Kentucky is reportedly looking into its championship past to find its next head coach for men’s basketball.
The school is reportedly zeroing in on Brigham Young University men’s basketball coach Mark Pope to helm the Wildcats, with CBS Sports’ Matt Norlander reporting a deal is being put together to bring the Cougars coach back to Lexington, his alma mater.
Pope coached at BYU from 2019 through this past season, and he’s taken the Cougars to the NCAA tournament twice in his tenure with the program. He went 110-52 in his five seasons in Provo, Utah.
Kentucky fans, it looks like Pope will be your new coach. Here’s five facts to get to know him.
He played at Kentucky in college and won a title in 1996
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Pope played for former Kentucky coach Rick Pitino from 1994-96 and won a national title with the Wildcats in 1996. He was a forward on that championship-winning Kentucky squad.
Pope played in the NBA after his Kentucky career
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Pope was drafted in the second round of the 1996 NBA Draft by the Indiana Pacers. He had stints with Indiana, Milwaukee Bucks, New York Knicks and Denver Nuggets through 2005.
His first head coaching job was at Utah Valley
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Pope got his first head coaching job at Utah Valley in 2015 and coached for four seasons at the Western Athletic Conference school. He went 77-56 as the head coach and made three College Basketball Invitational appearances with the team.
His tenure at BYU featured plenty of success
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Pope’s stint at BYU’s head coach featured two appearances in the first round of the NCAA tournament (2021, 2024) and a 2022 run to the NIT quarterfinals. He didn’t coach any future NBA players in that span, but he will likely get that opportunity at Kentucky.
He's only the fifth Kentucky coach since 1989
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Once his hire is official, Pope will only be the fifth Kentucky men’s basketball coach since 1989, the year Rick Pitino was hired for the job. Since then, only Tubby Smith (1997-07), Billy Gillispie (2007-09) and John Calipari (above, 2009-24) have coached the Wildcats.
