Updates on the status of Mark Pope's first coaching staff at Kentucky

Mark Pope has been reaching out to transfer portal targets left and right this week, but has yet to reveal his coaching staff to the public. That could change in the coming days though.

According to KSR’s Matt Jones, Pope is expected to bring on five assistants to his first staff as the head coach of Kentucky men’s basketball. Jones reports that three of those five positions “are basically locked in at this point” with one assistant already helping Pope in recruiting, adding that announcements on who they are could come later this week or early next week.

As Jones notes, a coaching hire cannot be officially announced by the University of Kentucky until the job has been posted online for at least seven days. Two of those positions will reach the seven-day period on Thursday while the other three will hit that mark on Saturday.

Actually let me correct this. It looks like two of the positions will hit their 7 day period tomorrow and the other three Saturday (no idea why)

So maybe a couple could be announced on Friday https://t.co/PITeJhZVRj

— Matt Jones (@KySportsRadio) April 17, 2024

Additionally, Jones says that Ray “Rock” Oliver, who has worked within UK Athletics alongside former head coaches Rick Pitino and John Calipari, will also remain on staff. Oliver will not count toward one of Pope’s five assistant coach positions.

BYU staff members such as assistant Cody Fueger along with director of video and analytics strategy Keegan Brown have been rumored as possible candidates to follow Pope from Utah to the Bluegrass. However, nothing has been made official and it doesn’t sound like we’ll know anything for sure until the end of this week at the earliest.

Also, in case you were wondering, Jones brought up Tyler Ulis, who was a student assistant coach at UK for the past two seasons under Calipari, and the fact that Ulis will soon be able to transition into a graduate assistant role once he earns his bachelor’s degree this spring. Ulis could also take on a full-time coaching gig if one were to become available, although it’s unknown right now if Pope would want to bring the former Kentucky point guard on board.

Buckle up, BBN.