Pat Kelsey Pokes Fun at Rumored Altercation with Mark Pope

As many college basketball fans know, the world of recruiting is a cutthroat one, especially when blue chip prospects are involved. Between propping up your own program and fending off efforts from other schools, the lengths to which coaches and their schools will go to fight for their targets is seemingly endless.

Recently, speculation arose that the proverbial fight for one of the top prospects in the Class of 2026 turned into a not-so-hypothetical fight between two coaches trying to land him.

When the current recruiting period started on Sept. 1, Louisville head coach Pat Kelsey and Kentucky head coach Mark Pope both paid in-home visits to five-star point guard Taylen "Tay" Kinney not long after midnight. Earlier this month, rumors starting spreading like wildfire that the two coaches - who were in the same place and the same time - got into a fight over the recruitment.

The Field of 68's Jeff Goodman confirmed that there was a verbal altercation between Kelsey and Pope, revolving around the fact that Pope was in line to get the first in-home visit right at midnight, but Kelsey walked into Kinney's house first after Pope was running late. However, Goodman disputed that things boiled over to an actual physical altercation.

On Thursday, Kelsey poked fun at the rumored fight between him and Pope while speaking at Salute to the Game Luncheon. He was jokingly describing a dream he had, where he and the UK head coach was the headlining fight at a UFC event.

"The dream was, this was a UFC fight," he said. "Dana White, the president of UFC is here. This place is packed just like this, with 1000 people. And I get there, and I look up - weird dream - and the headliner event, the main bout: Kelsey versus Pope," with Kelsey then proceeding to shadowbox in a joking manner.