Rick Pitino 'wanted to be called' for vacant Kentucky job

Kentucky‘s head coaching search has reportedly come to an end as BYU‘s Mark Pope appears set to be named the university’s next head coach.

However, reports on Thursday afternoon revealed that former Kentucky head coach Rick Pitino — Pope’s former coach at UK — was interested in making a return to Lexington. KSR’s Matt Jones revealed where Pitino finished among the rest of the candidates.

“I don’t think he was called, but Rick wanted to be called,” Jones said during a Twitter space on Thursday night. “But I think he — I have not heard that he was [called]. I don’t think Bruce Pearl was called. I don’t think, in the end, I think he was on a list of people. But I think maybe that got vetoed.”

After Kentucky was turned down by Scott Drew and Dan Hurley, Pitino moved up on many fans’ list. With the bigger fish staying put, there weren’t many names left in the initial pool of candidates. Pitino was far enough down that he wasn’t legitimately considered.

At the same time, Pitino took a moment on Thursday expressing in his mind that Pope would be an “unbelievable choice” for Kentucky to hire.

Pope played for Pitino for two seasons, notably playing a role in Kentucky’s 1996 national championship victory. He moved on to coaching in 2009 but didn’t get his first head coaching gig until 2015, where he was hired at Utah Valley and moved on to BYU in 2019.

Since his hire, the Cougars have compiled a 110-52 record since Pope took over the program in 2019. He led them into their first season in the Big 12 Conference this past season.

However, fans had been reminiscing on Pitino’s run form 1989 through 1997 which saw the Wildcats go 219-50 over that span. He led Kentucky to five Elite 8’s, three Final Fours, two championship game appearances and one national championship. Achievements like that haven’t been seen in Lexington for a decade — and Big Blue Nation felt like they needed an experienced head coach to replace John Calipari. Pitino’s resume fits the bill and then some — which can’t be said for Pope.

Instead, Kentucky athletic director Mitch Barnhart decided to pull the rug out from under that idea and went with one of his former players. Now, it’s on Mark Pope to rebuild Kentucky basketball from the ground up, and it’s clear that he has Pitino’s support.