College basketball fans will see someone new on the sidelines coaching the Kentucky Wildcats men’s basketball team this season.
After a decade and a half with Kentucky, former Wildcats head coach John Calipari is no longer leading the program. Now the head coach at Arkansas, the longtime face of the team brought a few of his former players to a new school in the SEC.
In his absence, former BYU head coach Mark Pope is now running the show for Kentucky.
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Pope is originally from Washington and played college basketball for the Washington Huskies, where he was named Pac-10 Freshman of the Year in 1992.
He eventually transferred to Kentucky, where he played from 1994 until 1996. As a forward, he was team captain for the Wildcats when they won the NCAA men’s basketball championship in 1996.
Selected in the second round of the 1996 NBA Draft, he played professionally both overseas and in the NBA. After his playing career concluded, he began coaching.
Pope served as an assistant coach at Georgia, Wake Forest, and BYU before becoming head coach at Utah Valley in 2015. Pope took over as head coach for the Cougars in 2019 and was able to take the team to the March Madness tournament last season.
Now the head coach of his alma mater, fans will have high hopes for Pope’s first season. While several players left the team for the NBA or the transfer portal, he will bring former BYU top scorer Jaxson Robinson with him to the Wilcats.
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