Mitch Barnhart expects Mark Pope to 'galvanize' Kentucky, Big Blue Nation

Kentucky needed a shot in the arm after things got a touch stale under John Calipari. Dreams of five-stars and lottery picks leading the Wildcats to postseason greatness had quickly become nightmares for Big Blue Nation — that messaging had officially fallen upon deaf ears.

Everybody loved Coach Cal — well, most did — but belief in his ability to get the program back to the Final Four for the first time since 2015 just wasn’t there. He was selling a lemon and fans just weren’t buying it following yet another early exit, this time at the hands of Jack Gohlke and No. 14 seed Oakland.

When Calipari decided “this program probably needs to hear another voice,” Mitch Barnhart explored Scott Drew and Dan Hurley as coaches of three of the last four national champions to be that next voice. When they declined, he moved quickly on Mark Pope to take over — a champion in his own right, albeit as a player in Lexington back in 1996.

No, he doesn’t have any postseason wins as a head coach — the biggest gripe for Kentucky fans when Barnhart made the move to bring him home. He does, though know what that looks and feels like as a player while still winning at a high level in the Big 12, BYU’s first year as a high-major. Give Pope the resources and platform to elevate the program, he’s got the heart, passion and Xs and Os to take care of the rest.

That’s why Barnhart is buying in.

“I really appreciate Mark’s desire to bring the Big Blue Nation and all of us together as we galvanize to go back and be who we want to be,” Barnhart told Kentucky Sports Radio. “The first thing when we sat down he says, ‘Mitch, thanks for the opportunity to sit down with you. That place changed my life.’ He says, ‘The trajectory of Mark Pope’s life changed the day I walked on the campus at the University of Kentucky.’ He said, ‘That place means more to me than you can possibly imagine.’ That, no one can replicate that DNA. No one can. And so it’s passionate and it’s emotional.

“That’s what you get when he told — I don’t want to steal all the stories because he’s got some great stuff. But when he talks about the autograph signing line after the national championship, and what it meant to the people as they stood in line to to catch a chance to have a glimpse of a national champion, that’s the heartbeat of all of our fans from border-to-border in the state and Mark gets that. And that’s what I want to make sure that we galvanize that, we galvanize our department around that.”

The program has been divisive in recent years under John Calipari, fans all in or all out on the Hall of Fame coach with the group between picking sides in a hurry. Every loss and win turned into told-ya-sos from that respective side of the fanbase begging to be right on the trajectory of the program. Lose to UNC Wilmington? Told you Calipari is done. Beat Auburn and Tennessee on the road? Told you Calipari is still king.

It was a toxic relationship, no other way to put it. And it wasn’t going to get any better this season after yet another way-too-early exit.

Barnhart believes Pope is the guy to build back those relationships and unite the fanbase for one common goal.

“There’s been some things that have happened that we need to be banded together better, and I’ve challenged Mark to really be thoughtful of how we do that. And that’s important to me,” Barnhart added. “That helps us as we create culture within our department and culture within our team and our locker room. And we become a program that walks out with that name on the front of the jersey. And we walk out there representing the Big Blue Nation and the four million people in our state and worldwide that is so important. That’s what I think.

“I’m hopeful that we can be, as a department, better and that’s on me. And as a basketball program that people feel that. I want them to feel that when they walk in. We understand the goal.”