One-on-one: Mark Pope reflects on Big Blue return and first 9 weeks on the job.” Pope said. “It’s a little terrifying.
Mark Pope was officially introduced as new men’s basketball head coach at the University of Kentucky on Sunday, April 14. Nine weeks laterm he reflected on the day he accepted the job and the day he returned to Rupp Arena.
“Everything went down Thursday,” Pope told WLKY Sports. “There was some consternation and some anxiety in BBN because they were like, Come on, man, we’re we should be hiring Pat Riley, right, to be the coach. And, so, there was a lot of stuff. And so and everything happened so fast, like everything began and ended on Thursday and then, and then Mitch and I, and there’s so much stuff to do, like, there’s so much stuff that I was not really I wasn’t paying attention. I just had to deal with my team at BYU and the administration at BYU, and you, you have a three-minute goodbye to people that you’ve like fought and bled with for and built meaningful races. All that stuff is, I can’t even begin. And then and then to work through all this stuff, it’s a little early on in the morning.”
A few hours later, University of Kentucky athletic director Mitch Barnhart reached out to Pope again.
“And then Mitch called me at like 5 a.m. my time. We’ve been off the phone for, like, three hours. I’m pretty sure he didn’t sleep that night. And he was like, I’m really upset. He was, I think he was taking some bullets. And that’s when he said he’s like, I’m really frustrated. But we’re taking this press conference straight to Rupp. And so he said it, and I was like, OK. And in my mind, I’m like, I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Pope said.
It was a brilliant idea. Big Blue Nation came out in full force, packing Rupp Arena to welcome the new coach.
“You know, you think about moments like that, they become a little bit iconic, right?” Pope said. “That was a moment. There was a moment in sports, so it was just never happened. BBN, again, did something that never happens in sports. They do it over and over and over again. Our fan base does it over and over again, and so why are we surprised?”
The next idea was for Pope to ride into Rupp on a bus. Another idea the coach took time to warm up to. Another idea that provided a magical moment.
“And suddenly, it was as if I realized right then and there that this is what I know about Kentucky. This restaurant is all that. It is distinct from everyone else’s. And a huge thank you to Mitch for leading by example and to our marketing team for pulling everything together at the last minute. And then, of course, BBN did everything to create that particular moment, which was very fantastic “, he remarked.
Once the dust settled on the transfer and he employed personnel, Pope started compiling a list. In addition to having a ton of positions to fill, he could look for players who would work in his system.
“In that sense, it is a real blessing,” Pope said. “It’s a little terrifying, and there were a couple of days are like, we don’t have any players, but it’s actually really exhilarating to kind of bring people that on paper and on film. We’re I thought, “Oh man, that’s the guy,” if I had to choose one person from the portal to carry out this task the way we do it. Additionally, we chose them by hand since we think they complement each other and the style of play we want to play. They provide answers to some of the questions we recognized needed to be addressed in order to further our play style. That was quite thrilling. After that, we’re going to put them on the floor here and begin to construct it.”
On Sunday, Father’s Day, Pope is kicking off summer camps this week with a Father-Son camp and a Father-Daughter camp. He’ll be joined for that by all four of his daughters.
