Kentucky basketball fans fill Rupp Arena to welcome Mark Pope back as Wildcats' new coach

LEXINGTON — A shade more than three hours before Kentucky officially introduced Mark Pope as its new men's basketball coach Sunday, the program's official account on X (the social media platform formerly known as Twitter) shared a video. The clip, barely 30 seconds in length, features a UK staffer leading Pope into his new office at Memorial Coliseum for the first time.

Reflecting upon this moment that evening, during the final question of his news conference at a packed Rupp Arena, Pope acknowledged taking in his office for the first time was surreal.

"I think every single second has been a moment, just because my heart is here," Pope said. "This is just awesome. Tonight at some point, we're gonna go home and jump on the phone and start recruiting, and like every recruiting call is gonna be an incredible moment, because kids are answering a little bit different when I talk about Kentucky. We got a long road, and it's gonna be epic."

That journey started Sunday, with Pope's first game still more than six months away. But the way fans filled the Wildcats' home venue for their first glimpse of their new leader, those unfamiliar with the sport's schedule would have been surprised to learn the 2024-25 campaign won't tip off until November.

Bear in mind: The arena has a listed capacity of 20,500. The lower level features 10,000 theater-style seats; not a single one was empty. The upper level, with 10,500 more seats, took a while longer to fill. But by the time Pope stepped to the podium at 4:54 p.m. Sunday, there wasn't a seat to be had.

All to welcome back a favorite son.

"We see these introductory press conferences all the time," Pope said. "Nobody in the world has ever seen anything like this."

Kentucky athletics director Mitch Barnhart, a veteran of these types of events in a tenure dating back to 2002, noted the same.

"There are programs that don't get this kind of crowd for five games," he said. "UK got this for a press conference. It's awesome."

Pope was part of the Wildcats' national championship-winning club in 1996, led by coach Rick Pitino.

"I understand the assignment," Pope said. "We're here to win banners."

Which his predecessor, John Calipari, once did with regularity. A national title. Four Final Fours. Seven Elite Eights. And 12 conference championships (six each between regular season and SEC Tournament). But the Wildcats didn't make it out of the first weekend of the Big Dance in Calipari's final five seasons. And haven't won an SEC Tournament title since 2018.

"We're here to win banners in Nashville," said Pope, pausing as the crowd roared at the mention of the conference tournament's usual host city, "because you guys turn out in Nashville like nobody else."

That event never meant much to Calipari — now guiding Arkansas' program; the rival SEC school officially hired him as its new coach one day after he left UK — as he considered it a nuisance. An opinion he voiced at the drop of a hat. But for Pope, who played for one of the most popular teams in Kentucky history, conceding any contest is verboten.

"Our goal is to win every single game we play," he said. "That's what we're shooting for."

Should they lose — Pope was quick to add the caveat "if that happens" — his players will pick themselves up off the mat. They'll lean on what he plans to make core values of his new program: resiliency and relentlessness, traits Pitino hammered into him nearly 30 years ago.

Then, they'll do everything in their power to ensure defeat doesn't happen again.

"That's what we do here at Kentucky — that's like the DNA," he said. "If Kentuckians know one thing, they know a hard day's work and getting up the next day and having another hard day's work. That's what we know here."

Reach Kentucky men’s basketball and football reporter Ryan Black at rblack@gannett.com and follow him on X at @RyanABlack.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Mark Pope, Kentucky basketball coach, draws large crowd at Rupp Arena