New UK coach wants program to take on all-out identity
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Best he could recall, Mark Pope and his Kentucky teammates were in the middle of an exhibition game against Athletes in Action three decades ago. The Wildcats had jumped to a big lead – Pope thought it was 28-4 – in the early going. Then they gave up four straight points.
Head coach Rick Pitino was furious. He called a timeout. And proceeded to rip into his players.
“The last thing (Pitino) says is, ‘You guys are going to pay for this tomorrow!’ ” Pope recalled.
All these years later, Pope remembered the response of his teammate, Walter McCarty.
“Walt stands up, white as a ghost – his eyes tearing up – and he looks at me and his voice,” said Pope, “and he’s like, ‘We’ve got to fix this!’ ”
That all-out, nonstop intensity and commitment to excellence are traits Pope plans to bring to the fore as UK’s new men’s basketball coach, which he highlighted numerous times during his introductory news conference April 14 at Rupp Arena.
“We’re gonna find our own way to fabricate that type of organization, because that’s what Kentucky deserves,” said Pope, who spent the past five seasons at BYU. “And if we don’t do it, then we don’t belong here.”
As long as he’s leading the Wildcats, Pope said, there’s a phrase he’ll utter every day. “‘Relentless, 24/7 work,’ ” he said. “Those are not fake words: ‘Relentless, 24/7 work.’ And I learned that here.”
That’s not the only lesson he took away from his three-year playing career (1993-96) in Lexington.
“I learned about resilience here,” he said. “And here in Kentucky, resilience is a requirement. It’s not an exception. It’s a requirement. But I learned that here.
“I learned here that passion wins championships. Passion wins championships.”
Donning a blue-and-white Kentucky uniform, Pope believes, is one of the sacred privileges for a basketball player. After years upon years of former coach John Calipari touting his pupils’ NBA successes, Pope’s Kentucky-first mindset was music to the fan base’s ears.
“You know what all these (former UK players) know? And all of our future players are going to learn really quick? They are not doing those jerseys a favor by letting the jerseys clothe them,” Pope said. “Our guys will know quickly – and it’s hard not to know – it will be one of the great honors of their life to put that jersey on.”
He once was part of one of the most memorable teams ever assembled in Lexington – the national title winning squad in 1996, known as “The Untouchables” – and losing a game, any game, was an afterthought.
“Everybody wants to go in the Wayback Machine,” UK athletic director Mitch Barnhart said. “This is a little bit of a taste (of) what it felt like back in the day. Everybody talks about the years that we had and you point to banners and things like that. This gives you that vibe.”
Pope led the Cougars to a 110-52 record and two NCAA Tournament appearances in five seasons. He previously was the head coach at Utah Valley (77-56).
Barnhart said Pope is the perfect hire at a crucial time for the program after failing to make it out of the opening weekend of the NCAA Tournament in five seasons. It hasn’t reached a Final Four since 2015 and it hasn’t added another national title since notching No. 8 in 2012.