Mark Pope named third-best high-major coaching hire of 2024

Remember that night when the world flipped upside down, reports of Mitch Barnhart zeroing in on BYU’s Mark Pope to replace Hall of Fame coach John Calipari at Kentucky? What an unbelievable swing of emotions from those early seconds and minutes to hours and days, then weeks and months. Charting those approval ratings would be a hilarious disaster.

Where do things stand today for the new head coach in Lexington? High. Extremely high, actually, especially after earning a commitment from the No. 1 center in high school basketball. The staff is great, roster is competitive, life is good for the Wildcats — at least until the games are played and that evaluation process begins.

It may have been a rough start, but now that the offseason dust has settled, optimism is there. Don’t trust your gut quite yet? Maybe some college basketball coaches can convince you that Kentucky is in a good spot with Pope.

In a poll of 100-plus Division I men’s coaches by CBS Sports’ Gary Parrish and Matt Norlander, Pope was voted as the third-best high-major coaching hire of the 2024 cycle.

8.5 percent of participants gave Pope the nod as the best coach, behind only Michigan’s Dusty May at 21.7 percent and, yes, Arkansas’ John Calipari at 43.4 percent.

“He’s not a guy that’s looking for a microphone every 10 minutes to state his case. He doesn’t make a lot of excuses. Basketball is what drives him,” one anonymous coach said of Pope. “Underrated recruiter, very good talent evaluator and knows how to stay ahead of the curve offensively and be impossible to guard in space. Uses his personnel like a surgeon. Everyone on the floor is really good at something and they’ll buy into that role.”

“I know this isn’t the guy Kentucky fans thought they were going to replace Cal with — but he’s already won them over. He’ll be super there,” another added. “And he really is a brilliant offensive coach. So not only will he be good there, but they’ll be fun to watch. He might not dominate the recruiting rankings like Cal did because lots of schools are using NIL. But he’ll get good players and win big.”

From there, Louisville’s Pat Kelsey and BYU’s Kevin Young tied for fourth at 4.7 percent, followed by Stanford’s Kyle Smith at 3.8 percent. Ohio State’s Jake Diebler, West Virginia’s Darian DeVries, SMU’s Andy Enfield, DePaul’s Chris Holtmann, Oklahoma State’s Steve Lutz, USC’s Eric Musselman and Washington’s Danny Sprinkle all received votes, as well.

What did coaches have to say about our old pal Coach Cal?

“Cal stayed too long at Kentucky. He knows that now,” one said. “But I talked to him on the road, and you can just tell that a weight has been lifted off of him. I’ll be shocked if he doesn’t go to another Final Four. He’s going to win big again. He has everything he needs to win big again.”

“Calipari is the best hire. [His] track record at every stop is the highest level of the sport,” another added. “… Arkansas may sneak into his best stop with all the power in reserves and fans. And the backdrop of less attention [will give] him some freedom to breathe. He will enjoy it there more.”

And then one had nothing more to say than a quick one-liner.

“Only Hall of Fame guy someone hired. Period.”

Guess we’ll have to see who turns out to be the best of the bunch. It’s pretty clear, though, we like our guy here in Lexington going into 2024-25.