Mark Pope Officially Becomes UK's 23rd Basketball Coach

[KCKUKFan]

Everything about today was 96 fan service.

Amazing and heartwarming. And awesome that Rupp was full.

With that said, I hope I'm wrong. Pope has his hands full

[Jody Porter]

Everything about today was 96 fan service.

Amazing and heartwarming. And awesome that Rupp was full.

With that said, I hope I'm wrong. Pope has his hands full

Agreed. The whole thing was fan service. I think that fan service was needed, though. Especially the part about the SEC tournament mattering. A lot of people needed to hear that.

I kinda hope they don't keep referencing the 96 team. Don't get me wrong, I loved it, and it's very, very cool right now. But this new generation of recruits doesn't care about 2016, 2006, or 1996. It was cool today, will be cringe if they keep it up.

I ALSO kinda think that Jeff got pissed at him for the "Sheppard" thing. Body language, mostly. Did you all see them talking as he was walking out? Didn't look great.

Meh. I'm probably overthinking it.

Go Cats!

[KentuckyWild2020]

One thing is for sure. For those of us who wanted 90's basketball back we got it. Personally I am glad we have someone from the Pitino coaching tree, we going to alright..

[KentuckyWild2020]

I think "vampire" is more apt for a situation where he starts losing and fans still back him. (And there's going to be losing here at the start, obviously. Bank it. Most Kentucky fans are gonna realize that and react accordingly.)

What's happening now is just people being fans.

If he does lose not blaming him, Barnhart put him in this position ready or not..

[JFCats22]

It doesn’t mean he’ll win big but he absolutely killed the press conference.

[teamchemistry15]

It doesn’t mean he’ll win big but he absolutely killed the press conference.

You should try being happy sometime. It's pretty cool.

[KentuckyWild2020]

I don't know who wrote Mark Pope's introductory speech but they wasn't a Calipari fan lol.... Never mentioned his name3but sure had it all figured out and saw through his Bs.

Nashville matters

I know what the assignment is...

Mark Pope knocked it out of the park.

If I was a Arkansas or Louisville fan I would be embarrassed.

Rupp Arena 20k plus packed another 5 k told to go home, no room for you in here..

This is Kentucky basketball!!!!!!!!

[Joneslab]

I've been lucky to attend quite a few huge UK games over the years. Saw the Davis block game. Saw Wall's game-winner in his first game. Saw the Cousins buzzer beater. Saw Kentucky's thousandth win.

But I have never seen anything like that. As was mentioned above, there was *a lot* of chum thrown to fans about the '96 team...but having said that, Pope threw out a lot of stuff I've heard fans say on this very board over the years. I got the feeling that on that group text he mentioned there was a lot of consternation thrown out over the years about Cal and his methods. If you'll recall, Derek Anderson was critical of Cal way before it was cool...and Anderson got sort of raked over the coals for that.

So I think what Pope was saying yesterday was fanspeak...coming from a fan. And that was pretty awesome. And more than that, the atmosphere was outrageous. The sea of people was crazy, and we were lucky to even get in there. And then the 20 or so minutes leading up to the introduction was about as electric as I've ever seen Rupp. Just pure giddiness from a fanbase it's clear was starving for something to be excited about.

But as others have said, now's the hard part. Pope's got to start building the team. It's gonna be a tall task for sure but he got off to a great start yesterday.

[Joneslab]

I don't know who wrote Mark Pope's introductory speech but they wasn't a Calipari fan lol...

I think a lot of things he threw out had been discussed by former players amongst themselves. I have to think the '96 guys in particular had a much harder time with Calipari than any of them (except Anderson) let on. I took what Pope said as basically the stuff a fan would say...and many of us fans have said that stuff over the years.

[KentuckyWild2020]

I think a lot of things he threw out had been discussed by former players amongst themselves. I have to think the '96 guys in particular had a much harder time with Calipari than any of them (except Anderson) let on. I took what Pope said as basically the stuff a fan would say...and many of us fans have said that stuff over the years.

At first I was livid when news broke Pope was being considered and offered, it took me 24 hours to digest it all.

Now I could not be happier.

Was it the right choice? Time will tell but guy is passionate and wants to be here.

I understand why Mitch had to make a move now and not wait on bigger names.

To field a roster and potentially retain a few, we needed a Coach at work ASAP in the portal and preparing for the upcoming season.

Personally, I now have a great feeling about all this, truly believe it is all going to work out and I do not think it will take years to get there...

[Joneslab]

I understand why Mitch had to make a move now and not wait on bigger names.

Mitch clearly knew what a hit he'd be with the fans. And he knew how radically different Pope perceived the program vs. how Calipari perceived it.

That doesn't mean Pope's going to automatically be successful. He will get more leeway with fans though simply because of how he'll run the program. Fans really ripped Cal early on because of the one-and-done thing...and then of course he got back in good graces in 2012. Then Wisconsin...then he came back with the 2017 team. Then everything collapsed again. But through all that fans were "harder" on Cal than they will be Pope simply because of the player turnover and the fact we couldn't really follow the team in the traditional way because they were always leaving.

[KentuckyWild2020]

Mitch clearly knew what a hit he'd be with the fans. And he knew how radically different Pope perceived the program vs. how Calipari perceived it.

That doesn't mean Pope's going to automatically be successful. He will get more leeway with fans though simply because of how he'll run the program. Fans really ripped Cal early on because of the one-and-done thing...and then of course he got back in good graces in 2012. Then Wisconsin...then he came back with the 2017 team. Then everything collapsed again. But through all that fans were "harder" on Cal than they will be Pope simply because of the player turnover and the fact we couldn't really follow the team in the traditional way because they were always leaving.

If Pope can win, we get the best of both worlds.

If a few years in it just isn't working, then it's a problem.

With Calipari leaving I was relieved and furiated at the same time.

Was actually hopeful it would all turn around and Cal would be the one to do it but M. Teague even said what many of his former players really think, Cal is bigger than Kentucky...

All in all, I give Cal a pass and respect him for making it easy, he left no buyout no sanctions, it's a win for the school and fanbase...

[TrueblueCATfan]

That press conference yesterday was unreal...just no words

The BBN killed it

[Spiritof96]

Everything about today was 96 fan service.

Amazing and heartwarming. And awesome that Rupp was full.

With that said, I hope I'm wrong. Pope has his hands full

I don't think you need to be a special coach to win here. You have to be a good coach. In the modern era Kentucky reached it's pinnacle when we hired a visionary who possessed a successful gimmick. Pitino and Cal.

I don't know if Pope is a visionary (I don't think Drew was either). I assume he is good enough to succeed. Tubby and Cal had flaws that went unaddressed and ultimately led to their downfall. BCG had personal demons.

Pope seems self-aware enough to avoid the pitfalls.

[Joneslab]

The thing about special coaches is that sometimes you don't know if they're special or normal. Or if they're hacks.

The sport is so unpredictable that one guy can be all three of those things in a three-year span.

This is a sport where we've had two 16s beat 1s in the last few years...and then those same coaches took their team to the national title game the next season. That's crazy. It's a wildly unpredictable, impossible to blueprint sport.

The one truism right now in the college game is that you've got to have old teams, you've got to use the portal and NIL, and you've got to (as always) find ways to advance in March at all costs. Pope seems to have done well at the first two things at BYU, not so much the third one. You'd hope the Kentucky effect will push him over the top.