Mark Pope was a hit in Kentucky after taking over for John Calipari. (Vicky Graff Photo)
A year ago, the national search for a men’s basketball coach at the University of Kentucky was well underway, and speculation was rampant about who would succeed John Calipari.
Calipari resigned on April 9 to become the head coach at the University of Arkansas. Calipari’s 15 seasons in Lexington had reached a tipping point after the Wildcats had lost in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament twice in the previous three seasons. A loss to Oakland in the 2023 NCAA Tournament was the final straw for Calipari, despite his joint appearance with Athletics Director Mitch Barnhart to reassure Big Blue Nation that things would be better.
Barnhart’s first target, as reported first here, was Baylor coach Scott Drew, who opted to remain in Waco and build on the foundation he created during his tenure with the Bears. The next target was Connecticut coach Danny Hurley, who had just won a national title with the Huskies.
Hurley stayed put, and Barnhart switched gears and set his sights on Mark Pope, a former player who won a national title as a player with the Wildcats in 1996 and a coach who understood the passion of Big Blue Nation. The Pope selection wasn’t a popular one at first, but the hire caught fire as indicated by his introductory press conference at Rupp Arena.
Pope quickly assembled a staff and a roster, seemingly at the same time and built a team that set the tone for future teams to follow. The Wildcats finished 24-12, won three games in the postseason, and advanced to the Sweet Sixteen of the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2019.
Late-season injuries forced Pope and his staff to adjust to adversity. The result was a successful campaign in the postseason even without one of its top scorers in Jaxson Robinson. Point guard Lamont Butler did what he could to help carry the Wildcats deep into the postseason.
After a rocky start, Calipari settled in at Arkansas and became more comfortable in his own skin in Fayetteville. As for the Hurley idea, it turns out he wouldn’t have been a good fit in Lexington based on his behavior this season.
At Big Blue Madness, Rick Pitino returned to “Camelot” and helped usher in the Pope era in a packed house at Rupp Arena. Pitino’s presence and support were welcomed and much-needed after years of social distancing between the former coach and the fan base that embraced him during his unforgettable seven-year run as coach of the Wildcats. His tenure at Louisville had a little bit to do with the separation between the coach and the fans.
Looking ahead to next season, Pope will have some holdovers from last year’s squad, combined with a mixture of high school signees and experienced transfers. Among the returnees are the freshman trio of Travis Perry, Trent Noah, and Collin Chandler, along with leading scorer Otega Oweh and Brandon Garrison.
Next season will bring the 20th anniversary of the 1995-96 championship team and the renewal of the Kentucky-Indiana series in what promises to be another successful season for Big Blue Nation.
17 Responses
Gotta bow to the Pope.
Wilkerson down to Indiana and Kentucky. With us getting last look and strength of platform you have to like our chances.
Pope was the right man from day 1. The FRAUD stayed 4 years too long! He did learn how to coach again when his PET got hurt. Let’s see how long it takes for the FRAUD to be the FRAUD again.
Calipari lives rent free in Barry’s head.
No need for you to keep crying sour grapes…The FRAUD is gone for good. All of you Calipari lovers should move to Fayetteville.
Nobody mentions him more than you Barry. You should look in the mirror.. move on. New Coach , new era . The only one who continues to bring him up is you. You act jaded.
You Calipari lovers just can’t take it, lol!
I was mad about Pope at first I wanted Mark Few. Now I see I was very wrong. Pope is a breath of fresh air. He is truthful and he gushes about his players and gets the best out of them. We won at Tennessee with Perry playing great for his freshman season. He will clean up his turnovers and shoot about 45% from 3. Pope did a unbelievable job for having to put a whole team together in a very short amount of time. We was 2 great athletes away from being a final 4 team. He has added more than enough tough kids. KAM Williams is going to be a monster. The Alabama transfer is a fighter. Garrison is a fighter. Shout out to Garrison for going to the Louisville bench and telling them they are little brother. This years Kentucky Louisville game will be between to of the too top teams in college basketball I’m also impressed by Pat Kelsey I actually like him. He brought Louisville out the sewer. We will be the premier game in college basketball again. Louisville has a final 4 roster. I think we are a eyelash better. It will be a great game both teams should be top 10. Oweh will be a all American JQ will push Garrison to be one of the best big men in college basketball. Do you know how hard it will be to score on JQ? It will make Garrison learn how to adjust his shots and he will be much more of a monster this year. Moreno needs to put on about 10-15 pounds of muscle. Johnson is the sleeper on this team. Chandler really came around at the end of the year. If he improves from that he will be a double figure scorer this year. He will pull from 2 steps in from half court. He has a beautiful form and perfect rotation on his shot. He used to play above the rim and I expect him to work on that part of his game because he was doing nasty dunks in high school.
Great piece Larry as always.. I think Lamar commits here in the next day or two.. I’m pretty sure I read somewhere he even reached out to Pope before we did and then to cancel your other visits that’s got to favor us… Doesn’t it? Anyways the fun is back in can’t wait til next year.. Go Cats!!!!?
UK came in #2 again…..having some problems getting our guard out of the Portal. IU gets their man.
I am very pleased with how the year went and can only wish we could have stayed healthy. To put a team together in such a short amount of time and when healthy, could play with the best of the best says a lot about Pope and how he teaches and coaches his players.
Now that Oweh is testing the water will he dive in or will he run it back another year is the ultimate question about this years Kentucky team. Without him we still have a talented team but I think we go from a top 5 team with him to a top 15 team without him. We need him to come back to be final 4 contenders. Without him where is the scoring in the back court going to come from? He is also one of the best defenders in the SEC. So he’s very important. Actually he’s the most important guy on Kentucky’s basketball team. Everyone else has someone that can sub in for them and the talent doesn’t fall off to much. With Oweh he’s a guaranteed all SEC first team type of guy this year. Definitely a 18-20 ppg type of guy. A double figure in almost every game type of guy. So if we miss on Oweh which I think he ultimately comes back for his senior year then this years team needs a legitimate and proven scorer. We also missed on Wilkerson which I thought was money in the bag. Wilkerson could have eased the pain of losing Oweh a little bit. I don’t think Wilkerson is near the athlete or scorer that Oweh is but he would have softened the blow. We will see.
I don’t see Oweh getting drafted, but even if he does, that is just more PT for Noah, Johnson, and Chandler. Even Williams good play at the 2. That is why Wilkerson went to Indiana. We have plenty of depth at the 1, 2, and 3 spots. It would be nice to get another BIG who could play the 4 and 5 spots.
I agree I think he comes back. He said he had the most fun in his life playing in Lexington.
I think we could use another big big guy. Maybe 7′ or 7’2". I just don’t think anymore bugs will commit. We have a extremely deep frontcourt and Pope has said he’s pretty much done with the frontcourt unless Ament wants to commit.
We could also use another point guard. Behind Lowe we could play Chandler or Johnson or Perry. One mistake Pope made last year but I understand why he did is not playing Noah and Perry enough in the warm up games against the weaker teams we play. He was trying to get the starters to gel is why he made that move but it hurt us later in the year when injuries piled up. I don’t see him making that same mistake this year. Perry Noah and Chandler will play often in non conference games. We should get a good idea just how much they improved from year 1 to year 2. Chandler is my dark horse to really turn up his production he will turn 22 this year as a sophomore so he will have his senior year body as a sophomore. He is not just a shooter he also played above the rim in high school which he should upgrade that part of his game again because he should be much stronger this year. I’m really excited about all the pieces Pope is putting together. I think we have a core of players who if they stick around could dominate over the next 3 years. Garrison should be a 10ppg 7 rpg 1.5 bpg 2.5 apg type of guy this year. If he takes that next step and averages about this much next year we will be in great hands. JQ will be a one and done. Garrison as a senior. The Croatian as a Sophomore. KAM Williams as a Junior. Diobote as a Senior and Moreno as a Sophomore will be a crazy good front court as well. With Noah Perry and Chandler as Juniors and ready to take center stage. I also think Jasper Johnson is a 2 year and gone to the NBA type of guy. His best basketball will be his sophomore year. Then you have Possibly Lowe coming back for his senior season. Wow just wow how incredible that could be. Me personally I wouldn’t recruit a high school kid unless your getting a top 30 type of guy. I wouldn’t recruit a Kentucky kid unless your getting a top 50 maybe even top 60 type of kid. The one kid we need to get in 2026 is Tay Kinney. He could be the starting point guard as a freshman. Which I ultimately think that doesn’t happen because Perry will be a junior and Lowe could come back. Chandler or Johnson are also capable of running the point. The future is very bright. Like I said we will win a championship in the next 2-3 years. Bank on it. We have a better chance to win it all this year than last year. And I think the following year can be said the same way. We will get gradually better every year over the next 3 years.
IMO Perry needs to go to Shooting Guard.
And be backup PG.
Dame Sarr!