LEXINGTON, Ky. — The next era of University of Kentucky men's basketball belongs to Mark Pope.
Multiple reports published late Thursday night indicated UK and Pope were finalizing an agreement to make the former UK player the next head coach. The university made it official Friday morning.
“Mark Pope not only brings an impressive record in nine years as a head coach, but also a love of the University of Kentucky and a complete understanding of what our program means to the people of our state,” athletic director Mitch Barnhart said. “As a captain on the ‘96 championship team, Mark was a beloved and respected teammate. As a head coach, he is highly regarded nationally as an innovator. His teams run a unique and dynamic up-tempo offense and they get after it on defense. He is a strong recruiter with international ties and a person of integrity.
“He fully embraces our high expectations and standards and I know that as our fans get reacquainted with Mark, they will be eager to join him on what promises to be an exciting ride.”
Pope has big shoes to fill replacing John Calipari, who led the Wildcats to a national championship and three Final Fours in 15 years. Coach Cal bolted for Arkansas earlier this week.
Pope was the head coach at BYU for the last five seasons. Here's everything you need to know about the next man up in Lexington.
As a player
Pope, 51, was born in Omaha, Nebraska, but grew up in Washington. He played at Newport High School in Bellevue before beginning his college career at the University of Washington.
He won the Pac-10 freshman of the year award as the 6-foot-10 forward set a freshman record with 8.1 rebounds per game.
Pope transferred to UK after two seasons and was a team captain on the 1996 team that won the national championship. He averaged 7.6 points a game in 20.3 minutes that season.
He was selected by the Indiana Pacers with the 52nd overall pick in the second round of the 1996 NBA draft. He also had stints with the Milwaukee Bucks, New York Knicks and Denver Nuggets.
As a coach
In 2006, Pope enrolled in medical school at Columbia University after his playing days. He left in 2009 to take the director of basketball operations position at the University of Georgia under Mark Fox, who was on Washington's staff when Pope was a player.
He left for an assistant job at Wake Forest in 2010 before arriving in BYU as an assistant in 2011, where he remained until 2015. Pope helped lead the Cougars to four straight 20-win seasons and three trips to the NCAA Tournament.
He received his first head coaching job in 2015 at Utah Valley University. In his four years, the team improved each year, going from 12 wins in 2015-16 to 25 in 2018-19.
Pope parlayed that success into the head coaching job at BYU. In his first season as the head man back in Provo, the Cougars went 24-8 (13-3 Western Athletic Conference), but the COVID-19 pandemic canceled the NCAA Tournament and prevented what would have been his first opportunity in the Big Dance.
They made the tournament the following season after going 20-7 (10-3). Pope led BYU back to the tournament this season, going 23-11 and 10-8 in the school's first season in the Big 12.
Pope was 77-56 at Utah Valley and 110-52 at BYU. He is 0-2 in the NCAA Tournament and has yet to win a regular season or conference tournament championship.
Pope's teams tend to shoot a lot of three-pointers. BYU took 1,087 threes this season - the third-highest total in the country. They averaged 32 attempts per game.
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