Mark Pope raves about Rick Pitino, surprise appearance at Big Blue Madness

Rick Pitino returned to his Old Kentucky Home this past weekend with an appearance at Big Blue Madness on Friday. To see meant a lot to many members of the fanbase, including their new head coach in Mark Pope.

Pope spoke about Pitino and his reunion in Lexington while at SEC Media Days in Birmingham on Tuesday. He began by expressing what the coach from when he was a player there means to him, specifically since the two are part of the school’s history as members of the title team from 1996.

“Yeah, Coach Pitino is really personal to me,” said Pope. “You know, if you think about your life, you count on one hand maybe the people that really, really, really changed you forever. I love Coach Pitino for that. I’ll be forever grateful for him, you know.”

“He changed the way that I see the world and he changed the way that I walk into a room. He changed the confidence that we approach challenges with,” Pope continued. “On top of all that, we got to share, as a team under his leadership, just the most extraordinary of extraordinary experiences together.”

Pitino and Kentucky had been separated since he left them for the NBA in 1997. It then became much more complicated when he spent over a decade and a half as head coach at Louisville. Still, now that he’s coaching in the northeast, Pitino has gradually reconnected with them. That’s especially been so over this offseason with their hiring of Pope.

All that then led to the moment when Pitino was back in Rupp Arena. After years apart, the Wildcat crowd welcomed him back in a way that showed their appreciation for him and his tenure there almost two decades later.

“He is a coach that also is on the Mount Rushmore of Kentucky Basketball. That’s really saying something,” Pope said. “He took a program when it was in a really, really, really difficult spot and took it back to where it belongs at the top of the college basketball mountain. He did it with all of his, you know, style and intensity and everything that he brings to the game.”

“To feel their gratitude? You know, we talk about gratitude every single day on our team. It’s a really important part of what we do. For Coach to be able to feel the gratitude of BBN for him? I thought it was really special,” said Pope.

Some may have thought that moment would have never happened between Pitino and Kentucky. Since it did, though, few were happier to see it for his coach than Pope himself.

“I love him so much and it was really special to be able to walk into Rupp Arena and feel that from BBN,” said Pope.