Mark Pope, Kentucky celebrate Father's Day at Father-Daughter Camp
It has been a busy weekend full of events for Kentucky Basketball. That includes their Father-Daughter Camp that fell on Father’s Day today.
Mark Pope, a father to four daughters himself, spent the day with a gym full of families, including his own, and his participating players. As part of the festivities, everyone came together on the gym floor at the Joe Craft Center for a group dance.
Pope was front and center on the dance line at the camp. Each of his four girls, Ella, Avery, Layla, and Shay Pope, also led the activity. Meanwhile, two of his newest Wildcats, Koby Brea and Ansley Almonor, joined in as well.
Again, this was just the cap on what has been a busy last few days for the program in Lexington.
The Wildcats started with a Father-Son Camp on Friday and Saturday. That maintained the family theme of this year’s set of camps with dads included in all three days.
From there, UK also attended the NEW ERA event hosted by one of the school’s collectives in Club Blue. The night was open to subscribers to the collective and allowed fans to meet their new team following the turnover of the entire staff and roster over this offseason.
If that wasn’t enough, Pope was also done in time to make it back to Rupp Arena that night. He did so in order to welcome Tim McGraw and Carly Pearce to the building for their show on the ‘Standing Room Only Tour ’24’.
Kentucky had a lot to do over the last few days with several opportunities to be around Big Blue Nation. Sunday was a big part of that to end it all considering Pope’s status as a girl dad himself.
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Mikhail McLean hired as assistant coach at Kentucky
Mark Pope has made yet another addition to his first staff in Lexington by bringing aboard Mikhail McLean.
The school announced the addition on Friday afternoon.
“Mikhail played and coached under Kelvin Sampson who is one of the best, toughest and smartest coaches in the game,” Pope said in the statement. “Mikhail’s work with The Bahamian National Team along with his college coaching experience has allowed him to become one of the hardest-working, detail-oriented and top skill development coaches in the country. I’m so excited to have him and his family join our staff, and for him to get to work with our team because he is going to make a massive impact on this program.”
“I am honored to be joining Coach Pope and the Kentucky men’s basketball staff,” McLean said himself. “There is not a better fan base to work for and chase championships than this one. I would like to thank Coach Pope and Mitch Barnhart for affording me this opportunity. I would be remiss if I did not also thank Alvin Brooks for his selfless leadership and mentorship the last 14 years at both Lamar University and the University of Houston, along with Kelvin Sampson for their unbelievable support and guidance. My family and I are thrilled to be joining the Lexington community and I can’t wait to get to work.”
McLean was most recently an assistant at Lamar. He joined the Cardinals back in 2021 under Alvin Brooks III who is also now an assistant himself at Kentucky.
Along with McLean and Brooks, the primary staff consists of assistants in Cody Fueger, Jason Hart, and Mark Fox. Meanwhile, Nick Robinson is there as Director of Men’s Basketball Operations. Randy Towner is there too as their new strength and conditioning coach.