Former BYU coach brings 1996 championship trophy, sellout crowd to Kentucky intro

PROVO — It's safe to assume Mark Pope didn't have a Sunday afternoon over the past five years quite like his first one as head coach at the University of Kentucky.

The former BYU coach who led the Cougars to two NCAA Tournament bids in five years — and likely a third if the 2020 tournament had not been canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic — was formally introduced at a press conference Sunday in Lexington to a standing room-only crowd at Rupp Arena (capacity: 23,500) that hung on his every word after he stepped off a bus inside the arena clutching the 1996 national championship trophy and made references to his former coach Rick Pitino.

At BYU, Pope's teams didn't practice or play by policy of the university owned and operated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. His previous stop at Utah Valley, five miles up the road in Orem, was also largely empty on Sundays due to demographics, as well.

But at Kentucky, more than 20,000 people showed up to the Church of Wildcats on Sunday afternoon, and Pope was their priest, pastor or bishop.

"The difference between Kentucky and every program in the country is that this isn't my team or our team, but our team," he said, arms stretched out as if embracing the entire arena.

In the SEC, everything "just means more" — and at Kentucky, that means basketball, where Pope replaces John Calipari after 15 seasons in Lexington. The former UMass and Memphis coach won a national title with the Wildcats in 2012 and made four Final Four appearances before a career that fizzled.

Kentucky men's basketball hasn't made it out of the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament since 2019, the cause of plenty of angst among the fan base that led to Calipari seeking the Arkansas job despite a favorable contract and a reported buyout north of $30 million if the university fired him.

But Pope understands the expectations of the Wildcats, as a former NBA veteran who won a title with the Wildcats after the one-time Pac-10 freshman of the year transferred from Washington. He wasn't running from then, either — at least, not on Sunday.

"We're not ducking it. That's the assignment," Pope said from a podium overlooking the sea of Big Blue Nation and a livestream that numbered more than 20,000 more. "And frankly, if you're too cautious and too worried to take on that challenge, don't come to Kentucky. Nothing else is acceptable."

He quipped about being the "shepherd" of the program, which many fans took as a subtle reference to Kentucky's Reed Sheppard, whose father, Jeff, played with Pope on the 1996 team. He also teased future games in the Maui Invitational and with St. John's — currently coached by Rick Pitino, who Pope said "changed my DNA as a human being."

He also made a passing reference to his time at BYU while using the platform to build up Kentucky, repeatedly called his dream job.

"My team last year made the second-most threes in all of college basketball. But at Kentucky, we don't come in second," he said. "My team last year had the fourth-most assists in the country, and at Kentucky, we share everything. We're going to be absurdly aggressive on offense. We're goin to change it up and keep people on their heels on defense. And that's our plan, that's what we're going to work for every day, and we have no choice but to be successful."

That previous team was thrown onto its own turn on the coaching carousel since news leaked of Pope's hire late Thursday night. Among the candidates are University of Utah assistant Chris Burgess, former Portland State head coach Barett Peery and Wasatch Academy's Paul Peterson, among others.

Since then, at least three of Pope's former players have entered the transfer portal, with Richie Saunders citing "the uncertainty of the coaching situation" as he joined teammates Dallin Hall and Aly Khalifa in the portal.

Khalifa told On3's Joe Tipton that he has narrowed down his transfer decision to Kentucky, Louisville, and a return to BYU for the 6-foot-11 center who ranked seventh nationally last year with a 3.59 assist-to-turnover ratio.

Pope is in the process of building his coaching staff — one that he said could add assistants that function more in "general manager" or "NIL-related" roles, but he's also been recruiting his remaining roster in Lexington, the transfer portal and the Wildcats' current high school recruits.

"We're talking to all the guys on the current team, all of the guys who have been recruited, and just about every single guy in the portal right now," he said. "We're going to find the guys who fit here the way we play, and the guys we come here and will understand the gift it is to play here at the University of Kentucky."

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