Kentucky has started fall practice, and Cameron Mills has noticed three big differences.
Cameron Mills, former Kentucky Wildcats guard and analyst for UK Sports Network, has been in practice all week. ‘Banner Camp’ has started for Kentucky, which now practices two times daily for four hours and five days a week.
During practice, Mills noticed three major differences from the previous ones when he attended practices, and one reason is the new hire of Kentucky Basketball head coach Mark Pope.
One change he has noticed is that University of Kentucky psychologists have been attending practices to help players who may be losing confidence in themselves. Mills says the psychologists will go to Pope and won’t go to the player individually.
“One of the things Mark did is he contacted the UK Department of Psychology and asked for expertise,” Mills says on UK Sports Network. “What that led to is something really, really cool where every practice, and this is to my knowledge, but in every practice they’ve had, there has been at least one member of the UK Department of Psychology attending practice.
“Why? To look for things, to notice things. And so I even asked the lady that was here on Monday. I said, ‘What are you looking for?’ And tell me, like, you know, you don’t have to give me a name, but tell me what happens? Like, give it to me how you are helping. And she said, ‘Well the other day I noticed that there was a kid that I felt like was losing confidence.’ And I said, ‘Okay, do you go to the player? Do you go to the Coach Pope?’ She goes, ‘I go straight to Coach Pope.’
It is nice to hear that sports psychologists are at practices, but that is not the only new part that is happening at practice.
At the end of the practices, Pope will gather the whole team and will make each player say what they are thankful for with another player for that day.
“Well, Monday morning at the end of practice, what the team did, and I hadn’t seen this happen before, guys, and I’ve been to a few practices, is Coach Pope had the entire team circle up and put their arms around each other, and then he led the way and started talking about what he was thankful for,” Mills said. “And at that particular moment, he mentioned a player for whom he was thankful and why. And now it’s that person’s job. He’s got to look around the huddle and find another player and say why he’s thankful for them, and he can pick whoever he wants. And it went on five or six times.
“I’ve never seen this before. And it was basically yet another thing that Coach Pope is doing to make sure these guys are a team, and I would even go further and say, they are a family.”
Finally, Pope is having his team run sprints from baseline to baseline to get them into shape and reduce their time, but he is also trying to ensure they aren’t taking shortcuts to finish earlier.
“The difference between here and here and this is what he said, ‘Here is Final Four, here is banner.’”
Overall, Pope and his staff have brought a different approach to the practices since ‘Banner Camp’ started, but from the sounds of it, the practices have been mainly positive.
You can watch the full segment by Mills on the UK Sports Network below.
