"Our Dream": How Lee Anne Pope helped chart the course for Mark Pope's return to Kentucky

After a whirlwind week, Lee Anne Pope finally found a moment to be still. She was sitting in her husband’s new office at the University of Kentucky, just days after he accepted the job as his alma mater’s 23rd head men’s basketball coach. None of Mark’s staff hires had been approved yet, but the clock was ticking so it was just her and Mark trying to plot the program’s next chapter, just as they had at Utah Valley a decade ago and BYU five years prior.

Something about this felt different. When Mark got up to take a call outside, Lee Anne noticed the giant “Kentucky Basketball” mural behind his desk. Strong white letters against a Kentucky blue background.

“I was sitting in the chair, and he just got up and left, and I was just staring at that wall, and I was like, I cannot believe this is real. It was such a surreal moment. We are at the University of Kentucky. This is where Mark’s heart has been hung. It was just like, he was sitting there, and then he left, and then I turned and I was like, oh my gosh.”

Much has been said about how Mark’s return to Kentucky is a dream come true for the 1996 team captain; however, it is also a full-circle moment for Lee Anne. Without her, none of it would have been possible.

She took a picture to preserve the memory.

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Coach’s Only Daughter

Lee Anne grew up the only daughter of Lynn and Anne Archibald, sandwiched between two brothers, Damon and Beau. Her childhood was spent crisscrossing the Big Sky and Pac-10 conferences as the family followed Lynn through various head and assistant coaching stops, eight total over his 27 years in the profession.

The largest chunk of Lee Anne’s childhood was spent in Salt Lake City, where her dad was head coach at Utah from 1983-89. During practices, she would walk up and down the aisles of the Jon M. Huntsman Center, counting the chairs while her dad coached. After games, she and her brothers would watch film with Lynn over Domino’s pizza. On Sundays, they’d attend his coach’s show and hang out around the facility while he worked.

Every year, Lee Anne’s brothers got to join their dad on a road trip for a game; she always got the recruiting trips to Las Vegas. That’s where she was born, while her father was on Jerry Tarkanian’s staff at UNLV. The Archibalds would always stay at the Tarkanians’ in Sin City. When she wasn’t hanging with Pamela and Jodie, Jerry’s daughters, Lee Anne was with her dad at the gym.

“He would talk to me about why he was recruiting somebody,” Lee Anne recalled. “We’d sit there and he’d be like, ‘See how he walks in the gym. You can tell. You can tell he can jump. You can tell just the way he’s on his heels or on his toes, or how his calves are.’ He taught me.”

The friendship between the Archibalds and Tarkanians started in 1970 when Jerry hired Lynn, a high school coach, after Lynn attended every single one of Jerry’s coaching clinics at Long Beach State. When Lynn got his first head coaching job at Idaho State in 1977, Jerry surprised him with a gift: a German Sheppard puppy, which he had flown to Pocatello, Idaho.

“Who doesn’t like you in Las Vegas?” Lee Anne recalls the airport worker joking as they stared at the dog in the crate on the tarmac.

The puppy was dubbed “Tark” in honor of Jerry. The first of two great dogs in Lee Anne’s life, he was with the Archibalds until 1992, the year his namesake retired from UNLV. Lynn told Tark the dog’s story at Tark the Legend’s End of the Era party in Las Vegas that year, a who’s who of the coaching world.

There were other memorable daddy-daughter trips. Lee Anne tagged along with her dad to Great Alaskan Shootouts and Final Fours. After he was fired from Utah in 1989, Lynn took a job under Bill Frieder at Arizona State. In 1992, Lee Anne accompanied him to the Maui Invitational, fresh off winning the state volleyball tournament in her senior year of high school. She and her dad ate Hula Pie in the room every night once the games wrapped.

“He made us part of it and I felt like the luckiest girl in the world to be his only daughter,” Lee Anne said. “It felt like such a privilege.”

Coincidentally, during Archibald’s time at Arizona State, the Sun Devils started recruiting a 6’10” power forward from Bellevue, Washington. Mark Pope’s parents still have the recruiting letters that Lynn Archibald sent their son. Pope ended up staying home to play for Washington under Lynn Nance, whose staff included Trent Johnson, who got his coaching start under Archibald at Utah, and Mark Fox, who gave Pope his coaching start at Georgia in 2009.

Washington played Arizona State twice before Pope transferred to Kentucky. Lee Anne was in the stands for both games. Mark remembers shaking Lynn’s hand in the handshake line. Damon played summer league with Mark for a short time, and Anne and Beau even found themselves behind Mark and his dad at a Salt Lake City tourist attraction the summer Mark and his dad drove his car across the country to Kentucky for his second season with the Wildcats. When Mark initially decided to leave Washington, Trent Johnson told Lynn that Pope was the kind of guy you’d want your daughter to marry.

“I had said something to Coach Arch before he passed about Pope, just in small talk,” Johnson recalled. “‘God, if he ever went with Lee Anne? He’s the guy.'”

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A Community of Coaches’ Wives

If you’ve seen Lynn Archibald coach, odds are you’ve heard Anne. Anne Archibald was famous for yelling at refs during games (a trait she would pass on to her daughter). A few years after Lee Anne and Mark got married, Anne went to a Milwaukee Bucks game with her daughter to see Mark play. Jimmy Clark, who officiated college games before moving to the NBA, was working the game. Anne regularly antagonized Clark during her husband’s games, yelling things that Lee Anne said would not fly in 2024; when Anne saw her old “friend” on the court, she couldn’t resist.

“All these years later, we’re at this NBA game and she yells from the crowd, ‘Jimmy, Jimmy, Jimmy!'” Lee Anne bellowed, mimicking her mother. “He came into the lounge after and said, ‘Where is Anne Archibald?’ and gave her a big hug.”

If you asked the late Lynn Archibald, Anne wasn’t always that way; not until she met Lois Tarkanian, Jerry’s wife.

“My dad would say that Lois corrupted my mom,” Lee Anne said. “He would say my mom was really soft and quiet at games until she met Lois.”

When Jerry brought Lynn into the coaching world, Lois took Anne under her wing. The women were soul sisters, both of Polish descent from Fresno, California. The “wickedly brilliant” Lois has her doctorate in leadership and human behavior, founded the first private day school for deaf children in California, served on the Las Vegas City Council for 14 years, and still serves on the Nevada Board of Regents. Lee Anne fondly remembers her parents and the Tarkanians laughing and teasing each other during those childhood trips, and the sunroom of their house where Lois would teach. In more ways than one, Lois helped Anne find her voice as a coach’s wife and is one of many role models Lee Anne had growing up.

When Lee Anne accompanied her dad to the Great Alaskan Shootout in college, Anne (who stayed behind with her brothers) told her to seek out Bobbi Olson, Lute Olson’s wife. Bobbi not only invited her to a luncheon, she made the person next to her move so she could sit with Lee Anne and tell her stories. Not long after, Lee Anne scored an internship at Reader’s Digest. It would be her first time in New York City, so Pat Keady, the wife of legendary Purdue coach Gene Keady, arranged for Lee Anne to stay with her daughter Lisa in her penthouse in Trump Tower the night before she moved into the dorms at Columbia. Lisa picked her up at the airport and accompanied her to Columbia the next morning to help her check in. Small, but huge gestures from a sorority of women who take care of their own.

“Coaches wives, they’re tough,” Lee Anne said. “They’re resourceful. They’re independent. Did I say tough?”

The list goes on and on. Maryanne Smith, the wife of former NFL coach Lovie Smith, who was an assistant football coach at Arizona State when Lynn was an assistant basketball coach; Jane Moe, the wife of Doug Moe, who was an assistant with the Denver Nuggets when Mark played; and the grand dame of them all, Patti Edwards, the wife of longtime BYU football LaVell Edwards. Edwards knew Lynn from his time on BYU’s staff and has become Lee Anne’s most recent mentor, at the ripe age of 92.

All of these women played a role in Lee Anne’s life, but naturally, the lessons Lee Anne learned from her mother have guided her the most. In a small sense, it was Anne keeping the children up until midnight so they could see Lynn when he got in late, a practice she carried over to her own family. In a larger sense, it’s moving your family around when your husband loses his job or scores a better one.

“My mom never ever complained about my dad’s schedule,” Lee Anne said. “Ever. And I have never ever complained about Mark’s.”

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The One and Only Setup

Sports followed Lee Anne through college. She majored in journalism at Brigham Young University with the intent of going into sports media. The summer after her internship with Reader’s Digest, she got an internship at ESPN, where she’d watch the live taping of “SportsCenter” each night from a small loft above the studio. That internship led to a real opportunity with the Worldwide Leader after graduation, but fate would soon intervene.

Lee Anne’s friend Heather was a personal assistant for David Letterman while Lee Anne was at ESPN. When a fellow PA left to write for “The Rosie O’Donnell Show,” Heather encouraged Lee Anne to apply for the opening. She did, and she got the job. Lee Anne moved back to New York, where, for the first time, her life wasn’t about sports. She was striking a completely different path.

Life took a brutal curve in 1996 when Lee Anne found out her father had prostate cancer. Lynn wanted to keep his diagnosis quiet from his children so they would go on living their lives, Lee Anne in New York, Damon at Fresno State with Tarkanian, and Beau playing basketball at Washington State. The children eventually discovered their dad’s secret. Lee Anne flew home every weekend, with Letterman giving her three-day weekends so she could be with her family.

“He was incredibly generous and just really kind when I was going through that,” Lee Anne said of Letterman. “Of course, you’re so vulnerable and you’re trying to keep it together. I can’t overstate how kind he was to me and my family, in really quiet ways.”

Joy was about to find its way back to Lee Anne. The longest lockout in NBA history started in July 1998. Mark Pope was with the Indiana Pacers at the time and was supposed to come to New York City for NBA Players Association meetings. After meeting him at the Pete Newell Camp, Damon gave Mark Lee Anne’s number and told him to contact her when he was in the city; that alone was a sign to Lee Anne that something was up.

“I’m the only girl, right? My brothers, they hated everyone I ever dated. So this was the one and only setup, which says a lot. My brothers are super protective of me and he was like, ‘So, I met this guy. He’s you, but a dude. Seriously, he’s you, but a dude, and he’s going to call you when he comes to New York.'”

In a time before cell phones, Mark and Lee Anne played phone tag on that trip, unable to connect. When Mark got back to Indianapolis, he had three messages from Lee Anne on his answering machine.

“I got back to my little apartment at like, 1:30-2:00 in the morning. She had left me three messages responding to my messages and I listened to them and — she was just Lee Anne. It was just like life coming through the answering machine.

“I remember listening to them and just being like — I didn’t know her at all, but I sat down on my kitchen floor in this little apartment and I listened to them three or four times. I was like, I cannot wait to meet this human being. It was like that moment over and over and over.”

On November 1, 1998, Lee Anne ran the New York City marathon. Letterman gifted her with a necklace with her bib number and the date on it, which she wears every day to commemorate her accomplishment and something else that happened that day. After the race, Lee Anne was sitting in an ice bath when her friend Heather came in and told her “a Mark Pope” was on the phone. Lee Anne told Heather she’d call him back and when she did, she got to teach him something new about basketball. When Mark asked about her younger brother, Lee Anne told him Beau was considering grayshirting at Washington State, meaning delaying his scholarship until the spring semester.

“She knows so much more about everything in the world than I do,” Mark said. “I’m currently playing for the Indiana Pacers. I won a national champion at the University of Kentucky, and she spits out that they were thinking about maybe grayshirting him. And, I’m like, ‘Oh no, you mean redshirt.’ I kind of laugh like, oh, she means redshirt. She said, ‘No. I mean grayshirt.’ What? What is that? So, she explained a grayshirt. I’d never heard of it in my life.”

The next morning, David Letterman pitched an idea to Lee Anne. An Indianapolis native, Letterman wanted to organize some charity work for children in his hometown. The same town in which Mark currently resided.

“So, I’m sitting there like, Mark Pope is from Indianapolis,” Lee Anne recalled. “That’s so weird. We’re going to Indianapolis?”

The trip wouldn’t come for another six weeks, during which Mark and Lee Anne exchanged phone calls and emails, the latter a new medium for them both. It was a real-life “You’ve Got Mail,” a movie that came out the same month, December 1998. Several years later, Lee Anne preserved those emails in a book she gave to Mark for Valentine’s Day.

“Every morning I would go in and there’d be an email waiting for me,” Lee Anne said. “[Email] was new. Like, he was my only thing in the inbox. I wasn’t using email in my normal profession at all. It would be like, just, ‘Mark Pope,’ and then I’d write him back, and then he’d write and then we’d talk on the phone.”

“Our first conversations, there were so many like, brilliant, beautiful connections,” Mark said. “It was actually really sweet, and it was exciting. The one thing about Lee Anne is, every single day it was something new. It’s like, are you serious? Like, is this person really a person? I actually didn’t know anybody in the world existed like her.”

“I knew from the very beginning that he was like no one I’d ever met,” Lee Anne confirmed.

Around Christmas of that year, Lee Anne had lunch with Trent Johnson and mentioned that she was seeing Mark. Johnson, who coached Mark for two seasons, got very quiet and told Lee Anne about the conversation he had with her dad a few years earlier. Then, Johnson called Mark.

“He said, ‘Hey, I heard you’re talking to Lee Anne Archibald.’ And when he said that, I was like, oh this is great. Like, Trent’s gonna get me inside scoop. I was like, oh my gosh, this is brilliant. And then I was like, ‘Yeah, I’ve been talking to her. What do you know about her?’

“He said, ‘This is what I know. If you f— this up, I will hunt you down and kill you.’ In that moment, I was like, oh. Trent is not on my team. [Before] I was like, Trent is totally on my team. I was like, oh, he is not on my team at all. He’s Team Lee Anne.”

Lee Anne and Mark finally went on their first date in Indianapolis, which started with Mark picking her up with a baby in a car seat in the back. It was his niece, whom he was dropping off at a babysitter’s while his brother attended an event with the Pacers. He tried to make up for the detour by taking Lee Anne to a gas station and buying her whatever she wanted. Quite the treat for a New Yorker, right? (If you’re curious, she settled on Twizzlers and a Diet Coke.)

The date went so well that Lee Anne let Mark know she would be back in Indianapolis once a month for the next year for Letterman’s philanthropy project. By February, it was time to meet the parents. The Pacers played the Lakers, so Anne Archibald flew out to Los Angeles to meet up with Lee Anne and her godparents, who live in LA. Mark bought a new shirt for only the second time in his life, the first being his first date with Lee Anne.

“By that time, my mom knew that I was in love. By the time our parents met us, they knew that we were in love. She was meeting someone I was in love with. It wasn’t casual, you know? So, by the time they met, I was a goner. Yeah, I was — we were done.”

In August 1999, less than a year after Damon set them up, Lee Anne and Mark got married.

“You just can’t put God in a box,” Lee Anne said. “You never know how he’s gonna orchestrate things.”

“It was a love story, man,” Mark said, smiling.

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Leaving Letterman

Before they got married, Lee Anne decided she was ready to leave her job with Letterman. It wasn’t a decision she took lightly and one for which Mark was willing to sacrifice his own career to prevent.

“When Mark and I met, he was terrified about me leaving my career, because anyone that worked for Dave, the trajectory is amazing. It doesn’t matter in what capacity. It’s like the gold star on your resume.”

“Her job was way better, cooler than mine,” Mark said. “My job was super tense. I was getting fired on the regular every 18 months, two years…She would have been a producer. She would have gone fast. The truth is, Lee Anne is more important to me than all of this stuff.”

In his second year with the Pacers, Mark was already eying life after basketball, which, at the time, looked like academia.

“He was like, ‘I will go to Columbia,'” Lee Anne said. “Who knew that we’d go to Columbia later, right? ‘And we’ll stay in New York.’ I said, ‘No, we’re gonna chase this dream together of playing. Let’s go. Let’s see how long we can play.'”

For the next six years, Mark played, with Lee Anne and a growing family by his side. In 2005, he was ready to hang up the shoes for good. Instead of academia, the former Rhodes Scholar candidate chose medicine and secured a coveted spot at Columbia Medical School. The Popes returned to New York and settled in, with Mark starting down the path toward becoming a neurosurgeon.

As time went on, it became increasingly clearer that Mark’s heart wasn’t in it; by year three, the pros and cons list they had been steadily building came to the forefront. After consulting all the important people in their lives, they decided to defy logic and chase passion, which, for Mark, was basketball. Even though Lee Anne had a front-row seat to the horrors of the profession, she was all in.

“Mark and I are partners and we made this choice, my eyes more open than his,” Lee Anne said. “We’ve been hired. We’ve been fired. I’ve heard people yell at my dad. When I was nine, I remember going up to someone that was yelling at him and saying, ‘My dad doesn’t suck!’ Oh, I remember just being ready to cry!”

“I knew the ugly parts of it for sure, right? My dad was hired and fired in very public ways. Of course I know that part of it. I also know it’s sometimes not fair. It’s also a very public gig, all those things. But you know, I also got to know how it ends.”

As Lee Anne saw firsthand, coaching isn’t just about Xs and Os; it’s about shaping lives. Her father’s players were “heroes” to her, taking time to interact with her as a kid, serving as honorary pallbearers at her father’s funeral, and checking on her mom afterward. Watching her father shepherd them through life taught her that coaching is its own sort of service, which called the couple to more than medicine.

“There were just a lot of things that are important to us that actually are beautiful if you do it the way that we would like to do it, and make it about these boys, and make it about the community, and win a lot of freaking games,” she said.

Even though the Dean of Columbia Medical School told him he’d lost his mind, leaving school to start a career in coaching was a risk Mark was willing to take with Lee Anne by his side and his earnings from the NBA as a crash cushion.

“I talk about the gifts of Lee Anne,” Mark said. “Coaching is — I don’t know there are more unpredictable jobs with shorter lifespans than coaching. I don’t know if there are many, right? Things can go terribly wrong at any moment’s notice that are beyond your control and it just never fazed me in large part because of Lee Anne. I’m like, great, let’s go to the next thing because as long as me and you are together, this thing is magic. It’s all butter.”

There was one person who was not happy about the decision: Anne.

“At the time, both of my brothers were heading down the coaching path, and it would be like, ‘My sons are coaching, but my son-in-law is gonna be a doctor.’ And then she got the phone call and she was like, ‘M***** F*****.’ She would always joke that [Mark] was going to go into plastic surgery and that she was gonna look like she was 30 all the time — and he never was, but that was her whole fantasy.”

After reflecting on the decision in almost every interview he’s done since — especially in the last six months — Mark still can’t believe their bravado.

“I’m having such a hard time getting back to it, how we decided to leave Columbia Medical School, and a very brilliant, secure, mapped-out life to go take a bad job in a terrible profession with no promise of ever having a future. It’s almost unfathomably irresponsible and insane that I can’t actually take myself back to where we were. The only way I can is, I’m like, hey, let’s go take a flyer because it’s me and Lee, and let’s see. I’m not scared, right? I should have been terrified.”

Mark Fox offered Mark a job at Georgia as Assistant Director of Operations, which only paid $24,000 a year but provided a foot in the door. Mark packed his car to the brim and headed south toward Athens.

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Seeing the Mark Pope side of Kentucky

Lee Anne and Mark made multiple trips between New York and Georgia that year; two stick out. Mark moved first, living in Fox’s basement while he worked nonstop, doing players’ laundry, setting up tailgates for visiting recruits, or whatever the job called for. It had been a few weeks since Lee Anne and the girls had seen him, so she wanted to surprise him by driving down. She enlisted Fox and his wife Cindy’s help to pull it off.

“He’s like, ‘I’ll get him here. You just come, and I’ll get him here.’ We did the drive in two days and we pulled up, and Cindy grabbed me and I remember Coach Fox saying, ‘I’ll park your car on the side.’ And I’m like, no because there’s Cheerios and diapers in the car, literally. So we hid the car, and then we were in the back by the pool, and he had figured out a way to get Mark to walk in. And Mark walked in — I could cry — Mark walked in that backyard and the girls just ran to him. It was such a sweet moment.”

Once the family moved all of their belongings to Athens, Fox and the entire coaching staff were there to help them unpack.

“It was at night. We’re all loading stuff and I had this memory of Coach Fox literally having a rug on his back. He’s like, ‘Lee Anne, where do you want this?’ And I was like, ‘Upstairs. Oh, wait, wait, no, no, not upstairs. Oh, wait, wait, wait.’ I was so nervous. ‘Oh, I don’t know, just put it down. Just put it where you want.'”

As Lee Anne settled into her role of coach’s wife and mother, she also learned about the other great love in Mark’s life: Kentucky. Mark talked about his career at Kentucky early and often, but Lee Anne got a real education when she accidentally referred to UK as KU three months into their marriage.

“I said ‘KU’ to Mark, offhandedly. And he’s like, ‘What? What did you just say?’ And I said, ‘KU,’ and I’m like, ‘Oh, I’m so sorry. I meant UK.’ And he was like, ‘Don’t ever — how dare you?’ I only made that mistake one time.”

Lee Anne got her first true taste of Big Blue Nation in 1999 when the 1996 national championship team scrimmaged the 1998 national championship team at Rupp Arena. Mark was still with the Pacers, so he and Lee Anne drove down from Indianapolis. They arrived too late for him to play, but he stayed around to sign autographs afterward. The crowd grew so big that Lee Anne got stuck, fans’ Sharpies leaving black marks all down her cream-colored pants. As Mark was mobbed, Lee Anne’s instincts from her time with Letterman kicked in.

“There was a point where I said, I gotta get him out of here and I went into personal-assistant-to-David Letterman-mode, like, looking at the exits. We went out through the Hyatt in the tunnel and we came down, and someone pulled up the truck. I went and got the truck and pulled it up. That was the first time being on the Mark Pope side of it.”

Mark made sure his girls were raised on Kentucky blue, to the point that they thought that was just the name for the color, which resulted in a somewhat concerned phone call from Avery’s kindergarten teacher.

“All the girls were brainwashed,” Lee Anne said. “For Avery, our second oldest, it lasted all up to kindergarten. She did not know — she’d be like, ‘Red, green, Kentucky blue.’ The teacher finally called because [Avery] didn’t say, ‘Oh, my dad taught me Kentucky Blue because he went to Kentucky.’ She’s just like, well, that’s Kentucky blue.'”

On their first trip to Rupp Arena for Georgia’s game vs. Kentucky in 2010, the girls held their ground, even though their dad was part of the Bulldogs’ coaching staff. There was a snowstorm between Athens and Lexington, but Lee Anne felt it was so important that her daughters get to see where their dad played that she drove them through it. They finally arrived, Lee Anne in a full sweat from a stressful journey, and changed into their Georgia gear. That’s when Avery threw a fit.

“We’re walking out of the hotel room, and she realizes that she is wearing a Georgia shirt to Kentucky, and she sat down and she would not go. And I was like, ‘Oh, no, you’re going. We gotta go.’ I have all three [girls]. I’m like, ‘We’ve gotta go.’ And she’s like, ‘No.'”

Mother and daughter compromised by going down to a store at the Civic Center adjacent to Rupp Arena and buying Avery a pair of Kentucky socks. That’s where a fan recognized her.

“I had a fan come up to me and knew the girls’ names,” Lee Anne recalled. “I just remember that felt different to me. She’s like, ‘So is this Ella?’ And I was like, ‘Have we met?'”

The next season, Mark got a job at Wake Forest, so the Popes moved to Winston Salem. A year later, he joined Dave Rose’s staff at BYU, bringing Lee Anne back to Provo. In 2013, Kentucky held a ring ceremony for the 1996 national championship team at Rupp Arena. Due to his responsibilities at BYU, Pope was unable to be there; however, he and Lee Anne came up with the perfect alternative. The video of Pope ripping his suit off to reveal his old Kentucky jersey and doing the C-A-T-S chant in BYU’s gym has become a viral sensation.

“It was something that we brainstormed about because he was like, ‘I don’t want to just do something normal.’ And I thought was so fun. And there are so many people who are too cool to do whatever. He’s not. It’s like, how fun. That’s all it was. It was fun. And he did that for BBN.”

When Mark finally scored his first head coaching job at Utah Valley State in 2015, Lee Anne knew exactly how to commemorate the occasion. She planned a scavenger hunt for Mark and the girls after a game, with the final clue being a dog charm they found at a park. When they pulled up to their house, Lee Anne had posted a “Beware of Dog” sign outside. The girls freaked out. There was only one option for his name: Rupp.

“All these years later, we’re here and Rupp is living his best life,” Lee Anne said of the ten-year-old Australian Labradoodle, who now spends his days lounging in the Pope’s backyard in horse country.

Lee Anne and the girls got to see another side of Mark when Rick Pitino came to visit them at Utah Valley. Pitino was in the area for some speaking engagements and tacked on some time for his 1996 team captain. He had met Lee Anne a few years after she and Mark got married, back when he was coaching the Boston Celtics and Mark was playing for the Milwaukee Bucks. Pitino told Lee Anne that he loved her father. Lynn interviewed at Hawaii when Pitino was on the Rainbows’ staff in the early 1970s, and Pitino had been the one to lead him and Anne around campus on a golf cart.

This time around, it was Mark playing host. Lee Anne will never forget how nervous her husband was, obsessing over every last detail.

“When Mark was preparing this week, you would have thought the President of the United States was coming and that Mark was going to pick him up. He’s like, ‘I’m going to pick Coach P. up, and we’re going to a Jazz game,’ and it’s going to be delightful.'”

“He will always be Coach Pitino. Do you know what I mean? Like, he’s not our boy. This is Coach. There is the deepest of respect and love and appreciation. And [Mark] is still terrified. He loves him.”

The next morning, Pitino had breakfast with the entire family; it didn’t take long for him to win the girls over.

“We still talk about it,” Lee Anne said. “It’s probably safe to say that we all would have signed to play for Coach Pitino after breakfast.”

The girls love Pitino so much that when Shay heard he was coming to town for the Vanderbilt football game and Big Blue Madness, she insisted on skipping her volleyball tournament to see him. The full circle moment extended past the Popes; the Rupp Arena crowd gave Pitino a standing ovation at Madness, a stunning moment given the circumstances of the past two decades. When Mark pressed a microphone into Pitino’s hands, there were tears in his old coach’s eyes. On the KSR Pregame Show the next day, Pitino said that his trip to Utah Valley left an impression on him as well, which was just one reason he put out a video supporting Kentucky’s decision to hire Mark in the hours after the news broke.

“I knew after watching Mark at a Utah Valley State practice that he was going to be a great one,” Pitino said. “He’s a great offensive coach. He knows how important defense is, and I thought he was the perfect choice and that’s why I did the video.”

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Lunch-and-Learns with Patti

In 2019, Dave Rose retired as BYU’s coach, and Mark, who coached under him for four seasons, was hired as his successor. Utah Valley and BYU are just five miles apart in Provo, but the move was a significant one for both Mark and Lee Anne. As Mark led the Cougars to a 24-8 record, the most wins for a first-year coach in program history, Lee Anne came into her own as a coach’s wife.

When Mark was coaching at Utah Valley, Lee Anne started having weekly lunches with Patti Edwards. In the late 1980s, Edwards started the American Football Coaches Wives Association (AFCWA), an idea inspired by a conversation she had with Jackie Harbaugh, wife of Jack and the matriarch of the Harbaugh family. Its purpose was to create a network of information for coaches’ wives and families as they moved around (lists of the best schools, doctors, etc. in each town), along with camaraderie and support. When the association was founded, it had 50 members. Now, it has over 3,000.

Even before starting the AFCWA, Edwards had a tradition of taking the opposing coach’s wife to dinner. After hearing about it over their own lunches, Lee Anne vowed to do the same, upping her practice from Utah Valley of giving each coach’s wife a gift.

“I was like, I’m gonna do that. I’m not gonna do the gift anymore. I’m gonna reach out. And so I did.”

Every time a team came to Provo, Lee Anne had her assistant reach out to the opposing team to try to set something up with the coach’s wife, which she says she’ll continue to do at Kentucky.

“Let’s rip each other’s hearts out on the court but I want the visiting wives to feel our hospitality, whether it’s a parking pass, whether it’s lunch, whether it’s cookies, whether whatever it’s going to be. There’s no other agenda other than to connect.”

Speaking of cookies, it’s time to clear up a story that made the rounds in April. After Mark’s introductory press conference at Rupp Arena, Rex Chapman told reporters that Lee Anne bakes cookies for every opposing team, which he’d heard from Houston coach Kelvin Sampson. That story got a little lost in translation. Lee Anne did send cookies to Sampson’s room when Houston came to Provo, but only as a courtesy to the family.

“I have never baked cookies and delivered them to the team,” she said. “I did send cookies to the room. Maybe Kelvin took them to a team dinner or film?”

Regardless, the gesture clearly meant a lot.

“I talked to Lee Anne about this, how to support the coach’s wives of the opposite school when they come into town,” Edwards said. She’s doing a good job of that. She recognizes the value in that.”

Over the years, Lee Anne has formed her own network of coaches’ wives, which was put into action at BYU. Darlene Bennett, the wife of St. Mary’s coach Randy Bennett, is very involved with Be The Match, now known as the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP). It’s a cause near and dear to her heart after losing her brother to leukemia at the age of six. Darlene called Lee Anne and asked if Mark and his staff would wear pins to promote the organization at games. Lee Anne not only made it happen, she had Mark’s teams sign up for the registry every season and set up student drives at BYU’s Midnight Madness event and around campus.

“I remember Mark saying, ‘Randy and I want to rip each other’s hearts out on the court and our wives are Kumbaya trying to save the world,'” Lee Anne said.

A few weeks ago, a former BYU team manager texted the Popes to tell them he was a perfect match for a 16-year-old girl in need. He’ll be donating his bone marrow in December. That’s one of six matches Lee Anne and Darlene have found since teaming up. Lee Anne is already working with the NMDP to set up similar drives at Kentucky.

“I did not foresee that I would be in this position but I do have, like, this whole little army of women. And my mom, of course, is at the core of that, watching how she navigated and did things. My mom and I are different, but I got her DNA.”

It’s moments like this in which the other queen in Lee Anne’s life, Edwards, is proud.

“She’s wonderful. The one thing I told her that I feel is important, a coach’s wife needs to have her own identity, and she needs to see what is passionate for her, because no matter how much you love your husband and how important he is to you and your family and to your very life, you still need your own identity, and I think Lee Anne is good at finding that for herself.”

“I think coaches’ wives is a super special place because it’s a complicated life,” Mark said. “Like, everybody’s life is complicated, but it’s complicated, right? But she’s born, she’s just wanting to do it. She just is incredible.”

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Full Veto Power

Fast forward to April 8, 2024, when the news broke that John Calipari was leaving Kentucky for Arkansas after his second first-round NCAA Tournament loss in three seasons. Mark Pope had made a name for himself at BYU, leading the Cougars to two NCAA Tournaments over five seasons, but had never advanced past the first round. In the frenzied search for Calipari’s successor, Kentucky talked to the big names first. Scott Drew and Dan Hurley turned the Cats down. There was talk of Kentucky once again going after Billy Donovan, but the timing wasn’t right. Pope had already interviewed for the job and waited patiently. When the call finally came from Mitch Barnhart with the offer, he had one condition: his wife’s approval.

Lee Anne was in Houston to be with a family member who had surgery. Barnhart and Rock Oliver had flown to Houston to meet with her, so what Mark said next did not completely catch her off guard.

“When they offered the job, Mark called me, and he was just like, ‘You have full veto power. If you don’t want to do this, we won’t do it.’ And 1,000%, he wouldn’t have taken it.”

“That’s just genuine truth,” Mark confirmed. “I actually talked to Mitch, like, ‘Hey, you’ve got to give me some time because Lee Anne is the most important. She’s the most important.’ And I also know that this doesn’t work if we’re not doing it together, and it’s not worth it if we’re not doing it together. All of those things are as clear as anything in my mind. This can’t work without her, and I don’t even want to do it without her.”

Even knowing how much sharper the spotlight is at Kentucky than Provo, Lee Anne did not hesitate.

“It was a no-brainer. It’s not like this is being done to me. We’re doing this together and I own that. We can’t do it without each other. And I think I learned that from my mom. She didn’t say, ‘Your dad’s not home again,’ or, ‘We’re moving again.’ She was just like, ‘Let’s go.'”

“When I talked to her about it, I was sincerely listening, and I also know she’s gonna be like, ‘This is insanity and it’s full of awesomeness. Let’s go.'”

They went, hopping on a private jet with Mitch Barnhart in Provo and touching down in Lexington on April 13, the day before his introductory press conference at Rupp Arena. All four daughters were with them, assembling quickly after the family Zoom call to dig through boxes in the basement for their dad’s old Kentucky gear. Each one wore one of Mark’s No. 41 Kentucky jerseys to the press conference, taking the floor with Lee Anne to a standing ovation. After making his entrance on a bus full of former players, holding the 1996 national championship trophy high, Mark introduced his family to his Big Blue family, describing the girls’ love for the program and their excitement to be a part of it. When it was Lee Anne’s turn, Pope paused and smiled, making a promise to every fan in the stands or watching at home.

“You don’t need to know this, but I will say it anyway because I can. I’m madly in love with this woman. She makes sense of my life. I’m so grateful for her. And you will quickly find out, she will get to know every single one of you and love you like crazy. It will be really special.”

You’d be hard-pressed to find a higher high than that Sunday afternoon at Rupp Arena. Lee Anne knows lows will come. Her mother had a list of reporters that she felt stepped over the line with their criticism of Lynn. Lee Anne, who is not on social media, has a different approach.

“It’s part of the gig. It’s part of it. People have a job to do. They’re gonna say we’re great; they’re gonna say whatever they decide to say. I am grateful my daughters are adults, for the most part. Shay’s not. Shay’s been my biggest concern.”

Shay is still in high school, the only daughter to make the move to Kentucky full-time with her parents. Ella graduated from Ohio University last spring. Avery and Layla are both at BYU.

“[Most of] my girls are in their 20s and they’re adults and I’ve been able to talk to them about — some of them are really active on social media. That comes with a high and a low. Just be aware.”

When it comes to criticism, Mark is the least of Lee Anne’s concerns.

“Mark’s got really big shoulders. Kentucky will get our whole heart and get everything we have to give but it’s not who we are. Mark’s not looking at Twitter to find out how good or bad he is. He is trying to please probably a crowd of two: me and God.”

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“The reason she is a great recruiter is because it’s actually not recruiting”

Still riding the high of the introductory press conference, it was time to get to work. Lee Anne planned to stay in Lexington for a few days to house hunt before flying back to Utah with the girls. She was packed and ready to go to the airport when Mark called and asked if she could change her plans. Instead of going back to Provo with her daughters, Lee Anne flew with Mark to Philadelphia to be with him during breaks in his recruiting trip, staying in the car while he met with each player due to NCAA rules. On that trip, Mark met with Otega Oweh, Andrew Carr, Great Osobor, and Amari Williams, the latter of which scheduled an official visit — the first of Pope’s tenure — for that weekend.

When they got back to Lexington, Lee Anne helped plan Williams’ visit and set up Mark’s office while he did Zoom interviews and phone calls. The Keeneland spring meet was underway, so they made arrangements to take Williams and his parents to the famous race course, where Pope and Williams received rock star treatment from fans.

“Amari was right away, so I was on that visit with his parents, who were lovely. They were in town from England and we went to Keeneland for the first time. So Amari’s first time was my first time at Keeneland, and that was great.”

It’s during these visits that Lee Anne shines. While Mark talks Xs and Os, she focuses on getting to know players and their parents as people.

“Recruiting to me is about families who have a choice to make,” Lee Anne said. “And I know all the NIL stuff, but my perspective is, this is who we are. If your son chooses to come here, this is how it will be. My role in that is, the only thing is, I really care about these boys.”

“The reason she is a great recruiter is because it’s actually not recruiting, right?” Mark said. “She’s super genuine. Like, you can feel her when you talk to her. You can feel it. She is the best recruiter because it actually has nothing to do with recruiting. She actually is dying to hear your story.”

“When I’m talking to parents, I don’t have any sales pitch,” Lee Anne said. “It comes from a genuine place. You know what I want for these families too, because we’ve gone through it? I want them to be excited and have peace wherever they choose to go. And of course I think they should come to Kentucky. Why would you not want to come to Kentucky? Mark said this to the alumni, and it gives me chills every time. And it’s true. Anybody that goes anywhere else, they might have a great college career, but they’ll always wonder what it was like to play Kentucky. That is true. I believe it.”

After 25 years as her husband and 10 as a head coach, Mark never gets tired of seeing his wife own a room.

“We are in front of new people and new audiences all the time, whether it’s a recruiting family, a press conference, a donor event, a business summit, whatever. I’ll kind of do whatever I have to do and eventually, the conversation slides over to Lee Anne, and that’s when I get to just kick back. Like, oh, you guys have no idea what you’re in for right now. I have that feeling all the time. You guys do not have any idea how good your life is about to get from her telling a story.”

“It’s like the most brilliant feeling. I don’t know how many people in this profession or any profession, get to feel that way, but it’s kind of like, ‘Oh, you think this is good? Just wait until Lee Anne walks in the room.’ It’s always better.”

Fans got a glimpse of that at the Louisville kickoff luncheon earlier this week when Lee Anne was asked her thoughts on the Kentucky vs. Louisville rivalry.

“We have a mole in our backyard that we’re trying to kill and we’ve nicknamed it the Cardinal,” she quipped to the crowd, which roared with laughter and applause. Beaming, she looked at her husband. “Would you like to add to that?”

Fan question at the Tipoff Luncheon: "Your feelings on the UK/UofL rivalry?"

Lee Anne Pope with the best answer @WLKY | #BBN pic.twitter.com/ldxE6PVQkG

— Britt Del Barba (@brittdelbarba) October 21, 2024

With Lee Anne by his side, Mark assembled a preseason Top 25 roster in a matter of months, one she said he believes could be the best he’s ever coached. Roster building is a daunting task for any coach, especially in the NIL and transfer portal era, but Lee Anne said starting from scratch — at Kentucky — made the challenge even more exciting.

“He got to go out and get the pieces,” Lee Anne said. “There’s a cleanness to that.”

Lee Anne already knew a few of those pieces. Jaxson Robinson played for Mark at BYU and Collin Chandler committed to the Cougars before leaving for his Mormon mission trip. She was familiar with several more, like Kerr Kriisa, whom Mark recruited “15 times,” even going to Kriisa’s home in Estonia, before Kriisa decided on Arizona, then West Virginia, and finally, Kentucky. Remember how Lamont Butler hit the game-winning shot in the 2023 Final Four to send San Diego State to the championship game? Mark and Lee Anne were there to see it in person.

“I remember being at the Final Four and Mark’s like, ‘Watch this kid. Watch him. Watch how he guards.’ And then he freaking hits the winning shot to go to the championship game…Then the fact that Mark gets to coach him after almost like being a fan. He had such an appreciation for Lamont’s game and the way Lamont plays. And now Lamont Butler is playing for Mark.”

Lee Anne recalled Mark’s excitement when Koby Brea entered the transfer portal, and his panic when it seemed the former Dayton sharpshooter might not pick Kentucky (“Mark’s like, ‘It’s breaking my heart. It’s breaking my heart!'”). He wanted Andrew Carr so badly that when Carr’s family had travel problems on their way to Lexington for his official visit, he drove to Bowling Green in the middle of the night to meet them halfway when their flight landed in Nashville.

“Mark said, ‘Andrew Carr was built to play for me in our offense,’ so I think that’s special, that he got to go out and pick the pieces. I feel like that’s very special about this group.”

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“Just don’t yell at the boys”

When Mark Pope told his players he was leaving BYU to take the job at Kentucky, he could feel their anger. Losing him was only half the story; they were also losing Lee Anne.

“They were mad at me,” Mark said. “They were devastated that Lee Anne was leaving. Devastated. And that’s just how she is. That’s just what happens with our guys. And it’s not fake. She just comes and she’s with them, and she wants to know about their lives and she just has this natural ability, this incredible gift of, you meet her and you’re like, ‘Oh, she actually, really cares.’ And then when you meet her the second time, you’re like, ‘Oh, she actually, like, wants to know my life.”

Mark can’t keep count of the number of times he’s walked to his office only to find Lee Anne inside talking to a player. More often than not, Mark gets shooed away.

“It’s beautiful because she is better at that part, right? And it’s meaningful and it’s important, like growing a team. We get this little window with our little avenue, where we get to shepherd these kids through a really incredible moment in their lives. A really incredible time, whether it’s one year or four or five.”

Lee Anne has cared for players who have gotten their wisdom teeth taken out. She’s nursed them through heartbreaks. She’s among the first to text them on their birthdays. The Popes’ house is always open, whether it be for a home-cooked meal, some solo time away from the team, or even for their dog to have space to run around. After two seasons at BYU, Jaxson Robinson is most familiar with “Miss Lee Anne.” He takes his dog Astro over to the Popes’ regularly.

“That’s like my second mother, honestly,” Robinson said of Lee Anne. “Especially when I’m far away from home. I go over to the Popes’ house a lot just to hang out and Miss Lee Anne is always super sweet and nice to me. Very caring woman. Doesn’t think about herself first at all. She’s been around the gym multiple times, came to practice, and seen us so it just shows how much she cares about us not only as players but people also.”

Collin Chandler also got to know Lee Anne when he was recruited by Mark at BYU. He followed the Popes to Kentucky after returning from his two-year Mormon mission this summer. They’ve become mentors, not just in life and basketball, but also in faith.

“They’ve taken me in and have become family to me since I’ve been here. I’m grateful for them. They’re great people and I’m sure all my other teammates would say the same, that she’s our mother while we’re here at Kentucky and is there for us.”

“It’s terrifying, actually to me, sometimes how loyal she is,” Mark said. “She loves people in a really special way, but if you cross her? Heaven forbid.”

That brings us to Rule No. 1 with Lee Anne: do not yell at the players. You can yell at Mark, you can yell at the refs (and if the foul count is lopsided, she’ll join you), but do not yell at the players.

“My thing is, you can yell at Mark all you want,” she said. “He’s got big shoulders. He doesn’t hear you. He can handle it but do not yell at the boys. I know they’re superstars. I know now they’re making a lot [of NIL money] but they are boys. And do you want me to talk about your son? Your son that’s sitting right next to you? I have zero tolerance for that.”

That’s a lesson Mark saw in action during a game a few years back when a BYU fan sitting near Lee Anne started yelling at some of BYU’s players. Lee Anne tried to tune it out, but eventually, she couldn’t hold her tongue.

“She’s fearless,” Mark said. “She stood up and this was a couple of seats away. This is a grown man. And she said something to the effect of, ‘If you say one more word about our boys, you’ll be done here forever.’ Eye to eye, 18,000 people, not backing down. Like, ‘You don’t get to be here in this gym and say anything about our boys. You don’t get to do it.’ She is just like — it’s beautiful. But it’s scary too.”

Lee Anne may have gone further if not for a lesson she learned from Patti Edwards. Edwards had a similar encounter after San Diego State upset BYU to win the Western Athletic Conference. San Diego State fans were yelling insults at the BYU players as they got onto the bus.

“Our son was on the team,” Edwards recalled. “And when he knew we were losing, he went over to his dad and put his arm around him, so I walked out of the stadium with that in my mind. And when I heard these fans bombasting the players, I just didn’t like the way they were acting and I just went and complimented them on their coaches and their players. And by gosh, they walked me to the bus.”

“If I hadn’t talked to Patti, I would have blown him up,” Lee Anne said of her interaction with the BYU fan. “But because of the example that Patti set of just having a little bit of grace, handling it in a way that was not natural to me, it ended up being a super positive experience between me and a fan.”

“I just took a moment,” Lee Anne said. “I did confront him, but, but I didn’t do it in the way that I would have. And at the end, when he came up to me and apologized, I said, ‘Hey, you got to understand, my whole heart is on that court and you yelled at this boy.’ And he apologized.”

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“I also got to know how this ends”

In the days leading up to their first season at Kentucky, the Popes are busier than ever. That’s why they wake up before dawn each morning to go for a walk. Stillness in motion for a couple that has not stopped since April.

“She’s better at it than me,” Mark said of Lee Anne knowing when he needs to take a break. “She tells me when I’m off. She’s tough. She’ll be like, ‘Stop it.’ We’re 5:15 a.m. walk people. We live in a perfect place to go on a walk. It’s super quiet and peaceful. I love where we live right now because when we get a quiet moment, it’s really quiet. It’s really nice. And we’re super faithful people, and so sometimes we can get just a quiet moment, it’s more meaningful than probably the time that’s allowed.”

“They have a wonderful relationship, a wonderful marriage,” Patti Edwards said of Lee Anne and Mark. “The thing that I’ve loved about both of them is that they can prioritize. In Mark’s life, Lee Anne is number one and his children, and then his religion, and then basketball. And she knows it. And he knows that he is number one in her life, but that means that they don’t shut everything else out.”

“My biggest worry as a fan, a friend, whatever you want to call it is that they’re going to spend 22, 21 hours of the day trying to embrace and help everybody,” Trent Johnson said. “That’s just who they are from a coaching perspective and a couple’s perspective.”

As the Popes get ready to embark on their next and most exciting chapter, Lee Anne can’t help but reflect on how they got here. She pulled up a photo of a Christmas card from 2005, the year Mark retired from playing, in which each member of her family wore a different basketball jersey.

“Mark wrote it and it read, ‘Layla was born a Denver Nugget, Avery was born a New York Knick, Ella was born a Milwaukee Buck, Lee married an Indiana Pacer, and Mark will always be a Kentucky Wildcat. Thanks for taking the journey with us.’ This is like, something you forget about and then it came up at some point since he got the job and I got super choked up. He’ll always be a Kentucky Wildcat.”

“All those connections I think are so special. So I think that’s like the waves, I think that just kind of keeps hitting me,” Lee Anne said. “I think that’s what I have just felt, the layers of Kentucky Basketball. I mean, it’s Kentucky — and when I say that, you feel that, right? Like, it’s Kentucky.”

The journey takes on another dimension as she meets fans and hears their stories. From the fan who went on Kentucky’s trip to Italy in 1995 to the woman who flew in from Texas to go to the team’s NIL event at the Kentucky Horse Park and the clerk at a Miami boutique who is a lifelong fan and congratulated her on a big recruiting win, each interaction leaves an impression.

“She wants to know a person, right?” Mark said. “I wish there was enough time for the 4.25 million people in the state of Kentucky to know her.”

“It’s our dream,” Lee Anne said. “And I think that I knew how much Mark loved Kentucky and how much he cared and how, like he says, it changed who he was…But I think to be here — you don’t know until you know.”

Lee Anne is quickly making an impression on fans as well. When the photo of the Popes standing in front of the private jet on April 13 made the rounds, a Big Blue Nationwide hunt began for her blue and white tracksuit. When the women of BBN discovered the brand (Skims), it sold out. The same goes for the Kentucky sweater she wore in her first photoshoot with Mark after he accepted the job, which she got at the UK Bookstore. Even though the sweater has been discontinued, fans still email the company requesting them to bring it back.

“I had an inkling of that, just because people have stopped me. Mark would be taking a picture and they’d say, ‘Was [the tracksuit] Skims?’ ‘It was Skims!’ Anytime anybody asks me, I don’t care. I would tell everybody everything. I would give you the shirt. I’d be like, ‘This is from Target, and this is from–‘”

“I wish we could all just, like, do it together, right?” she added. “Because it’s like being a girl. It’s fun, it’s super fun, and it’s sweet. That’s very sweet that people think I look cute every once in a while. That’s really sweet.”

What happens when the ball is tipped remains to be seen; however, after watching her father, Lee Anne knows the important parts about how their story might end. She’s seen it play out during her childhood and the relationships she and Mark have cultivated so far. Mark has married three of his former players. Several more have started families. Her favorite way to watch a game is with a former player by her side, helping her yell at the refs.

“We understand the assignment,” Lee Anne said, echoing her husband’s oft-used phrase. “I know Mark referenced that with championships, but you’ve gotta win. That’s how you’re judged, right? And winning is fun but these relationships with the boys, man, that’s what lasts. That’s maybe one of the most special things about like, being a coach’s kiddo, is that you get to see how it ends while you’re still doing it, you know?”

“I’m so happy for Kentucky,” Mark said. “Like, I really feel that way. I’m so happy for Kentucky that Kentucky gets Lee Anne Pope. It’s the best, and that’s it. And then I can just shut up and sit back. Enjoy. You’re welcome. Here she is.”