Explaining why Mark Pope is a polarizing hire for Kentucky fans

When Kentucky basketball began a new head coaching search this past week, few fans could have predicted it would end with former Wildcat Mark Pope leaving BYU to take over in Lexington.

Keeping it within the family has been a theme of recent major head coaching hires, like Hubert Davis‘ promotion at North Carolina and the same for Jon Scheyer at Duke. Now, Pope had been a head coach before, but still, his ties to the Kentucky program appeared to be a major factor in his hiring.

However, Kentucky Sports Radio host Matt Jones believes UK leadership erred if they really selected a new head coach because of ties within the program.

“Well, I don’t think that’s ever a reason you hire a guy, because he went to school there,” Jones told Cole Cubelic and Greg McElroy when appearing on their show Friday.

“So, the question for me was: If his name was Mark Smith and he went to Alabama, would you have hired him? And I think the answer is probably no,” Jones asserted. Although, he does believe Kentucky fans will get on board with the hire quickly.

“But I will say this: fans, they’re gonna be upset, they’re gonna vent all day. I think that’s happening. But this is how this place will work. Remember I said this in seven days. They’ll talk themselves into it in seven days. Like, they will.”

Next, Matt Jones moved on to discuss the reasons for optimism in a hire like Pope, who doesn’t quite have the resume of some of Kentucky’s other candidates. According to the KSR host, Pope is smart as a whip.

“I know Mark Pope. Here’s the thing: I went to college when Mark Pope was here. I went to Transylvania in Lexington. Mark was at UK. I know him. Like, you guys know everybody in the sports world. I don’t. I don’t really tend to run in sports, athletes’ circles.

“But I know Mark. Mark’s the smartest dude I’ve ever been around that played basketball. Now, I mean, I always say there’s athletic smart and then there’s life smart. Well, Mark Pope is life smart. I mean, the guy was a Rhodes Scholar finalist. And he went to Columbia for medical school for two years.”

That’s certainly a strong endorsement for Pope’s intellect — and folks within the college basketball have come out since his move to UK to comment on Pope’s brilliant ability as an x’s and o’s coach. He may not have the pizzazz of John Calipari, but there’s reason to believe Pope can still be a very strong ball coach.