Rick Pitino supports Mark Pope in Kentucky's search for a head coach

Mark Pope is on Mitch Barnhart’s list of potential hires to replace John Calipari as Kentucky‘s head men’s basketball coach. Jon Rothstein reported Pope’s candidacy on Thursday, tossing the former Wildcat’s name into the mix after Dan Hurley declined, per Rothstein’s sources.

Sources: BYU's Mark Pope is a candidate for the head coaching vacancy at Kentucky.

Pope was a member of the 1996 national title team in Lexington.

— Jon Rothstein (@JonRothstein) April 11, 2024

With Pope among Barnhart’s next targets, the 1996 national champion earned an endorsement from his old coach in Lexington. In a conversation with Adam Zagoria, Rick Pitino called Pope an “unbelievable choice” for Barnhart and Kentucky. In that same story, Zagoria notes Pope recently spoke with UK officials via Zoom.

Read more from Zagoria here at NJ.com.

Pope spent the last five seasons coaching BYU, leading the Cougars to an NCAA Tournament appearance in 2024. BYU lost in the first round to Duquesne, wrapping up the program’s first season in the Big 12.

He is 110–52 (.679) at BYU.

Fans split on Pitino as a candidate

On today’s KSR show, Matt Jones checked interest in Pitino with a game of “Pitino or ________,” where he gave the option of Pitino or various coaching candidates to see where Pitino landed on each of our lists. Matt, Ryan Lemond, and Shannon The Dude seemed very open to Rick’s return to Kentucky at 71 years old. I did not.

Now, Pitino has his support behind Pope as talks between Pope and Kentucky continue.