Chuck Hayes loves Mark Pope hire: "It brings it back to Kentucky"

When you write your Kentucky basketball all-time fan-favorite lists, Chuck Hayes is an automatic inclusion. Arriving in 2001, the 6-6, 240-pound forward played bigger than his body en route to All-SEC Freshman Team, two-time All-SEC and SEC Defensive Player of the Year honors, tying the school’s all-time record for most consecutive starts with 110. A relentless defender and rebounder, he displayed heart and passion unlike very few in the school’s rich history. And those traits allowed him to carve out an unlikely 11-year NBA career before moving up the front-office ranks after his playing days, now the director of basketball operations for the Golden State Warriors.

No one did it like Chuck Hayes, a guy who embodied what it means to wear the blue and white with Kentucky across his chest. The UK Athletics Hall of Famer was a Wildcat through and through.

And he’s glad Mitch Barnhart made the call to bring in someone like Mark Pope to lead this basketball program with similar values, a coach who has done nothing but stress the importance of valuing the opportunity to be at Kentucky since the minute he arrived.

“I thought it was a great move, thought it was really good by Mitch Barnhart,” Hayes told KSR.

The Kentucky legend was an outspoken supporter of John Calipari and does not want that to get lost in translation. He felt Coach Cal “did an amazing job with the program” and “embraces the former players” — nothing but love there on his end.

“He brought life back and revived the program. It was vibrant,” Hayes said. “Everything was great.”

But when Calipari decided to make a change for himself and take on a new challenge at Arkansas, Barnhart had a choice to make regarding the future of Kentucky basketball. He would have supported the other coaches on the wish list — Scott Drew, Dan Hurley and Billy Donovan were the hot names of interest — but he firmly believes the program made the right call in hiring Pope.

Other coaches could and maybe would have won at a high level in Lexington, but Hayes believes Pope will do it with the bluest blood rushing through his body. He understands what it means to win here at the highest level because he did win here at the highest level, pouring everything he had into the program as a player.

Now he gets to do it roaming the sideline as head coach.

“The selections (Barnhart) had to choose from were really good, but I love the Pope hire. It brings it back to Kentucky,” Hayes told KSR. “Anybody who knows Kentucky prior to Calipari, you know Adolph Rupp, you know Joe B. Hall, you know Rick Pitino and you know Tubby Smith. You know the DNA and the type of players that put on that jersey. I think Pope resembles that. Mitch Barnhart did a great job and got it right with Mark Pope.”

Look no further than his introductory press conference and the new head coach’s ability to bring generations of history together for one cause, doing it in front of a sold-out Rupp Arena crowd with 5,000 fans being turned away at the front door. It was something that’s never been done before in the history of college basketball, organic and unique to Kentucky and Kentucky only.

“Nobody else in the world can do that, no one else in the country can do that. That shows you right there, this brought back Kentucky,” Hayes said. “They didn’t bring back a name, they brought back a Kentucky guy. That’s how you know all of Kentucky supports this, Big Blue Nation showed up. It’ll be fun, he’s going to be really good.”

Generations of talent showed up to support Pope, piling into that bus and walking off to a roar from the most passionate fanbase in the nation. It was a sign that we were all in this together, setting up the new head coach’s messaging of Kentucky being ‘our‘ program moving forward, not his.

Hayes is all in with that movement.

“The former players are on board, the fanbase is starting to love it, they’re on board. They have our full support,” he said. “He’s going to do well and bring some new energy, it’s going to be great. Players will want to play for him.”

The next generation of Chuck Hayeses will be coming through Lexington, players who love the program and what it means to represent it with honor as much as he did. Guys who will shed tears of joy listening to My Old Kentucky Home on Senior Day just as he did, knowing they gave it everything they had when their journeys ultimately come to a close.

Pope will find them and reel them in, just as he found his way from Modesto to Lexington over two decades ago.

“It means a lot, man. You go through so much,” Hayes told KSR. “You see the passion that the fans give you, the little kids younger than you. Everything that they bring into the program, you would be doing them a disservice if you didn’t give it your all. Pope is going to get that out of those guys.”

And he’s going to do it playing a fun brand of basketball, Hayes joking that a lot of the early skepticism came from people who clearly never watched Pope coach at BYU. As a West Coast native himself currently working for the Warriors in California, he’s seen plenty and knows it’s something Kentucky fans will enjoy.

“For the people that were a little iffy about the hire, it makes me know that when BYU was playing, everybody was sleeping in the Eastern time zone,” he said. “You weren’t watching BYU. If you were watching BYU, you’d know they play a good brand of basketball.”

It’s something he’s excited to be a part of — and preferably in person. As soon as he can make it back to Lexington, he promises to be there ready to help kickstart a new era of Kentucky basketball.

“I couldn’t make it to the press conference, but I’ll be back there this summer,” he said. “Right when my son is done playing AAU, I’ll be there.”

Mark Pope’s got Chuck Hayes’ stamp of approval.