Mark Pope has made no ifs, ands, or buts about the task at hand as the head coach at Kentucky. It is a focus that he has maintained from his opening press conference to now and will continue to do until he accomplishes it.
Pope discussed his goal with the Wildcats during an appearance on ‘College Hoops Today’ with Jon Rothstein this week. He kept on with his aspiration to win national titles for Kentucky in order to best represent their program and fanbase during his tenure.
“Like, I do believe that the most satisfying thing, the thing that’s required here and is more important than anything else is representing Big Blue Nation and hanging banners,” said Pope. “That’s what we’ve been called to do.”
Pope took over the winningest program in the history of college basketball in April. That includes eight national titles, which is second-most all time, from five different head coaches.
In 1996, Pope was part of one of those championship teams. He was a senior captain in one of the final seasons under Rick Pitino. That roster went 34-2, won the regular-season title in the SEC, and hung the sixth banner in school history. That title win closed out a run where they won their games in March Madness by an average of 21.5. They then defeated UMass, which was led by none other than John Calipari, in the Final Four before defeating Syracuse.
Expectations are always lofty inside Rupp Arena, especially considering how many titles and jerseys hang from the rafters there. That’s why Pope is keeping that as the standard as his coaching career at his alma mater begins.
“We’re going to kind of hit all those pieces to get to number nine as quickly as we possibly can,” said Pope.
Pope shares special moment with John Calipari, Tubby Smith at Final Four
As if by fate, Mark Pope says he enjoyed a special moment with two former Wildcat coaches in Tubby Smith and John Calipari just days before he would become the new leader in Lexington.
Pope, Calipari and Smith were among many current and former college basketball coaches who attended the Final Four. It was one week to the day after those games when Kentucky announced Pope as the new Kentucky coach. When he ran into Smith and Calipari in Phoenix, the three men didn’t know about the change that would occur.
Pope recalled that moment with the other Kentucky legends and how special it was to him — even before he had any inkling he would be the Wildcat coach by the end of the next week.
“On Saturday morning, I was at the Final Four, walked into the lounge and Tubby Smith and Coach Cal were sitting there in the corner,” Pope told Jon Rothstein on College Hoops Today, admitting the Kentucky fan in him came out.
“So, you know, I’m a diehard Kentucky fan. Both those men have been super gracious to me as I’ve been kind of finding my way through the coaching profession. So I went over, I literally said: ‘Guys I’m so sorry, so happy to see you guys. I’m just going to fanboy’. And I sat down and took a selfie.”
After the photo opportunity, Pope says the three of them chatted. In that, Pope especially commended Calipari for his great success over the 15 years he was the head coach.
“Then, we talked for a while. You know, really, I expressed my gratitude and admiration for Coach Cal and what he was doing at my alma mater, what he’s done the last 15 years, because it’s just incredible.”
“I think all of us just felt pretty innocent and not locked in to what was about to happen in the next 24-48 hours. It was like this super cool moment that I’m glad that I captured randomly before everything happened. And then everything was quick.”
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