Kentucky basketball’s Mark Pope sends classy message to John Calipari
There’s a level of respect that comes with the Kentucky job and those who came before Pope’s arrival.
First-year Kentucky basketball coach Mark Pope is following a rich tradition of excellence established during the tenure of John Calipari, who led the Wildcats to a national championship and several deep runs in the NCAA Tournament. However, Pope is making sure to put his on stamp on the program located in the Bluegrass while still showing respect for those who came before him.
Pope, who played three seasons for the Wildcats in the 1990s, spent the past five seasons at BYU.
“Yeah, I mean, listen. I’ll forever be grateful to Coach Cal,” Pope said during an interview with CBS Sports’ Jon Rothstein. “I’ll be grateful for what he did at my alma mater at the University of Kentucky. There’s no reason for my heart not to be full of gratitude to him. He’s also one of the greatest coaches to ever coach in college basketball.”
Calipari ended up at Arkansas, where he’ll face off with the Wildcats next season.
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Currently, the Razorbacks have the No. 3 recruiting class nationally under Calipari, who has taken four players from the transfer portal this cycle including Zvonimir Ivisic and Adou Thiero from Kentucky.
“For him to be in this league is great for basketball,” Pope said. “It’s going to be great for Arkansas fans and certainly great for Big Blue Nation. It’s going to be a battle. It is going to have some things become super personal. [But] what he has done for college basketball as a whole and what he has done specifically for Kentucky Basketball? I couldn’t appreciate it any more.”
Pope led BYU to a 110-52 (.679) overall record in five seasons with two NCAA Tournament appearances.
“One of the things that I think is fascinating is gonna be stylistically from a basketball standpoint,” 247Sports director of scouting Adam Finkelstein said last month about Pope’s hiring. “Mark Pope is a sophisticated offensive coach. He’s teams at BYU, they actually shot more 3s than 2s last year. Over 50% of their shots came from behind the arc. And one of the criticisms of John Calipari over the years was his inability to kind of evolve with his system.
“So that is not going to be a criticism of Mark Pope, because they’re going to play with pace. They’re going to run an intricate playbook. They’re going to shoot a lot of 3s. So, generally regarded as a very sophisticated offensive mind. That’s going to be something that I think Kentucky fans are going to be excited to see, but certainly doesn’t have the same type of gravitas or personal brand that someone like John Calipari does. Nor does he has the gravitas of some of the other candidates that were being floated around when the position first because open.”
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