Mark Pope says Rick Pitino ovation at Big Blue Madness was 'really special'

Mark Pope embraced Rick Pitino‘s return to Kentucky with open arms from the beginning, pushing for the fanbase to see the good in his time as a Hall of Fame coach in Lexington rather than what came after his departure. That led to a you-have-to-see-it-to-believe-it moment at Rupp Arena, Pitino walking out with the 1996 national championship trophy in hand alongside his former players and generations of UK basketball legends at Big Blue Madness.

Pope said beforehand his former coach “changed my DNA as a human being” and was undoubtedly his greatest, most impactful mentor as a coach. Then the wildest weekend of all time came and went.

What was it like seeing Pitino receive an ovation three decades in the making? Well, it was certainly a special moment for the first-year head coach at Kentucky.

“Coach Pitino is really personal to me. If you think about your life, you count on one hand maybe the people that really, really, really change you forever, and I love Coach Pitino for that,” Pope said at SEC Media Day in Birmingham on Tuesday. “I’ll be forever grateful for him. He changed the way that I see the world, and he changed the way that I walk into a room, and he changed the confidence that we approach challenges with. And on top of all that, we got to share as a team under his leadership just the most extraordinary of extraordinary experiences together.”

Pope looked back at his career as a coach and the impact he made at Kentucky. Very few would argue against the notion he’s one of the greatest basketball minds in the sport’s history.

“He is a coach that also is on the Mount Rushmore of Kentucky basketball coaches, and that’s really saying something,” he added. “He took a program when it was in a really, really, really difficult spot and took it to back where it belongs, at the top of the college basketball mountain, and he did it with all of his style and intensity and everything that he brings to the game.”

The guy was then chewed up and spit out by Big Blue Nation — and deservedly so. He was a friend turned ultimate foe, trading out blue for red with endless controversy to follow.

But second (or third or tenth) chances are sometimes OK. And Pope is grateful the fanbase gave him one, wrapping its arms around Pitino in a celebration of Kentucky basketball history, two things that inarguably go hand in hand.

“I love him so much, and it was really special for him to be able to walk into Rupp Arena and feel that from BBN, to feel their gratitude,” Pope said. “We talk about gratitude every single day on our team. It’s a really important part of what we do. For Coach to be able to feel the gratitude of BBN for him I thought was really special.”

What a night.