Mark Pope Remains Grateful Daily to be UK Coach

Keith Taylor Photo

Mark Pope still has the same excitement today as he did when he was hired as coach at Kentucky last spring.

“I’ve said this a lot of times, but the day that I start doing that is the day that I will probably get fired because this job — there’s only one of them,” Pope said. “There’s only this job. There’s no comparison. There are other great programs — Kansas, North Carolina, Duke, UConn, and Michigan State. There are a lot of programs that are great programs that do incredible things that have won championships. There are a lot of programs like that. There’s only one Kentucky There’s Kentucky and then there’s everybody else.”

Pope added that he’s grateful to be the coach at Kentucky and a job he won’t take for granted.

“It’s something that we need to recognize, our gratitude to be the coach here every single day,” he said. “The day you don’t you should be fired, because of all the people in the world that want to coach. There’s only one person that gets to be the head coach at the University of Kentucky. I’m really grateful and I always will be. I’ll never forget how special this place is.”

The data, Pope said, backs up Kentucky’s tradition and added the fan base helps make the program so unique.

“There’s only one BBN. There’s no fanbase like this anywhere in the country,” he said. “There’s our tradition and our tradition is unprecedented. We’re second in banners, the most in wins, and it just puts us in a rarefied air in terms of NBA players. No program has put as many first-rounders in as many draft picks overall and as many lottery picks. It’s been generational.

“From my old team in 1996, we had nine guys go on to play in the end to be drafted in the NBA and this is just different.”

Pope is the first former player to coach the Wildcats since the late Joe B. Hall, who succeeded Hall of Fame coach Adolph Rupp and won a national championship in 1978. During his playing career, Pope said Hall was around the program often.

“He was around all the time and I love him,” Pope said. “He had a really calm demeanor about him. He was super gracious. When he walked through the halls, even when coach Pitino was here, he knew the job, he knew what it was. He knew a legend was walking through the halls. I’m really grateful that I got to know him.”

He’s also grateful for the influence that Rick Pitino had in his life starting with his playing career at Kentucky.

“Coach is a very, very important person in my life,” he said. “When you get old like I am, you have a chance to look back at your life and you have a better perspective on the people that really changed the direction of your life, the trajectory of your life, and also changed how you’re made as a human being. In all three of those, he changed what I am made of as a human being. He changed the direction of my life and certainly changed the trajectory of my life and I love him so much.”

From a coaching perspective, Pope said Pitino was a trendsetter and forward-thinking coach, a trend that continues to this day.

“He revolutionized the game from the three-point line early in his career,” he said. “He has a relentless nature about him — his unquenchable energy. He just has this relentless pursuit of being a great coach.

“He’s always been obsessed with trying to find any avenue he can to get better, turning over every rock to see if he could find something that’s going to make him a 10th of a percent better. Certainly, he taught us to be that way.”