Kentucky basketball fans want their program back. Mark Pope wants to give it to them.

When word leaked late Thursday night that Mark Pope was about to be the new men’s basketball coach at the University of Kentucky, here was the headline on my column:

“Mark Pope might not be the coach Kentucky fans wanted, but he might be the coach UK needs.”

Sunday confirmed that.

I’ve been around Kentucky athletics a long, long time and I have never seen anything like the scene inside the packed house that was Rupp Arena on Sunday.

Never ever.

This wasn’t an introductory press conference of a new men’s basketball coach. This was a Sunday afternoon revival for a fan base yearning for someone to lead the program who truly understands what Kentucky basketball is all about.

John Calipari never did. Not really. Yes, Kentucky’s former coach did a lot of great things. He won a championship and reached four Final Fours, but somewhere along the line during the past 15 years, Kentucky basketball became all about John Calipari. The full-on embracing of the one-and-done approach. The scheduling. The slogans. The marketing. The constant talk of a “players first program” — his players.

The day when five UK players were selected in the first round of the NBA draft and Calipari said, “We might have just had the biggest day in Kentucky basketball history,” that was the day you knew that while Cal understood basketball, he didn’t really understand Kentucky basketball.

Mark Pope understands it. He lived it. He breathed it. He had the floor burns to prove it. “It changed my life,” he has said more than once. He wore his feelings just as he wore that Kentucky jersey, the same No. 41 from that 1996 national championship team he displayed on the podium Sunday, complete with “the blood, sweat and tears” that went into it.

Sunday, Pope proved he understands the fan base, as well. Along with former UK players, he rode a bus onto the floor of Rupp Arena — as did the 1996 UK national title team when it returned from New Jersey to hang a banner. That day, as team captain, Pope was the first one off the bus, holding that national championship trophy.

Sunday, he was the last one to exit, holding that same national championship trophy and I’m not sure words could describe the reaction. You had to hear it.

Pope did the “C-A-T-S, Cats! Cats! Cats!” cheer. He said Nashville and the SEC Tournament mattered, something Calipari downplayed. He said he wanted to play in the Maui Invitational, a tournament Calipari avoided. He said he wanted to recruit in-state players. He said he wanted to recruit players who would appreciate the honor of playing for UK. He said he wasn’t going to temper expectations because at Kentucky you don’t temper expectations.

“If we don’t do it,” Pope said of winning titles, “then we don’t belong here.”

To me, here was one highlight among many: Pope recounted how when has walking from one end of the floor at the Meadowlands to the other to shoot the two free throws that clinched a win in the 1996 Final Four, all he could think about was one thing.

“If I don’t make these free throws, those guys (his teammates) are going to kill me,” he said.

Here was another: Pope said that when he was playing in the NBA, the players didn’t talk about their NBA teams, or games, or championships. “When we sat in that locker room, we talked about our college teams.”

That wasn’t just what Kentucky fans wanted to hear, but what they needed to hear.

It’s why they filled Rupp Arena on a Sunday afternoon, in search of something they felt had been lost. Not so much the wins. Or the titles. Or the banners. All important as they may be. They were in search of that feeling that Kentucky basketball is something important that belonged to them.

Kentucky’s new basketball coach gave them that feeling back.

“This is not my program, or the (players’) program,” Mark Pope said, before pointing to the amazing crowd all around Rupp Arena. “This is our program.”

Revival, indeed.

Three takeaways from UK basketball coach Mark Pope’s introductory press conference

Mark Pope might not be the coach Kentucky fans wanted, but he might be the coach UK needs

On the day UK introduced Mark Pope, it was Kentucky fans who made a statement

‘I understand the assignment.’ A packed Rupp Arena welcomes new Kentucky coach Mark Pope.

Reed Sheppard was on the minds of many — including Mark Pope — in Rupp celebration Sunday