Kentucky Basketball: 20 candidates to replace John Calipari as Head Coach

Mark Pope

With nearly a decade of head coaching experience under his belt, Pope is certainly another rising name in coaching circles. He also has the hidden benefit of being a former Wildcats, having played for Kentucky in the 90’s under Rick Pitino. Pope was part of the national championship team in 1996 before playing in the NBA for nearly a decade.

His coaching career began with stints as an assistant at Georgia, Wake Forest, and BYU. The first head coaching job was at nearby Utah Valley, slowly turning the Wolverines into a viable program in the WAC. Pope returned to BYU as head coach in 2019 and is coming off his best season with the Cougars. In year five, he led BYU into the Big 12, finishing in 5th place and making the Big Dance after very low preseason expectations.

There’s obviously a major jump from what Pope has done in his coaching career to leading his former program. He’s never even won an NCAA Tournament game and is barely scratching the surface on his own coaching career. Pope has BYU trending in a good direction again and likely would be pretty far down on Kentucky’s list right now. Still, as a former player and champion for the Wildcats he certainly should get some consideration.