Three reasons why Kentucky's hire of Mark Pope may or may not work
© Steven Branscombe-USA TODAY Sports
Kentucky has its man, as BYU’s Mark Pope has been tabbed as the 23rd head coach in the program’s storied history. Pope will be expected to get the Wildcats back in the national title picture, after a run of early march exits. Below, Rivals national analyst Rob Cassidy outlines three reasons why Pope may thrive in Lexington as well as three reasons why the hire might crash and burn.
*****
Related: Four transfer prospects that could shine on their next team
2024 Rankings: Rivals150 | Team | Position
2025 Rankings: Rivals150 | Team
2026 Rankings: Top 100
TRANSFER PORTAL: Latest news | Transfer search | Transfer tracker/player ranking (football) | Transfer team ranking (football) | Transfer tracker/player ranking (basketball) | Transfer team ranking (basketball) | Rivals Portal Twitter
*****
THREE REASONS IT MAY WORK
HE PLAYS AN MODERN, ANALYTICS-BASED STYLE OF BASKETBALL
Pope’s BYU team fired away from deep last year, attempting 32 3-pointers per game, a number that ranked No. 2 nationally. The style of play may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but the computers love it, which means plenty. The Cougars finished No. 18 in KenPom and sat at No. 14 in offensive efficiency despite operating with a roster that logic suggests was shorter on talent than his future teams at Kentucky will be. BYU finished with the 22nd-ranked scoring offense under Pope a year ago, and his five-out offense should be refreshing for Wildcats fans, as there’s a good reason Pope is hailed as one of the great, young Xs-and-Os coaches in the sport. Look for Pope to prioritize 3-point shooting in the portal and in recruiting, as he’ll attempt to run a version of the offense he ran a year ago in Provo but do so with a deeper talent pool.
HE’S WON DESPITE CHALLENGING SITUATIONS
BYU faces some obvious recruiting restrictions and was also suddenly tossed into one of the toughest leagues in the country this year. All Pope did in that situation was go 23-11 with wins over teams such as Kansas, San Diego State, NC State and Iowa State, all of which advanced in this year’s NCAA tournament. Going back further, Pope is responsible for two of the five 20-win seasons in Utah Valley history and parlayed that success into the BYU job, where he amassed a 110-52 record. Pope has never been armed with a sizable NIL budget or any form of recruiting advantage for that matter, so the thought of seeing his gameday coaching prowess combined with a massive recruiting budget is certainly tantalizing and could yield impressive long-term results.
HE UNDERSTANDS THE BIG BLUE LANDSCAPE
The advantage of hiring an alum is sometimes overstressed. This situation, however, feels a bit different on that front. The Wildcat faithful will need some uniting after a coaching search that didn’t go the way some fans had hoped, and who better to command goodwill than Pope, the captain of the 1995-96 national champion Wildcats, a group some feel is the best Kentucky team in the history? In an era where whipping up NIL money is part of the head coach’s job description, Pope should be able to shine when it comes to playing politics in Lexington. He’s also unlikely to be bothered by the mixed reaction to his hiring. If Kentucky was looking for a steady hand, they got in Pope, who won’t be surprised by anything he sees or blinded by the bright lights under which he’s about to step.
*****
THREE REASONS IT MAY NOT
HE’S AN UNPROVEN RECRUITER
Part of the reason John Calipari became a heavy hitter on the trail was his reputation as a one-man NBA Draft feeder. The Wildcats pumped out pro talent year after year under their last head coach, a situation that stands in contrast to Pope, who has never been a head coach outside the state of Utah and has failed to put a single player in the NBA Draft. Obviously, Pope will now be armed with an NIL budget the likes of which he’s never sniffed, but the fact remains that he isn’t going to win many high-level recruiting battles based on his reputation … at least not at first. The highest-ranked recruit Pope has landed to this point was four-star guard Collin Chandler, who was ranked No. 53 in the 2022 Rivals150. Pope will likely need to rack up some victories and build a reputation before he starts winning recruiting battles against other bluebloods armed with similar budgets.
HIS LEASH WILL BE SHORT
There is no such thing as slow rebuilding or on-the-job learning Lexington. Pope is replacing a coaching legend that routinely landed elite recruiting classes and stocked the NBA Draft with talent each year. If year one is worse than Calipari’s final season at the school, the tide could turn on Pope in a hurry, especially since some parts of the fan base seem less than thrilled with the hire already, six months before the new coach is set to make his debut. Losing the trust of the fan base and big boosters is more damning than ever in the NIL era, and it is getting a lot harder to recover from a rocky start to a coaching tenure. If Pope limps out of the gates, the task that lay before him will only get harder. There’s a reason you never want to be the guy that follows The Guy, after all.
HIS MARCH RECORD IS UNINSPIRING
Kentucky fans will tell you part of the reason they wanted to move on from Calipari was his lack of recent March success, as the former head coach has won just one NCAA tournament game in the last five seasons. The bad news on that front, is that one victory is one more than Pope has in his entire nine-year career as a Div. I head coach. Judging a young coach by a lack of tournament success at previous stops with few advantages is a bit presumptuous from a sample-size perspective, sure, but the pressure to go deep into the tournament will be omnipresent.
SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS WITH KENTUCKY FANS AT CATSILLUSTRATED.COM
