Mark Pope shares how he’s adjusted to being Kentucky head coach

Kentucky stunned fans around the nation when it named Mark Pope its next men’s basketball head coach. Pope’s only previous head coaching experience was at Utah Valley (2015-19) and BYU (2019-24).

He’s never won a game in the NCAA Tournament and never recruited a Top-10 freshmen class. Simply put, Pope didn’t boast the expected accolades to take over one of the most prestigious programs in the country. Nonetheless, he did just that and he’s learning how to thrive in the position every day.

“I’m really working hard to learn the job because there’s no job like it,” Pope said. “One thing I know for sure — it’s the greatest job in all of basketball, and there’s no place I’d rather be.

“I know those things for a fact, and I think it is going to be certainly the most challenging thing I’ve done in my career as a player or a coach; even more challenging than surviving Coach [Rick] Pitino, which is saying something. But I’ve definitely learned that that’s true. I expected that to be the case when I got here.”

Pope isn’t a complete stranger to the demands of Kentucky men’s basketball. After spending two seasons at Washington, Pope transferred to Kentucky and was a captain on the Wildcats’ 1996 national championship team.

It was a golden era for Big Blue Nation, with the program securing another national title only two years later. Pope witnessed the obsession of Kentucky fans firsthand, as they collected Pitino’s lawn clippings one week and cursed him the next.

Pope intimately understands the high standards Big Blue Nation has for its team, and he wouldn’t want it any other way.

“There’s one other way where I want to blow up this press conference and I’m going to get crushed for doing this,” Pope said at his introductory press conference in April. “Every coach in America at every other job in America stands up in their press conference and they try and moderate expectations. We don’t do that here at Kentucky.

“When Mitch (Barnhart) called me and talked to me about being the head coach here at Kentucky? I understand the assignment. We are here to win banners.”

With less than a month until the season begins, Mark Pope will look to pass this “assignment” with flying colors. On Friday night, Kentucky will give fans a sneak peek of what’s to come in the 2024-25 season at Big Blue Madness, which will begin at 7 p.m. ET and air live on the SEC Network.