So it appears that after Scott Drew and Danny Hurley said no, Kentucky opted for BYU’s Mark Pope, and that’s not going over well with Kentucky fans, aka Big Blue Nation, aka BBN.
Wildcat fans wanted a big name. If not Drew or Hurley, then maybe Bruce Pearl. The feeling is we’re in Kentucky and of course the best coaches would want this job. Who wouldn’t?
Aside from Drew and Hurley, Nate Oats said no and Billy Donovan didn’t look happy. Jay Wright quickly rejected a return to Lexington. AD Mitch Barnhart acted quickly and chose Pope.
Some of the rumored candidates who may or may not have been contacted include Bruce Pearl, Rick Pitino, Chris Beard and possibly Chris Jans.
So why Pope?
Well, look at the other rumored candidates.
- Pearl… he had a cause after his problems in Tennessee.
- Oats – his program was rocked last season by the murder of a young woman. One player, Darius Miles, was charged with capital murder and Oats was universally criticized for his atrocious handling of the situation.
- Pitino – it would take a while to list all the problems he had in Louisville, but restaurant sex led to an extortion case and there were other major scandals, including prostitute scandals hired to entertain recruits.
- Beard – he was charged with assault by strangulation/suffocation-domestic violence in Texas after allegedly assaulting his fiancée. The charges against her were dropped, but her bruises and injuries were documented.
- Chris Jans lost his job in Bowling Green after being accused of inappropriate behavior toward women at a bar.
All of these guys are great coaches, but they have all demonstrated significant character flaws.
Notably, UK’s main focus, aside from maybe Hurley, was Drew and whatever you can fault him for, no one is tearing him apart for his character.
Much of the criticism leveled at Pope is that he’s not big enough for Kentucky, but he has some real strengths.
He did very well first at Utah State and late at BYU. The Cougars entered the Big 12 this season and did quite well, finishing in fifth place behind Houston, Iowa State, Drew’s Baylor and Texas Tech.
The next criticism is that he didn’t win in the tournament and that’s reasonable. The jury is out until they do and in Kentucky that jury can be pretty wild.
On the plus side, Pope graduated from Kentucky and helped win the 1996 national championship when Pitino coached the Wildcats. He spent two years there and probably learned a lot from Pitino.
He is also widely considered a gifted offensive coach who will modernize UK’s offense, which drew widespread criticism during the final years of the Calipari era. It’ll be fun.
No one knows yet how he will succeed when it comes to team building, but when you have a guy who has strong character, high energy and offensive talent, he has a chance to excel. At 51 years old, he is also relatively young and the chances of him leaving for another job are probably zero because he loves Kentucky Basketball.
Basically, he’s exactly what you should want, other than coming from a smaller program that doesn’t fit the sense of entitlement many Kentucky fans have. But ask yourself this question and you can ask it about any program, not just Kentucky’s: If you could go back in time and hire Hurley away from Rhode Island, would you?
We’re not saying Pope is the next Hurley, just that you can’t always judge a coach’s potential when he’s at a smaller program. Keep in mind where the following coaches started:
- Bob Knight – Army
- Mikę Krzyżewski – Army
- Lute Olson – Long Beach Community College
- Rick Pitino – Boston University
- Kelvin Sampson – Montana Tech
- Chris Beard – Fort Scott Community College
- Brad Stevens – Butler
- Bill Self – Oral Roberts
We hope BBN gives it a chance. They won’t have to worry about him embarrassing the school by, say, having 15 seconds of seedy sex at midnight in a restaurant or choking his fiancée. He’ll also be loyal because he’s one of them and won’t show up for work in Arkansas when things seem dicey.
He certainly deserves a chance.
