Mark Pope coaching USA Basketball a 'rare honor' with Johnson and Moreno both 'jaw-dropping great'

Mark Pope doesn’t do red — he proved that by giving a kid fresh white socks to swap out at his second annual Father/Son Camp in Lexington just so the color wasn’t staring him in the face all day. When he arrived in Colorado Springs for 2025 USA Basketball Men’s U19 National Team Training Camp for his coaching debut, though, he was handed a red polo for team picture day.

Standing there alongside 32 talented hoopers and some of the biggest names in coaching, he wore his most hated color proudly — because it wasn’t about the color at all, but rather the iconic USA Basketball logo on his chest.

After selling the Kentucky brand and what it means to wear that jersey to the nation’s top recruits — many by his side in that very gym — the shoe was finally on the other foot for Coach Pope. For the first time in his career, he got to feel the importance of representing his country and the USA Basketball brand.

“I think there’s nothing like USA Basketball,” Pope told KSR in an exclusive one-one-one interview in Colorado Springs. “Wearing USA across your chest is a rare honor, it’s an incredible honor. Not only are you around the best players in the country — and hopefully they go prove they’re the best players in the world — but also, you’re representing this country, right? It’s really special.

“It’s an incredible opportunity to be a part of something that, once you get to kind of dip your toe in here, it never leaves. It’s so special.”

Typically, his skin would burn wearing the color red. In this unique setting with the opportunity to be a part of something bigger than himself and even Kentucky basketball, there is beauty in it — along with other opposites attracting for the greater good of USA Basketball.

Differences can be put aside when you’re molding the next generation of talent like clay with gold on the line. There are no rivalries in Colorado Springs — only in the 2025 FIBA U19 Men’s World Cup in Switzerland when it’s Team USA against the world.

“No, it’s USA. It’s USA. It’s bigger — this deal is bigger. This is a unifying space and that’s what makes it so special,” Pope said. “You have these guys that are — we’re trying to rip each other’s hearts out, and then you come here, and you get to be teammates together. In fact, I got to coach with a heavy coaching rival (in Hubert Davis), and that’s pretty special. It’s actually really great. The stuff that brings us together is great, those things.”

Of the 32 players invited to participate, two of them are Kentucky freshmen, both Bluegrass natives right out of the UK program’s backyard. They were born Wildcats and bleed blue, now getting the opportunity to wear the red, white and blue on the national stage — and they had their college coach with them, a “cheat sheet” before practice ramps up in Lexington, as Malachi Moreno described it.

Moreno and Jasper Johnson were grateful for the opportunity to learn, but Pope was grateful for the opportunity to teach his guys — and over the moon about the results.

“It was awesome because it was the first time I’ve been allowed to coach them. That was the best part,” he told KSR. “It’s like a sneak peek into what’s going to be. Both those guys — man, what a show they put on. They were both incredible. I mean, like jaw-dropping great. So the chance to coach them and the chance to be in some live play, some competition against other players and other great players, I loved that part.

“I love getting to see their competitiveness come out, their fearlessness come out, their hearts come out — which is what happens when you play in this elite-level basketball.”

Whether he’s willing to admit it publicly or not, it’s also a massive recruiting advantage being in that building and coaching the rising high school seniors. They said it themselves, with several of Kentucky’s top targets — nine 2026 players in attendance held offers — raving about Pope’s coaching ability and approach in the event beyond the texts and phone calls they’ve exchanged up to this point in the recruiting process.

For Pope, it’s about building relationships and representing the University of Kentucky well. If that leads to recruiting results, so be it.

“The nice thing is you kind of put down the gloves here with any specific recruiting, but what you do is you get to know these great players,” he told KSR. “These are great players and they’re great, great people, too. A lot of these kids are committed, some of these kids have already played a year in college. But building these relationships — you know, of course everything we do, wherever we go, we’re representing the University of Kentucky.

“But this is — there’s nothing that grows a relationship like being on the court with guys, coaching with guys, challenging guys, teaching guys. So this is fun, man.”

His time in Colorado Springs wrapped up Monday as court coaches returned home, catching flights to get back to summer workouts with their respective programs. Pope isn’t afraid to let you know that as special as his USA Basketball debut was, a part of him was itching to get back to Lexington with the rest of his players and start the process of making history again with this new group.

A little secret from the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Training Center: other coaches were jealous of Pope for what he’s returning home to compared to their own situations.

“That’s what’s interesting. Like, as great as USA Basketball is, man, and there’s nothing like it, but to think you get to go back to Lexington?” Pope told KSR. “It’s fun because you walk around these gyms and great programs are represented, but everybody talks about Kentucky, everybody thinks about Kentucky, everybody asks questions about Kentucky.

“So the fact that we get to go back home there? Come on.”