Former UK player Willie Cauley-Stein is excited to see what Mark Pope can do at Kentucky. (Vicky Graff Photo)
Willie Cauley-Stein loves former Kentucky coach John Calipari for what he did for him during his UK career that led to a seven-year NBA career after he was the sixth overall pick in the 2015 NBA draft.
However, the former Southeastern Conference Defensive Player of the Year/All-American during UK’s 38-1 2014-15 also loves Kentucky basketball. He made that clear Wednesday during a media conference before playing for La Familia, UK’s alumni team, in The Basketball Tournament next week in Rupp Arena when asked about new UK coach Mark Pope.
“Obviously, I have a bunch of love and respect for Cal,” Cauley-Stein said. “I think this is a fresh start for everybody. It’s needed at points and I think it came at the right time.”
Cayley-Stein does not know Pope, who played on UK’s 1996 national championship team, but has tracked his progress and likes what he’s done since taking over at Kentucky in April after Calipari left for Arkansas.
“I haven’t got to talk to him yet, but I’ve obviously watched from afar. I think he’s definitely the right guy for the job,” Cauley-Stein said. “I’m excited to see what he does with that platform.
“It’s a different animal, as he knows being there (as a player). Just to see kind of how he takes that pressure and turns it into something beautiful.”
Pope has embraced La Familia and the TBT. He’s encouraged UK fans to buy tickets for the event and his team will practice with La Familia once next week.
Cayley-Stein knows what being head coach at Kentucky means to Pope, who has been a head coach for nine years.
“That’s the thing that every athlete that takes on a coaching role, that’s what you want to see,” he said. “You work your way up to this crazy opportunity and you want to see something beautiful come out of it. I see that. I want to see something beautiful come out of it.”
7 Responses
Willie makes a lot of good points – he’s always been a bit of a wordsmith !
Still would have liked to have seen him in there for field goal and extra point attempts from our FB opponents !! He did that in HSFB.
I agree on every point! Willie would have been an even more amazing BB player if he had Pope as his coach, or just any coach who wanted to win above all else. And I also wanted to see him blocking FGs!
It’s not fair to expect Mark to be John Wooden right off the bat. It took the Wizard 14 years to get to a Final 4 at UCLA. North Carolina hung Dean Smith in effigy at the beginning of his run there and did not make a Final 4 until year 6. Coach K had 2 losing seasons in his first 4 at Duke and did not make the NCAA tourney until year 4. I don’t see any of those scenarios with Pope, but let’s let him get to a regional final before we start asking him for Final 4s.
This is different times then back then. Years ago you had a window of 5 years. Now people expect you to win now. With the transfer portal and players jumping from team to team it changed to a 2-3 year window as it should. Kenny Payne was a terrible head coach but he’s a great assistant coach. I think the same can be said for Vince Marrow. Some people are good at what they do when they only have one plate to eat off of. Pitino had a terrible record his first couple of years but you could see the team getting better every year. I think we have a final 4 capable team, but what if the 3s aren’t falling? Elimination
Willie was my favorite player ever under coach cal besides Booker. He would have came back for a senior season if Cal would had let him. He absolutely embraced the college life. When he got hurt it killed our chemistry in the tournament. I still say if he was able to play we would have won the national championship. Another player who was everything for Kentucky until he got hurt was Nerlens Noel. He was leading the team in every category. Once he got hurt we were NIT bound. He showed that one player can make or break a team.
Pitino took leftovers without a portal to select from & led UK to a 14-14 season while under probation. The 2nd year he added Mashburn and the Cats were at the TOP OF THE SEC, even when still on probation! That is hardly 2 bad years.That is incredible and it just kept getting better with his players going to the Finals 3 years in a row.
Pope has a better starting position with experienced players and 2 of the best KY HS players in history and Chandler. He will do more than most expect, and will remind us of the Pitino teams who were so enjoyable to watch!
When the 3’s don’t fall? Pope quickly recruited some good sized bugs with mobility who all averaged around the mid-teens so inside scoring AND REBOUNDING will be a big difference maker when 3’s don’t fall. There are a LOT of very good 3-point shooters so Pope can sub when some guys are off for a night.
It’s a full 40-minute game again with no standing around – something we haven’t seen since Pitino days. UK will jump out to some nice leads at times and will rally in the last 10 minutes in other games if needed. The cupboard is filled and will not get stagnant. Players will not be riding the bench watching 2 or 3 guys who are having an off night, not mentally in the game and not hustling. There will be players ready to go in and fire up the troops!
I agree Kenny Payne was a good assistant and not a good HC. It’s the same principal which has stumped a lot of companies & departments in private and government positions.
The Peter Principle – I’ve seen it at big corporations where an excellent engineer or accountant was the best of the best, but when promoted to management they were lost and could not tell the difference between a tree and a forest. Management (or HC) is a big difference from working in a special field where you don’t have to arrange for others to do the work.
Marrow is definitely a great assistant – an incredible recruiter – and part of that reason is because of his relation with Coach Stoops. Both benefit (as does UK) from having them together with Stoops as the “manager”
Over promotion is costly for everyone. It’s not a L’s bad as just being an outright fraud, but it is costly.