Mark Pope has 'no reason' to not be grateful toward John Calipari

A successor and a predecessor don’t often have much of a relationship, let alone a good one. One might expect that to be the case at Kentucky with how the offseason went with John Calipari choosing to leave and Mark Pope coming in as the next head coach of the program. However, that’s not what it is at all with how Coach Pope feels about Coach Cal.

Pope discussed what his relationship with Calipari has been like since taking on his former job during an interview with CBS Sports’ Jon Rothstein on ‘College Hoops Today’ on Monday. In doing so, he expressed his gratitude for him with what he has done for the sport, specifically during his 15 seasons leading the Wildcats.

“Yeah, I mean, listen. I’ll forever be grateful to Coach Cal,” said Pope. “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,” Pope said. “He’s also one of the greatest coaches to ever coach in college basketball.”

However, this connection isn’t just about the present with the obvious events of the past two months. As Pope recalled, it started back during his playing days in the 90s when he and the Wildcats would face Calipari and his Minutemen on the court.

“Mind you, when I was playing here, he was the head coach at UMass. Like, we had an unbelievable rivalry,” remembered Pope. “He had a group with Marcus Camby, (Carmelo) Travieso, and that group in the backcourt. You know, we got to play each other in the Final Four.”

That has continued on to his early coaching career where Calipari has been a giving colleague for Pope.

“How he has been to me personally? He has been so generous to me personally,” Pope added.

From here on, though, Pope and Calipari will be forever linked by their order on the coaching tree in the bluegrass. That’ll be even more so considering the two will face off with one another next season as Calipari remained in the SEC at Arkansas.

That matchup with Calipari making his return to Rupp Arena will be one of the largest of the upcoming season, if not the biggest, and should have plenty of contention, even for Pope.

“For him to be in this league is great for basketball. It’s going to be great for Arkansas fans and certainly great for Big Blue Nation,” said Pope. “It’s going to be a battle. It is going to have some things become super personal. It’s one thing competing against somebody that you don’t know. It’s another thing competing against your brother. If you’ve done that in the backyard, it usually gets ugly because you love each other so much. I anticipate there’ll be some of that flavor in this with Coach Cal, for sure.”

Again, many would expect these two to naturally dislike one another if for no other reason than the circumstances. Still, that’s just not the way it is or will be considering the respect and admiration that the heir in Pope has for the former coach in Calipari.

“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 said.