2. Mark Pope (Kentucky)
Consider everything that’s happened with Kentucky recently. John Calipari left the program after 15 seasons at the helm not long after an awful upset against Oakland in last year’s NCAA Tournament. Calipari fled for Arkansas (with significant struggles this season) and Pope came aboard, returning to the school at which he won a national title nearly three decades ago. Filling those shoes wasn’t going to be easy but Pope was ready for the task.
Kentucky beat a very talented Duke team early in the season and has just kept on winning games in Pope’s first season. It’s important to remember that absolutely nobody returned from last season. Pope built a Top 10 team that sits among the SEC’s elite this season with random names from the Transfer Portal. He’s now built a team where Otega Oweh, Lamont Butler, Jaxson Robinson and others are new to town but contributing and doing great things on a nightly basis.
Sure, Kentucky has had its share of lousy performances, but they’ve won several ranked games, also knocking off Gonzaga, Florida, and Texas A&M in recent weeks. There’s a lot to love about a team picked 8th in the SEC that continues to show up and show out for their new coach. Kentucky has won just one game in the NCAA Tournament in the last five years and the early returns indicate that that’s more history that Pope is capable of changing.