The backlash Kentucky is receiving from the Big Blue faithful over the hiring of Mark Pope could very well be premature.
It’s understandable that pretty much everyone in the college basketball world was shocked when athletic director Mitch Barnhart didn’t give Auburn’s Bruce Pearl or Chicago Bulls head coach Billy Donovan any time to consider the job. One may have even had a slither of hope that Rick Pitino would be in line for a second stint at Kentucky.
However, after four days of a head coaching search, Pope is next up to lead the Wildcats.
The now-former BYU head coach made two NCAA Tournament appearances in 2021 and 2024 but didn’t win a game in either. He also did not win a conference championship in his five years at BYU. Overall, he had a 187–108 combined record at BYU (110–52) as well as four seasons at Utah Valley (77-56).
But what’s important with Pope isn’t necessarily what he did or didn’t do at BYU, but rather what he can do at Kentucky.
Assuming Pope surrounds himself with quality assistants, he should have a top coaching staff accompanied by incredible support from the athletic department. With Kentucky striking out on a few of their top coaching prospects, they’re going to make sure Pope has everything he needs to be successful in Lexington.
But it’s even more than having strong assistant coaches to prepare the team and utilizing flexibility with NIL/boosters. Pope will bring passion to Kentucky that the fanbase has been longing for for quite some time.
Former head coach John Calipari would put his salesman hat on and do what he thought was a serviceable job of firing up the fanbase. However, that voice became quite stale after four heavily disappointing seasons.
Pope, a former Wildcat and team captain of the 1996 national championship team, will understand the Kentucky fanbase.
He’ll understand the passion they have for their program and what it means to wear “Kentucky” across the front of the jersey.
He’ll understand that Kentucky is about building a college basketball program instead of being a NBA factory.
He’ll understand why having success in the SEC tournament is important to the fans, especially the ones who aren’t able to make it to Rupp Arena multiple times in a season.
He’ll understand what it will mean to continue recruiting in-state players like Reed Sheppard and Travis Perry.
He’ll understand a lot of things Kentucky basketball fans need their head coach to understand. So, before we all pre-maturely decide that Pope is a bad hire, let’s give him a chance to show Big Blue Nation what he can do.
51 Responses
I’m all in. Everything you said is 100% correct. Let’s go 💙🤍🏀👊👍
YES! Marks who we need! I’ll be cheering the Cats on if we get him!!!!!!!
You nailed it!
Mark will do good, he will put KY back on it’s chest.
Mark pope is 0-2 in the NCAA tournament. I loved him when he played for Kentucky but he’s not a elite coach. Look at his recruiting classes. Look at this years tournament they got best by Duquesne who got killed in the round of 32. BYU has always been good every 2 out 5 years. He has a terrible winning percentage. They need to fire Mitch Barnhart. I look at facts not hopes and his body of work is worse than Billy Gs when he came to Kentucky do your own research. Billy G was a better recruiter. Had a better record and look what he did. Kentucky is trying to do the same thing as north Carolina and duke… Its not going to work. The recruits we keep getting is because of calapari not because the name kentucky. These kids stopped playing for the name on their jersey a long time ago unless your talking about reed Sheppard. If the rest of the players leave we are done. Alabama has nate oats. Auburn has Bruce pearl. Tennessee has Rick Barnes. We have Mark Pope lol. You can try to downplay this as much as you want but Mark Pope is not a Kentucky level coach we are doomed in the SEC. How are we going too compete with calapari at Arkansas or Todd golden at florida. We have mark pope lol what happened to Kentucky basketball. I would rather have had calapari then mark pope. Who is he going to recruit? Nobody is going to want to come to Kentucky with Mark pope is the coach. Calapari was getting bigger than the Kentucky name. We was getting recruits because of caapari. Now because we won majority of our championships in the 1940s and 1950s. Kentucky basketball is done. This is the worst hire in Kentucky history. This is a joker Phillips in football type coach. What has he done? He’s never won a tournament game even with a higher seed. I thought we was going after a coach that could win in the tournament. Isn’t that why we got rid of calapari? He couldn’t win in the tournament and they get someone who is worse than calapari who can’t recruit? He’s a mid major type coach at the bluest of blue blood schools. How in the he’ll did he even get in the conversation as the coach of kentucky? He’s alumni wow. This is going to bite Mitch in the butt and I’m going to be the first one who says I told you so. Now if he was winning the conference at BYU and had a record of 200-65 yes. He’s what 156-110 or something. There is no way you can be happy about this. We should have went for Bruce pearl or mark few. Offered then a contract that they couldn’t say no too. They went after a man that just won back to back championships what a bone head move. We go after Scott drew who is very happy at Baylor they can miss the tournament and he’s still the man to the fans at Baylor because he won a championship a couple years ago. They go after billy Donovan who has turned down Kentucky twice already because he’s happy in the NBA. They go after brad Stevens and his team has the best odds to win the NBA championship. Then you hire Mark pope lol. Fire Mitch Barnhart. Why run calculations out of town for pope lol. That was the coach we settle for wowwwwww. When calapari asked Kentucky to counter Arkansas we were already off the hook he talked to a team without notifying Mitch barnhart. We could have gave him his 9 million and said your on a year to year contract and in the meantime found a replacement for him if he scuffed up another season but to go from a hall of fame coach to mark pope is preposterous. Mitch is a idiot fire him now and let him take mark pope with him.
You, TJ Wren are a Blue Blood ignorant cry baby that will not even give a coach a chance. Typical Wildcat fan with entitlement issues. If someone at UK does something different than what you think they should, they need to be fired according to you. Grow up and realize Mitch Barnhart might just know a lot more about Sports & coaches than you do. One of the reasons some coaches do not want to come to Kentucky is because of fans like you. I have watched Mark Pope for over 5 years and he is an awesome coach, motivator & recruiter. In two years when he has proven he is a winner you will be singing his praises instead of crying over a couple of coaches who was never going to leave their jobs and come coach at a place where a lot of fans are just nuttier than a payday candy bar.
Yes, yes, yes!
Totally disagree.
Who was Nate Oats or Tom Crean or Billy Donovan or Rick Pitino or Denny Crum or Scott Drew or the coaches at UNC and Duke…The list is really long.
Every big time coach had a path of no success or limited success before they became big names.
Cal had two excellent teams prior to KY, one at UMass and one at Memphis. Pitino had one outstanding team prior to KY (Billy Donovan was his point guard). Roy Williams took over Kansas and the rest is history.
I believe with UK talent and the fact he is a historic figure at UK plus he was a Pro player and…He’s a moral guy…he walks the walk.
Give the guy the opportunity.
Agree 100% could not have said it better………
👍 ;can anyone say Billy Gillespie ? Mark Pope’s resume is light years ahead of that pick ..
YOu got that right CatFan
Did you think the world was going to end with the recent eclipse? Uk has lost coaches before and almost everyone has come back to win NCAA championships! I met Mark several years ago and he is a first class person first and a proven rebuilding coach! Go Big Blue!!!
Definitely first class
TJ makes a couple of points against his own argument — first when he refers to UK’s NCAA championships. Kentucky has won eight titles in five decades. That “majority” he cites was exactly half the titles. Since the “40s and 50s,” we’ve added 1979, 1996 & ‘98. And 2011 — all captured by teams coached by four different coaches, three of them at least as unheralded as Mark Pope. His second mistake is when he paints the prospects as being selfish and uncaring about the school they’re playing for. Purdue is a good example of players sticking around and trying to accomplish something special before moving on to the NBA, and those are the kind of players I want at Kentucky. Our entire culture has been poisoned by a “me first” attitude, but not everyone has been infected. I’m with Larry Vaught on this one. Welcome back, Mark. Thanks for the memories of the late 1990s. Let’s make some more in the coming years with players who will be loyal to their team. I’d rather lose with them than win with mercenaries.
Mark Pope has more experience as a Division 1 coach than Joe B. Hall had.
Underwhelming
Pope does run a very very good offense.. tons of movement and screens.. fun to watch .
Maybe, he can teach his team to play DEFENSE, WHICH some have said and stats showed we were NOT ABLE to do under Cal. I loved Calipari, was proud to have him as our Coach. It was time for a change, when our last Final Four was 2015. That was unacceptable and I am Not a Big Blue crazy Fan, but WE ARE KENTUCKY……..
His Cats will value defense Roberti
Give Mark a chance. He does run a good offense and that requires playing as a team. He will get them to do the same on the defensive end of the floor. He gets what Kentucky represents and will recruit kids who know that too. Hiring Mark was the best chance to put together a competitive team for next year. He will be fine and Kentucky will be Kentucky again soon.
Why didn’t we go after Creighton coach? He has a team in the mix every year with no resources. They compete in the big east every year. This was the worst decision ever in Kentucky basketball history. We went after coaches who were content with were they were at. Why not shaka smart? Even Ricky P would have been a better coach. Musselman would have been a better coach. This is driving me crazy why why why whyy. In 2 years when Kentucky is irrelevant it will be harder to find a good coach. We will be the next indiana. Why didn’t they go after Kelvin Sampson. ?????? Mark Pope smh
TJ, Life is like box of chocolate. You don’t get what you want , you wanted Cal out and now your complaining about of hiring Mark Pope he will do good. Some of our fans never satisfied regardless.
Well, we’ve run off the last two coaches both of whom had a national championship at UK. You think that could have had any bearing on the prospective hires ?! No s##t.
Give the man a chance before assembling the firing squad.
UK fandom may actually have hurt our search.
Be positive and support the University and its programs – or at the very least keep your negativity off public forums – recruits can read !!!!!!!!!!
Well said Paul!!!
Agree with you there Paul. We don’t need our negativity to reflect so badly that we discourage recruits from coming. I am starting to get fired up with the prospect that Reed may stay and possibly Dad joining the team also. Reed could be a great recruiting asset!
Good stuff, Paul.
Nobody ran off anybody, Paul the Virtue Signaler!!! Recheck your facts, Mr I Have To Tell KY Fans About Themselves!!! John Calipari RESIGNED to take the head coaching job at ARK, after coming on his last radio show yelling all of us "oh I’m all in, let’s go, let’s go do something together, this is where I want to be, this is the job i want, i aint going anywhere"—-who were you trying to convince, CAL??? I love the fans who are so quick to talk Abt the coaches we, the fans, have "run off". The only coach who was "run off" was Billy Gillispie, and that was because of more than win-loss results–it was because of unacceptable abusive player treatment, alcohol issues that affected his ability to handle the job, and just his seemingly overall inability to handle what the KY job is–if u were referring to Tubby being run off, let me remind u that he also resigned to take the job at MINN. I love these UK fans who claim to be UK fans, but who in reality, are UK-fan-haters who blame us for the coaches who have left for other jobs. If u are really a fan, then u are just as much of the so-called "problem" that u project to exist that "runs off" UK coaches. So if that’s true, then, sorry, you are not exempt, buddy boy!!!! What gives u the right to a free pass? Oh that’s right, u and Jimmy and ’79 are all "better fans" than the rest of us, and better than all of us as people, and morally superior to all the rest of us–tell us all about ourselves, boys, tell us all how u all know all of us better than we know ourselves, tell us how "we all ran off" these coaches, except u guys, and double check your facts–Mitch was prepared to keep your love-coach yet again after 4 straight years of results far below the standards of The University Of Kentucky, and its so-called fans like u all who allowed the standards here the last 10 years to be lowered, and opened the door for the LoveCoach to just stay here and stay here and stay here–u 3 need to go invest in Pig Sooey swag and subscribe to the Razorback sports network so u can keep following your LoveCoach–because, guess what??? We REAL FANS have taken our University back, ol buddy boy!!! The K is for KING, not KAL—and anybody who made John Calipari bigger than the University of Kentucky, which alot of u all on here did, don’t deserve to call yourselves true KY fans. The pedestal u all put that FRAUD on in time became a serious mental illness and a disconnect from what UK is about. The new coach, in just one long weekend, has already put back together what it means to be UK, and has already unified and erased the division in the fan base that the prior coach created of his own making. The new coach belongs here because he EMBRACES the TRADITION and HISTORY of this program, and he knows what it means to play at UK and be a part of what TRUE BLUE BLOOD is. He has already rebuilt all the things that were lost here as a result of the last coach. A packed house in 20,000-seat Rupp Arena for not a bball game, not a pep rally or championship celebration, but a new coaching introduction and press conference—THATS KY BBALL!!!! Mark Pope is ONE OF US. And he WANTS to be here. He embraces all the elements of the job that CAL ran away from. And he is a genuine, honest, and respectable man who also respects the fan base, unlike the last coach, and is not going to LIE to the fan base unlike the last coach, and who has no self-serving agendas in mind that gets in the way of what his job is for the team, unlike the last coach. Mark Pope has one agenda in mind: TO WIN. and u know what? They could go 2-28 next year, and it will be the most fun, refreshing, and enjoyable season of KY BBALL in 10 years. That’s because he is already a winner with what he has already proven in himself as a coach, and a human being, and what it means to him to put on the KY jersey, and what it means to him to have this job. And I guarantee Paul, Jimmy, and ’79 weren’t at Rupp Arena yesterday—thats because they’re not true blue–but they’re the first ones to jump on here and tell other UK fans Abt themselves. I have listened to you all all year long tell us all about ourselves as fans and what miserable ppl we are for not supporting a slimy, greaseball, snake-oil salesman who doesn’t give two shits about the UK BBALL program, and never did. John Calipari came to KY to use it to propel his own self-fulfilling agenda, not to win or succeed for KY. So now it’s my turn to tell u all about yourselves: just like your LoveCoach: CAL fans first over KY=NOTTRUEKYFANS. Have fun with Fayetteville–theyre gonna need your all’s support next year when theyre losing to St Peters and Oakland in the first Rd of the tournament!!! SEE YA—WOULDNT WANNA BE YA!!!!!!
#WEAREUK
#WEAREBBN
#UKISFOREVER
#UKISKING
Mark Pope is our coach. He deserves the support of BBN. Let him get to work. Go Big Blue!
I will make an attempt of trying to be supportive on this, but there appears to be more downside risk than upside. How in the world do you go from Tier 1 to Tier 3 without heavily vetting Tier 2? Pitino was still my top choice but several others mentioned above have a more established track record and resumed. The initial score looks like Cali-Fraudi 1…UK 0.
Mike—that was a Tier 4 comment on a Tier 1 sportswriters site.
Just stop.
Negative + negative = annoying.
Crash…you run your program, and I will run mine. I don’t care if you like it or not.
: ) Hillarious.
Mark and Makers Mark both Ky traditons
I admit to being disappointed at first. But I’m definitely getting more excited. He is going to embrace this. And all that comes with it.. A genuine dude.. No facades .
YES!!!WeWant Mark!!! Hell Yeah!!!!
Mark Pope is way ahead of Tubby who said FF’s are not important & the fraud who said the SECT is not important.
I really like what I’ve read about the offense Mark runs. This hire may insure Sheppard stays & Perry comes and BOTH start AND have an offense made to get them lots of shots.
Pope was a 2nd round draft pick after being the “big” man on the National Champ team. He will see it it that Big Z & Ugo stay at UK and get developed into 2 awesome bigs. Add Thiero & Burks and UK has 6 players who can land UK in the FF with a coach who knows offense and is a GENUINE UK COACH!
I hope he hires Jeff Sheppard as an Assistant AND Stacey Sheppard as an Assistant. They BOTH developed one of the all-time greats in KY HS BB history who is the Top Freshmen (voted on by coaches) in the nation! Remember Pitino hired a female Assiatant & it was a powerful move.
As Pelphrey for his recruiting skills and a couple more UK “genuines”
I hope you negative bozo’s refrain from anything discouraging – recruits can read.
Thank you Paul.
Tier 4 opinions on Larry’s Tier 1 site.
Due you stutter often?
Is T4 Mikey trying to be clever?
It’s a great day to be alive…
Coach Pope! Go Cats!
I have gone from suicidal to optimistic in 16 hours. I see the two boosters are very much in which is extremely promising. I think that Mark has done alot with no NIL money and am certainly willing to support him in all things. Cal valued his ego over everything else and I feel like his continuing little digs toward everyone at Ky are in VERY poor taste. He was badly overpaid the last few years and only cared about his national persona. Mark really wants to be here. More than I can say for Cal! I am behind him 100% and cannot wait to see what this upcoming roster will end up looking like. It would be heaven to see Reed and Travis on the floor together.
TJ- Blame Mitch all you want. I think that Mitch should retire but, if he is staying, at least we have someone that he seems to want to work with. Please, give Mark a chance. He may surprise you.
I am pleased with Mark Pope as the next coach. I just read statements by Pitino about Mark Pope’s prospects as UK coach, and it was glowing and optimistic. Pitino’s basketball knowledge and opinions still carry credibility with me.
with me too Professor. Pope is a great basketball mind
I love the bridge to the Pitino glory days with a coach that understands the fans and wants to play for UK, not the NBA. I don’t care about or watch the NBA, even if former UK players are there. I was born in Lexington and now live in Lexington. UK sports are all I follow. My oldest son was born a couple hours after the 96 championship. The doctor made us wait til the game was over before going to Central Baptist. We came really close to naming our son after the team but my wife shot it down. But we still use the name for fun. I love that the captain of my favorite team in UK history has taken the reigns. Mark Pope will be the perfect man for the job. I’m excited that the used car salesman is gone and a real coach has arrived.
For those that are negative about this hire, I ask, how does this help, how is it productive, how is it supportive, why wouldnt you support and hope for the best? It seems to me that a true fan would want it to work and support as much as possible. Your negative posts seem as if you want it to fail. In 2018 no one really knew Danny Hurley and his accolades leading up to UCONN hire was not outstanding, and their are others similar. Fl fans were not totally happy with their hire, but look at it now. So your reasoning pulls no weight and it’s just a bunch of hot air and negative to the program. A true fan will get behind the new hire and support at least a few years to see some kind of result. I will be honest, at first, I was like Mark Pope, why so fast. Well after reading all the big time support, even from Rick Pitino, this is pretty impressive of the support. I’m actually excited to see the results. I would have to say it is nice to have someone with Kentucky passion back in control. It became about Cal instead of Kentucky and there was no passion for the school. So I say, give it a chance. However I do know if you are a person that criticizes and a typical negative person then that just your nature. My guess is no one that knows you, listens to you anyway . GO CATS AND THE BEST TO MARK POPE.
Mark is going to surprise the naysayers very soon. This hire is like a breath of fresh air for UK- finally a coach whose ego is secondary to the success of the team. Colin Cowherd’s monologue on ‘Caliponzi’ was spot on this past week.
Win or lose, his offense is going to be fun to watch. Check this out:
WATCH: Mark Pope ran BYU’s offense “like a video game” https://l.smartnews.com/p-ya4Pq/leklgO
And HIS team plays defense. I think he will win right away.
With you Danny
TJ needs another drink, and maybe some English help, lol.
Successful teams depend upon two or three things, recruiting, coaching, and a little bit of luck.