Rival SEC Coaches Heap Praise on Mark Pope

Texas coach Rodney Terry has his dream job and believes Mark Pope feels the same way at Kentucky. (Vicky Graff Photo)

Oklahoma coach Porter Moser coached against Kentucky’s Mark Pope when Pope was at BYU and knows what a “good coach” that Pope is.

“He teaches great spacing. Offensively he had such — the way the ball moved, the way he could do things, and everybody that knows Mark, he’s just an unbelievable guy,” Moser said.

“The fact that he played at Kentucky, is an ambassador for them, it’s been fun to watch as I studied him in his first months on the job. He’s put together a great roster. (Oklahoma transfer) Otega (Oweh) started for me the last two years. He’s going to get toughness, a great kid, and really athletic, can go downhill, physical, and plays with an edge. They’re going to have a lot of good things from Otega.”

Texas coach Rodney Terry also competed against Pope’s BYU teams and considers him not only a “tremendous coach” but says he also was a “good player” at Kentucky.

“I think I’m living my dream job. It’s my dream job here. Every day I’m blessed and honored to be the head coach at University of Texas,” Terry said.  “I think he feels the same way with Kentucky. He’s a former player, won a national championship there. There’s a lot of pride in walking into the office every day when you feel like you’re living a dream every day. I can’t speak for him, but I would think that it would be a dream for him to be the head coach at the University of Kentucky.”

Terry likes the “great spirit” Pope’s teams have.

“They’re very unselfish. They share the basketball. Very good offensively. So you have to prepare in terms of really trying to have a really good defensive mindset because they’re a team that can really score the basketball in my short time competing against his team in the Big 12,” Terry said. “But very well-coached. Really good guy, great person.”

Tennessee coach Rick Barnes has not coached against Pope like Terry and Moser have. However, he’s also confident Pope will be just fine at UK.

“I think you’ve got someone that knows what he’s into at Kentucky, what it’s about, being there, being a former player. I’ve been around Mark on the road, and I can just tell you, wonderful person,” Barnes said. “You look at his teams, he won where he has been, and I think that he quickly has put his mark on the program in terms of maybe just walking into the facilities and changing what was there.

“It could be totally different — you can send messages like that, what you want it to be. I’m sure all that’s different than it used to be, I would think. But I don’t know. But I would think that.

“But I think he’s very comfortable in who he is, and I think he’s also lived in that system. In terms of the Blue Nation, he’s been a part of it, he understands it, and he I’m sure will do a fine job there.”