Bio Blast: Mark Pope

[Ed. Note: This article was published minutes before reports came out stating that Kentucky has zoned in on BYU head coach Mark Pope for its head coaching vacancy.]

For the first time since 2009, Kentucky is looking for a new head men’s basketball coach. The Eddie Sutton coach to be named later trade was completed on Sunday night when John Calipari decided to leave Lexington for Arkansas after 15 seasons in the Bluegrass. After a 410-122 (198-65) run with four Final Four appearances and six SEC regular-season titles, Calipari has found a new home.

Kentucky Director of Athletics Mitch Barnhart is now tasked with finding the program’s next head basketball coach. For the third time during his tenure, Barnhart will be conducting a search. The Calipari hire was an absolute home run, but the Billy Gillispie hire was the worst in program history. Every possibility in this search appears to be on the table.

As soon as Calipari made his move to Northwest Arkansas, some candidates have started to emerge. After Scott Drew and Dan Hurley each turned down the job, there is just one name remaining in Tier 1. We got our first name in Tier 2 on Thursday.

CBS Sports’ Jon Rothstein reports that former Kentucky big Mark Pope is now a candidate for the head coaching position at his alma mater. Let’s learn some more about the 51-year-old with 187 career wins.

Bio Blast: Billy Donovan

National Champion

Mark Pope began his collegiate career at Washington playing for two seasons in the Pac-12 before transferring to Kentucky. After sitting out the 1993-94 season, Pope became a key piece for Rick Pitino and was a team captain on the 1996 national championship squad.

Mark Pope knows what Kentucky basketball is.

After his time in Lexington, Pope spent time years in professional basketball playing for the Indiana Pacers, Milwaukee Bucks, New York Knicks, and Denver Nuggets. Pope had a strong run as a player that is now being overshadowed by his run as a coach.

Paid Assistant Dues

After his playing career ended, Mark Pope enrolled in medical school but left in 2009 after coming to the conclusion that becoming a doctor was not what he wanted to do with his life. Pope joined Mark Fox’s Georgia staff in 2009 at age 36. Fox was an assistant at Washington when Pope played for the Huskies.

After a year in Athens as the director of basketball operations, Mark Pope became a full-time assistant at Wake Forest in 2010-11 under Jeff Bzdelik. That would lead to an opportunity to work for Dave Rose at BYU. Pope would spend four seasons with the Cougars before landing his first head coaching gig at age 42.

Winning Track Record

Mark Pope took over a Utah Valley program in 2015-16 with not much history. The Kentucky alum would spend four seasons in the Western Athletic Conference and increased Utah Valley’s win total each season. The Wolverines won 25 games in year four under Pope and that led to a bigger opportunity.

BYU brought Pope back to Provo following Dave Rose’s retirement. After a 24-8 campaign in year one that would’ve ended in an NCAA Tournament bid if not for COVID-19, Pope got the Cougars back in the field of 68 in year two. BYU took a step back in year three and year four but made a big jump once they switched from the West Coast Conference to the Big 12.

In 2023-24, Pope led BYU to a 23-11 (10-8) in the best conference in college basketball. The season was highlighted by a road win at Kansas in February. Pope is 0-2 in NCAA Tournament games but has posted three top-20 KenPom finishes in five seasons at BYU.

Pope is still growing as a coach, but there have been some bright spots shown at both Utah Valley and BYU. The Cougars had a top-15 offense under Pope in 2020 and 2023. However, Pope has had just one top-50 defense during his coaching career.

Recruiting is also much different at BYU and we are unsure how that will translate to Pope’s next gig. Pope only spent three seasons in a power conference and one was as a support staffer at Georgia. The other was this past year as a head coach in the Big 12. Talent accumulation plan and strategy is a big question the BYU coach will have to answer in his interview with Kentucky. However, he has proven to be a winner early in his career and is coming off a career-best year.