Top basketball recruits watched how Mark Pope’s BYU teams played. What did they see?

In truth, nobody knows what will happen come November when Mark Pope’s first Kentucky basketball team hits the hardwood.

The excitement surrounding the formation of a new coaching staff and roster in Lexington has included the question of what the Wildcats will look like once everything is put in place.

This autumn at Rupp Arena will be many Wildcats supporters’ first time witnessing a squad captained by Pope.

However, there are over ten years’ worth of data points that suggest how the Wildcats will do this season. Pope has developed a well-known basketball brand throughout his five years as head coach of BYU and his four seasons as head coach of Utah Valley. This brand features an effective, 3-point-heavy system that encourages floor spacing and adaptability.

And it’s not just Kentucky fans who have quickly gotten a crash course in Pope’s basketball philosophies.

Several top college basketball recruits have done their homework on Pope, and are also interested in how his principles will be applied at Kentucky.

Last weekend’s Nike Elite Youth Basketball League (EYBL) session held just outside Indianapolis — part of the Pope and the UK staff began recruiting several of the top high school players from the classes of 2025 and 2026 during the first live recruiting season of Pope’s stay in the UK.

A number of those players discussed the style of play that Pope’s BYU teams exhibited and how they saw themselves fitting into the new Kentucky system.

Five-star power forward in the 2025 recruiting class Blake Wilson said, “I’ve watched BYU film, I watched them play a good amount last year because, although they (didn’t have) five-star prospects and very athletic guys, they won.”

“And they won in a tough conference. It was really good.”

To Wilson’s point, BYU went 23-11 last season and earned a 6 seed in the NCAA Tournament.

A big reason for this level of success in the Cougars’ first season in the Big 12 Conference? Pope’s modern offensive approach, which was deployed to help the Cougars survive their debut season in the Big 12 while operating with a talent gap compared to other league schools.

Using a five-out system that prioritized cutting into gaps, BYU’s basketball team achieved some outstanding outcomes in the previous campaign.

The Cougars shot 32% more 3-pointers a game on average (32) than any other team in the US, with an average of 81.4 points. Additionally, BYU tried 50.4% more 3-pointers than 2-pointers (49.6%).

Wilson, who the 247Sports Composite has ranked as the fourth best player in the 2025 recruiting class, recently switched AAU programs on the Nike EYBL circuit. He went from being the star player on the Georgia Stars to being one of the top prospects on the Nightrydas Elite squad, which also includes Cameron and Cayden Boozer, two five-star talents in the class of 2025.

Wilson said that move, in part, was based on wanting to show elements of his basketball skill that Pope highlighted with his BYU teams.

“Something that influenced my decision to come play with Nightrydas is how much catch-and-shoot and wide-open looks they get, and playing off the catch,” said Wilson, who visited UK for Big Blue Madness last fall and now lists Arkansas, Auburn and Tennessee among the programs most involved in his recruitment.

That’s what I truly wanted to focus on. Although I appreciate honing my on-ball skills and feel like I’ve had enough time to do so, I feel like I should be working on every area of my game.

Maybe not by coincidence, Pope and the Kentucky coaching staff watched Nightrydas’ games from the front row all weekend long in Indiana.

Former Kentucky standout Jasper Johnson, one of the Wildcats’ top guard targets in the 2025 recruiting class, is another player who is curious to see what the team will look like under Pope.