to do was provide proof of tickets and, to make sure it was a permissible gift, verify no one in his party was within the recruitable age of ninth through 12th grade. Do those things and there would be a $100 Visa gift card waiting for him at the men’s basketball office.
“I didn’t have tickets yet, but I knew I had to go to the game and complete the story,” Hughes told The Athletic. “It’s the head coach at Kentucky paying for my gas money. I quickly bought some tickets — the cheapest ones I could get.”
Roughly $200 later, Hughes had a ticket. Everything came together fast, but it wasn’t fully unexpected. After Pope paid more than $2,000 for fans’ ice cream at their home arena after a win over Georgia State on Nov. 29 — “Rupp Arena ice cream is really good,” Hughes said — Hughes thought there was a chance he’d get a reply. Or maybe Pope would send him some merch.
But actual gas money? To get to a game he wanted to attend but had no plans prior of doing so? A dream.
A Kentucky spokesperson told The Athletic that Pope “helped out around eight different groups” but did not specify how many students reached out in total. Pope, who made $5 million this season, remained blissfully unaware of his spending this week. He said during a news conference Thursday he was not keeping count of how many students’ gas he was paying for.
“I want to reduce my stress level before tournament play,” he said. “But that was not the smartest thing I’ve ever done.”
The trip, Hughes said, was “one of one.” For the lifelong UK fan, it bested meeting John Wall at 6 years old and getting the chance to take (and miss) a $10,000 shot at the halftime of a Kentucky-Vanderbilt game in March 2024.
Friday morning, Hughes and his girlfriend left Anna Maria Island near Tampa, Fla., where they were visiting Hughes’ aunt over spring break, and flew to Cincinnati, where his girlfriend’s car was parked at the airport. They drove the six hours straight to Milwaukee, starting at 11 a.m., and made it with just enough time to spare before tip-off — with Hughes as one of the lone people in shorts and a T-shirt after not adequately packing for such a detour.
No. 3-seed Kentucky defeated No. 14-seed Troy 76-57 on Friday to set up a round-of-32 battle against Illinois on Sunday night in Milwaukee. Hughes, however, went back to campus after the Wildcats advanced out of the first round, citing school and ticket prices for not staying the weekend.
“I’ll always cherish this experience for the rest of my life,” he said.
