In the post-game press conference in San Jose after the No. 11 seed Texas Longhorns suffered a heartbreaking 79-77 loss to the No. 2 seed Purdue Boilermakers on Thursday, Texas senior guard Jordan Pope was finally ready to clear the air.
Initially ruled questionable for the Sweet 16 matchup with what head coach Sean Miller termed a “lower-leg injury,” Pope wasn’t in the initial starting lineup, but took the court for tipoff before scoring 12 points on four threes in 33 minutes.
“Five minutes left against
Gonzaga, I broke my foot, a complete break,” Pope said.
Over the days between the win over the Bulldogs on Saturday and the game against the Boilermakers on the Thursday, Pope consulted with a doctor who told him that he wasn’t at risk of any further damage to the foot by playing on it, allowing the medical staff for the Longhorns to focus on bone therapy and on icing Pope’s broken foot to limit the swelling, dogged efforts that allowed him to move around well enough to compete.
“I’m thankful,” Pope said. “I couldn’t have asked for a better team staff to have my back and to trust me and to make sure I’m good to go.”
Pope grew up in Oakland and played high school basketball in Napa, so the opportunity to play a Sweet 16 game in the Bay Area in front of his friends and family was too big to miss, even with a broken foot.
“I had nothing to lose. It was a Sweet 16, I’m back home in front of my my family, I’m playing for my teammates, my coaches. I’ll never have this opportunity again. I couldn’t let that pass. I think I would have regretted that a lot if I would have,” Pope said.
Now Pope has nothing to regret — even though Texas wasn’t able to leave SAP Center with another remarkable upset to cement Pope’s performance as one of the most iconic efforts in program history, the historic nature of the Horns going from the First Four to the final 16 as a double-digit seed does cement Pope’s toughness in Texas basketball lore.
“I don’t know how many guys that I’ve coached under these conditions, on this stage, would have chosen to play,” Texas head coach Sean Miller said. “It would have been very easy for him, just to say, ‘I made the Sweet 16, I’m not going to be 100 percent, I don’t know how I look, and because of that, you know, I can’t go.‘ But he gave us everything and gave us the opportunity to win.”
What gave Pope the strength to battle through pain and adversity was playing for something bigger than himself — his teammates, his coaches, his university. After he left everything he had on the court, what was left was pride and memories for a lifetime.
“A moment that I’m sure I’ll remember for the rest of my life,” Pope said. “We played really hard, played to the best of our capabilities, and it came up short, but this is something I’ll remember, regardless of the outcome… the way we played, family and friends in the crowd, I couldn’t have asked for anything better. And I’m just proud of myself and proud of my teammates for having my back.”
