Getting Tased in Front of Media? Mark Pope Had Some Crazy Ideas While Head Coach at Utah Valley

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Do you want to be in the athletic department at a school where Mark Pope is coaching? Well, first you’re going to need to gather a few items:

• One taser
• 500 feet of phone line
• A speaker to play “Classic” by MKTO

During Mark Pope’s time as the head coach at Utah Valley, he had his fair share of off-the-wall ideas. From getting tased by the media to playing at Kentucky and Duke on back-to-back nights, Pope was always looking for the next way to garner attention for the small school in Orem, Utah.

“His mind is always churning with new ideas,” Utah Valley assistant athletic director Jason Erickson told KSR+ in an interview.

Getting Tased in Front of the Media?

While at Utah Valley, Mark Pope would enter every meeting with a list of ideas. Erickson would have a first-hand look at how Pope’s mind operated on a lightning-fast level.

“His head is always churning marketing-wise,” Erickson said. “He treated our program like a start-up. [Pope] would always say it’s like a start-up company. He wanted to get ideas out there that would get the program’s name out there and get people talking about it.”

One day, Erickson was sitting with Pope in his office and one of those “crazy ideas” was brought up: Pope wanted to be tased.

“‘I should go on campus and get tased with the media there and cameras rolling,'” Erickson recalled Pope saying. “He took it home to Lee Anne and came back and said, ‘Lee Anne won’t me do it, but I’ll talk her into it.’ He kept saying he would talk her into it, but he never could.”

Eventually, Pope moved on. He had enough crazy ideas to hold him over even without being tased in front of the media.

“His mind is always churning with new ideas. Idea after idea after idea,” Erickson said. “I don’t know if the guy ever slept. His mind is constantly going. I’m sure it took some convincing, but she would not let that one go. She let most things go, but not that one.”

The Toughest 24 Hours of Basketball

Kentucky’s Rupp Arena and Duke’s Cameron Indoor Stadium are two of the most difficult road venues in all of sports. Imagine having to compete there on back-to-back nights.

Well, Mark Pope didn’t have to imagine. Pope’s Utah Valley team went to Lexington for a matchup with Kentucky on November 10, 2017, before flying to Durham, NC for a matchup with Duke at Cameron Indoor the next night.

After suffering a 10-point loss to No. 5 Kentucky on Friday, Pope’s Wolverines fell to Duke by 30 the next night. Despite the losses, Pope’s idea was executed to perfection.

“It worked brilliantly,” Erickson said. “ESPN.com had a report with us the entire trip. We were on ESPN’s social media. #Toughest24 was trending. It was a brilliant marketing move that got us out there.”

Pope was already planning on playing a game vs. Kentucky during the 2017-18 season. However, in the summer of 2017, he was given the opportunity to schedule a game against Duke on the road.

“The Duke thing became available and he agreed to it right away because of what we could do with it,” Erickson said. “It was amazing. I don’t know if our school had ever seen that much national media attention. It was kind of overwhelming in a way because there were so many eyes on us.”

Another silver lining to the back-to-back losses came in the form of a certain ESPN correction. For years, Erickson had been trying to get ESPN to change the logo they used for Utah Valley to reflect the program’s current logo and colors.

“After that trip, they finally did it,” he said. “That was a milestone because I was trying for so long to get our correct logo on ESPN.com and all the ESPN stuff. I knew we had made some kind of mark.”

Radio Show from a Construction Lift

Mark Pope, like many college coaches, did a weekly radio show during his time at Utah Valley. Unlike most college coaches, he was willing to take his radio show to extreme heights — literally.

“We got a lift over the construction facility and put the radio equipment up in the lift,” Erickson said. “This was still back when we had to use a phone line to do the radio show. I had to find 500 feet of phone line because he wanted to go all the way up. Not halfway up, but all the way up. He wanted it to overlook the construction of his practice facility.”

Pope was like a “little kid” he was so giddy about the idea. He said, “We’re doing things nobody has ever done before,” Erickson recalled.

“The wind was blowing. I don’t know if it was safe. We were swaying back and forth,” Erickson said. “He was loving every second of it.”

Starting Utah Valley’s Midnight Madness

Big Blue Madness has been a staple of Kentucky Basketball for years, becoming the season’s premier opener before games officially begin. Before Mark Pope arrived at Utah Valley, the program had nothing of the sort.

“He brought Midnight Madness back and always made it a big spectacle,” Erickson said. “In our very first madness, he surprised everybody, came out, and did a choreographed dance with his daughters. The place went crazy.”

Pope and his daughters performed a choreographed dance to “Classic” by MKTO. After the performance, the family was greeted by the whole Utah Valley team in celebration.

“That’s what Pope did,” Erickson said. “He knew how to get people excited about Utah Valley basketball. That’s something we hadn’t had for a while. He was the right person at the right time for us to get the program seen nationally and do things that would bring attention to us.”

‘He Has No Limit Now’

If Mark Pope could enact some of these wild ideas at a school like Utah Valley, imagine what’s possible at a school with the resources of Kentucky. The sky’s the limit.

“He has no limit now,” Erickson said. “There is no holding him back. I’m personally excited to see what he does.”

Kentucky is the all-time wins leader in college basketball. The program has won eight national titles and is one of, if not the most historic program in history.

“It’s hard to take a program like Kentucky somewhere it hasn’t been before,” Erickson said. “If anybody can do it, I guarantee you it’s Mark Pope.”

Erickson called Pope a “one-man show” at Utah Valley. Between his crazy ideas and the fundraising for a brand-new practice facility, he was always trying to find the next way to push the envelope.

“He’s always four or five steps ahead,” Erickson said. “He doesn’t just do things spontaneously. He’s thinking of how something is going to be affected three or four steps down the line already and how he wants it to turn out.”

Now at a school like Kentucky, Pope will be able to do things on a much larger scale. He’s willing to give everything to the program with which he won a national title in 1996.

“He’s just a mastermind,” Erickson said. “He’s a smart, smart guy. The guy was in medical school but dropped out of medical school to coach basketball. It’s what he wants to do. Kentucky fans will be very pleased with the outcome.”