Mark Fox expects Kentucky to have a lot of great games this year. (Vicky Graff Photo)
Mark Fox has 18 years of collegiate head coaching experience and understands that building a team is about more than just the individual pieces.
“The sum of the parts has to be terrific,” said Fox, UK’s associate head coach. “At point guard, the game has really changed. Back in the day a point guard was only a distributor and it was important for him to make everybody better. As the game has evolved, that point guard has to score and be a threat.
“It’s really the most valuable position on the court. He has the ball in his hands so much and has to make so many decisions but he has to be a scoring threat. It’s a very hard position to play and learn because so many things are coming at you. Many college players have to play against schemes they didn’t even know existed until they get to college.
“But that point guard has to get everyone connected for you to win consistently and you can never stop working on that connection.”
The good thing for Kentucky is that four players — Lamont Butler, Kerr Kriisa, Jaxson Robinson and Travis Perry — can play point guard.
“All of them are good decision makers and it is good to have that kind of luxury in case someone sprains an ankle, gets in foul trouble or has something else happen,” Fox, who won 324 games as a head coach, said.
It also helps the point guards that coach Mark Pope has an up tempo style of offense and plenty of 3-point shot makers.
“It’s important no matter what style you play that everybody buys into that style and our guys have,” Fox said. “We are aggressive and shoot a lot of 3’s. How you get those 3’s is playing with pace to establish open opportunities. This is a style not only fans enjoy but so do players and that’s why they choose to play here now. Coach Pope did a really good job of finding what he wanted on offense and letting these players know how to be proficient in his style.”
Fox hired Pope for his first collegiate basketball position when he was head coach at Georgia. Pope was the director of basketball operations at Georgia in 2009-10. The following season Pope went to Wake Forest to serve as an assistant under Jeff Bzdelik.
“He had played for me at Washington when I was an assistant coach before he transferred to Kentucky. I have known coach Pope since he was 18 years old and we have spent a lot of time in the gym together,” Fox said. “He had a lot of success at UK and then went on to the NBA. We stayed in touch even when he went to medical school.”
Pope played six seasons in the NBA for the Pacers, Milwaukee Bucks, New York Knicks, and Denver Nuggets before his playing career ended in 2005. He started medical school at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York City.
“He called one day and asked if I had a job (for him). I thought he was joking,” Fox said. “I finally said if he was serious we had a camp on Sunday at Georgia, and he came. He was about to finish medical school and I asked him why he would leave that to take an operations job that was just an entry level position. But he had a passion to coach and help young men.
“Looking back 15 years ago he made the right choice. I made a good decision hiring him and knew his stock would sky rocket. He has proved me right. Now we have come full circle with him hiring me.”
Fox always appreciated the Kentucky fan base even when he was coaching at Georgia. He said Kentucky fans would buy him dinner in airports and restaurants.
“This fan base is legendary. Kentucky fans treated me unbelievably well when I was coaching at Georgia but it is different walking into Rupp Arena now wearing blue. It was an intimidating crowd when I was at Georgia and the home court advantage is like no other place. So it’s nice to be on the side everyone is cheering for.
“We are going to have a lot of great games this year. The SEC has 10 or 11 legit teams with a chance to play in the NCAA (Tournament) and teams at the bottom are going to be good enough to win on a given night. People don’t understand there just are not a lot of easy games in the SEC.
“Mark (Pope) knows that. But this is Kentucky’s team. We take that approach daily. We (coaches) are just the caretaker of the commonwealth’s team. Coach has such a passion for this program and I am thankful he’s letting me be part of what he’s doing here.”
11 Responses
Used to live in Lexington but dont now so I rarely get a UK game now, but do keep progress on them as much as I can!
Excellent article with insight to the coach & his career.
Pope definitely has high quality character & is thorough researching & selecting both players and coaches.
A winning combination!
The season is just 3 games old and the Hogs are already souring on Calipari.
“Arkansas Stock Been Sold”: Pressure Mounts on John Calipari’s Reign as Razorbacks’ NCAA Dreams Falter Amid Criticism
On Saturday’s episode of The Field Of 68: After Dark, Rob Dauster discussed why the Razorbacks don’t look to be in contention for the NCAA title. “I just don’t think, I’m very much… if I had any Arkansas stock, it’s been sold,” Dauster stated. To this, Jeff Goodman remarked, “Wow, look at you! You’re completely out on Arkansas?” “It’s been sold. I am out on Arkansas being an SEC title Contender, and being a national title contender,” Dauster enunciated.
However, as the season continues, the Razorbacks don’t look like living up to the expectations, instead falling by two spots in the preseason polls. Therefore, according to Dauster, the team might not be able to win the NCAA title or even the SEC tournament.
“The biggest problem is that Arkansas still has a dude coaching them that thinks that running out a bunch of freshmen and running the same sets that he ran for John Wall and Eric Bledsoe is going to work in the year of 2024. It’s not going to work. I don’t know why I said this… I said this on Friday night… last Friday when Arkansas lost to Baylor, I said this ‘I am so mad at myself for talking myself into the idea that John Calipari was going to do something different, and he’s not doing anything different,”
While D.J. Wagner (current avg. 5 ppg), Johnell Davis (10 ppg; 4.7 rpg), and Boogie Fland (15 ppg; 5.7 apg) can be blamed for a lackluster display by Arkansas, Calipari’s traditional approach, according to Dauster, is their biggest problem. “My concern is that it’s the like I don’t know why I talked myself into this idea that John Calipari was gonna do something different, when we’ve been asking him to do something different like the last six seasons at Kentucky and I was like ‘Well he’s got this new job. He’s going to be reinvigorated. He’s going to do different things,” Dauster expressed.
In the 2023-24 season, the two main stars were Reed Sheppard and Rob Dillingham. Pointing out the issues with ball screen defense Dauster remarked, “They had no idea how to break down.” Concluding his rant, Dauster expressed, “It’s like what’s the definition of insanity: doing the same thing over, and over, and over again, expecting a different outcome, right?”
The FRAUD has already been exposed for what he is: A Hall of Shame Coach
Some say forget about the fraud. I think we need to remember the results of letting a fraud stay after multiple failures and then get a ridiculous contract for mega-millions as long he as can walk.
The intelligent BB fans in the nation will soon realize the fraud has never been a coach – he just recruited top players & rolled the ball out. Even when he had the players he could let run the team (Booker, Tyler) and win a Title, he played his pets instead. That is criminal action. That is being crooked. He should have been sued by a lot of players for years of cheating them out of a future.
The dark background of TLT (FF’s don’t matter) & the fraud (SECT doesn’t mean anything) has made the work being done by Pope & his staff & every player buying into the TEAM plan even brighter!
LB, you are right, but there are still a lot of Calipari lovers who are quietly crying their eyes out over Calipari’s departure. After the inexcusable loss to Wisconsin with the 39-1 team, and getting that ridiculous lifetime contract, the FRAUD quit caring about winning and focused on pimping his pets to the NBA. He set our program back at least 5 years. Mark Pope was the perfect hire to replace him. He may very well undo the damage the FRAUD has done in his first season. Kentucky basketball is fun to watch again, not that we are going to win every game, but we are going to compete in every game and win a lot more than we lose. The cowardly Calipari lovers can all move to Fayetteville where they can tell Hog fans that these kids are young. They aren’t machines. They don’t know how to play. These babies are playing against grown men. We haven’t practice that yet. This is a players first program; winning doesn’t matter as long as my pets get into the NBA! Good riddance to the FRAUD!
Well I’m just glad cal no longer has anything to do with the Ky. program. I couldn’t help giving Cal scathing exit review and it was swear laden enough to get myself banned from asob. No I don’t miss it at all, and there are still plenty of cal apologist looming in the wings waiting on a chance to defend him and that is what I just don’t get. Anyway I’ll be posting from here it seems less likely that I will not get myself in trouble….
Banned from ASoB? Welcome to the club. They get their panties all in a bunch all too easily.
There is only one good thing I can say about Cal’s departure.. He is gone…..GOOD!!!!!
What is all this digging up old Cal’s corpse. We are blessed he is gone, thank Mitch and Arkansas instead. Mark Pope will, ( and has already ) given Ky fans a breathe of fresh air. Poor Cal is a one tune pied piper who wore out his welcome. The mystery that remains is the fact he had any support after the 2015 debacle to Wisconsin in the final four. The guy should have been fired that night. I would be embarrassed to admit I supported him in any way after the loss. He was on display for the narcissistic phony he has always been. GOOD RIDDANCE!!!!!!!
Great article Larry!! LB, BWP, Kevin, & Steve – I agree with everything that you’ll have to say! I never had any time for him after Wisconsin. My entire family bleeds blue. My mom went to school with Joe B’s older brother and we sat and cried at the Wisconsin game. We could never cheer for Cal again. We did think the world of Ellen and felt sorry that she has had to live with that ego. The biggest favor that he ever did for us was to LEAVE!! My family live in Nashville but we never miss a game and just love coach Pope.
Barry, thanks for sharing that article!!! LOVE IT!!! Thank God for you all keeping the truth exposed: keep it coming! Don’t let the haters keep you down. And if u got banned from a site like AsoB, that means u spoke truths, and called stuff out for what it is: that’s the only way to "get banned" for anything present-day. It’s called PC’ness at work……That’s why I appreciate your site, Larry! Thanks for letting us all ramble! The halftime speech Pope made to the team during the DUKE game was a massive standout on reflecting everything CAL WAS AND WASNT AT KY—the first thing Pope did when he came into the locker room was ask the guys how THEY were feeling, and what they had on THEIR mind—he allowed them the opportunity to communicate to him first to find out what they were seeing vs him laying out everything out like a dictator! And he is also doing that to help HIMSELF as a coach–hes asking THEM to help HIM COACH!! U gotta love that, man. As soon as I heard that, I immediately thought of CAL and how he would have NEVER asked any one of his teams how they felt first before addressing them! He didn’t care what they thought or how they felt–that didn’t matter–nor did winning bball games for KY–no, it was "u listen to me in order to get where u want to get in life, listen to me and I will make you a millionaire". I can at least say since COVID, that was the philosophy. And the old original CAL that came to KY from Memphis died after the 2015 WIS loss. He nor the program EVER recovered from that. And he mainly brought that on himself too, and on to that team. The amount of pressure that was on those kids that year was just totally unfair and out-of-control —yes, I know there is a certain amount of pressure for everybody who plays here unlike anywhere else, but no team should have to carry the pressure of a 40-0 season all the way into the Final 4 with them. There is enough pressure with that event and playing in it at KY alone—and the fact that that very narrative that CAL created played out all the way thru the entire season–it ended up hanging over the whole season like a dark cloud, and ended up being the thing that cost that team the chance to play DUKE for the title. Sure, we can all say that we SHOULD HAVE beaten WIS–on paper, yes–but that’s the same as saying the team should have been 39-0 at that point–nobody has a right to demand a team go undefeated. If it’s something that comes up, it’s something that should be borne of a team from within for the right reasons, and kept inside the locker room and inside the team huddle. It’s not something that should be let out for the press and media to analyze and scrutinize over the whole season, and then eventually get into the players’ minds when they kept winning and kept winning and kept winning. That team would have been better off losing a couple of road games in the SEC that year, and getting the losing over with THEN–there would have been far less pressure on them in that Final 4. I just personally have always felt CAL cursed that team and that season with that nonsensical talk before it even got started: he spoke an unnecessary demon into existence that ended up being the killing curse. One thing CAL has nvr learned from is his mouth.