Mitch Barnhart with new coach Mark Pope. (Vicky Graff Photo)
Kentucky athletics director Mitch Barnhart took what many considered a huge gamble by hiring former UK player Mark Pope as the coach to succeed John Calipari.
Sure, Kentucky was 2-8 in its last 10 postseason games, including 1-3 in NCAA Tournament play over the last three years. But Calipari had a national title and three other Final Four berths in his 15 years at UK before leaving for Arkansas. He had sent numerous players to the NBA and coached No. 1 overall NBA draft picks.
But Calipari was ready for a change and so was most of Big Blue Nation after another disappointing March and Barnhart turned to Pope, who got BYU to two NCAA Tournaments in five years but was 0-2 in NCAA play. Over 20,000 UK fans showed up at Rupp Arena Sunday for Pope’s introductory press conference — and maybe 3,000 more fans were turned away.
Barnhart and Calipari were not close. The rift between the two had grown wider and it was obvious Barnhart was not only happy with the fan turnout but proud of the new coach he had hired based on the remarks he made to open Sunday’s press conference:
“There is an old song from the ’70s by Jefferson Starship, Find Your Way Back. I date myself. It is time for us to find our way back.
“To do that, you need a guide, you have to have someone who has been on the journey before and knows the way, the work, the challenges and eventually the beauty of the destination. That’s right. To understand the heart of this special place, and we have such a person today, a letterman, check the box; we have a captain, check the box; we have a champion, check the box; we have got a guy that understands the professional game, check the box; we’ve got a scholar, I have never hired a Rhodes Scholar candidate in my life, check the box. Most of all, we have an amazing husband, father and coach, check three boxes.
“He will guide us back to our heart, through all of the changes in college sports, he understands the DNA that leads us to the destination. He says this changed the trajectory of his life. We’re excited for this, for him to do this for our program and our guys.”
Guide us back? That not only shows the confidence Barnhart has in Pope but also the confidence he had lost in Calipari.
7 Responses
An overwhelming welcome for a real Champion!
Coach Mark Pope did not leave behind any ncaa sanctions or wins removed from his tenure in the places where he has worked hard with integrity and the purpose to do what he was paid for – build & run a program with the University getting priority & not having any other agenda.
The UK Champion rode into town with a saddle bag full of trophies, no negative baggage (no sanctions or wins removed by ncaa at prior stops), still filled with a years long love for UK.
May the Lord Jesus take care of Mark Pope & his family as they settle in, adjust to living in the greatest state in the nation, and lead UK BB back to relevance.
Calipari had one goal while at UK. Use the biggest stage in college basketball to draw top talent, keep them for a year, and send them to the NBA so Cal could be recognized in the NBA. It had nothing to do with the history of UK or the fan base.
Coach Pope seems to understand that UK is great, in part, because of the fan base. He has been a student, a transfer, a player, and a champion. He understands what UK means to a lot of the students and mostly to the fan base.
I think Pope is smart enough to seek guidance when needed and he seems to be a great motivator.
Mark was the best fit for this job, unless you ask Jimmy, Jimmy! He still wants the FRAID back.
I’m a UK fan first and Never a whiner! Let it go Crybaby Barry. You are still Whining like a Sissy about a coach that’s gone. If Pope hasn’t gone to a FF in 3 years Or less, you will turn on him like a rabid dog. That’s how you Narcissists are.
Squeal all you want, EVERYBODY here knows you are a Calipari asskisser. I know you can’t afford the move to Fayetteville, just head on over to Lousyville. They are desperate for fans even if they do SQUEAL LIKE A PIG. The reception that Pope has received proves he was the man for the job, EVEN THOUGH YOU SAID HE WASN’T. BBN doesn’t want any of you Calipari asskissers around here. Go follow FRAUD.
Fans like him will hold Pope to standards that they would never hold the FRAUD to. Win one game each in both postseason tournaments over a 5-yr period–if Pope does that, they will want him gone, but the FRAUD did it, and they still wanted him to come back for more and more of it. The FRAUD could have continued to go winless in the postseason for the next 10 yrs and they would all still want him back for more, because of that "#1 recruting class and the top 5 McDonalds All Americans in the country’. In their rationale, it’s ok for the FRAUD to go winless in the tournaments, but it won’t be ok for Pope to do it. Even thought it’s two completely different situations that is like comparing apples to oranges. Pope doesnt even have a roster yet, and he isn’t going to get 5 freshman NBA draft picks in his recruiting class, yet they will expect him to make the Final 4 in his first year trying to rebuild KY from the damage the FRAUD left behind. But with the so-called top 5 NBA draft pick freshmen in the country, they didnt demand a Final 4 or any tournament success at all out of the FRAUD. Its fans like them that have been killing this program–brainwashed sheep–the FRAUD over KY. He knows best, we trust him, we gotta have those five NBA draft picks and #1 recruiting classes, but it "dosnt matter" if we do any winning with them! And that was truly the mentality of the FRAUD and he brainwashed these sheep into the same mentality—lose three in a row in Rupp for the first time in history? Ahh doesn’t matter. Lose in the first Rd of both tournaments? Ahh doesn’t matter. U know why it doesn’t matter? "Because I am changing lives and making families rich and helping these kids pursue their dreams and that’s what’s it’s all about". As the KY coach, the FRAUD actually had the nerve to publicly say those things don’t matter, and was STILL going to be kept another year originally!!! But he had the nerve to say all that to the fans, so he may as well have just added to that statement "to hell with KY and what this program does or doesn’t win. If we win, that’s great, and so be it, but if we lose, that’s not what matters most, it’s what I’m doing for these kids that matters most!!" That is exactly how this "man" felt Abt the coaching situation here. Deep down inside, this was the feeling about it, and the approach he took with it as the coach. U know what I say, Coach Calipari? TO HELL WITH YOU AND YOUR AGENDA! GUESS WHAT–NEWS FLASH, BUDDY: YOU "DONT MATTER"!!! so take your "CHANGING LIVES" agenda with you to ARK with your best pal who went 12-52 as a head coach, and I’ll take going 9-16 with Mark Pope!!! U know why? Cuz I would rather go 9-16 with a "for life blue-blooder" who bleeds this program in his soul, and is "one of us"!! U already lowered the standards, FRAUD, so the "real fans", the logical, rational fans who love KY first, know that it takes a few years for a new coach to rebuild a program, and we will give Coach Pope the time in which to do that, because the difference in this situation vs the old one is, even if we do go 9-16 this year, we will know there is still hope for the future. And we will know whatever results were achieved, however bad they are, were achieved as a result of putting KY first and trying to win for the school, rather than some NBA minor league draft camp agenda, and basically just being an NBA agent and scout disguised as a head coach on the sidelines. There’s a reason not a one of those kids from this past year’s team couldnt play a lick of defense. You’re telling me that every single one of those 15 guys were all that lousy defensively? When an entire roster is equally as bad as they were at one of the most basic fundamentals of the game, that indicates a bigger, more in-depth problem. If we go 9-16, we will know it’s because it was only the first season of a new coach trying to rebuild the devastation left behind by the past one, and we will know that he will continue to put in hard work and keep on rebuilding his team and this program each year until we get it back up to where it needs to be. It’s unbelievably amazing how these blind sheep CAL-worshippers were so brainwashed that they could never even see the fact that the last 5 yrs under CAL were worse than the Gillispie era for KY bball, and the results delivered were the very ones the FRAUD claimed were below KY standards the day he came in to take the job back in 2009. And again, think Abt how insane this notion is: the CAL lovers give a free pass on his teams with the so-called best recruiting class in the country and 5 or more NBA players on it not winning one tournament game at all multiple seasons, much less a Sweet 16, Elite 8, Final 4—-but they will expect Mark Pope, in his very first season in a complete rebuild of a program from the ground-up from the devastation left behind, to, at minimum, make the Final 4, if not, win a championship. And if he loses in the first round of either tournament, they will want him fired immediately and will say "see, I told u so, we shouldn’t have let CALLIE-BOY get away!!!!". Why? What are we missing? It’s the same result! How are we any worse off? That logic says we don’t expect a team full of NBA players to win but we expect a team in full rebuilding mode starting over, to win. Fans like that don’t deserve even the title of calling themselves KY fans–they have gone so far up CAL’s ass they have lost complete touch and grip with everything in the reality that is KY BBALL. Those blind-sheep followers became so indoctrinated with the FRAUD’s culture that he created, that they became part of following his agenda as well, one that does not involve anything about representing the University of Kentucky bball program. It’s alot like what’s happening to our kids in schools nowadays. It was the curse of ol COVID-CAL—CAL became basically a freak show beginning after the time they came back from COVID and started playing games again. From then on, he was never the same and neither was our fan base. He divided the state and this fan base with his COVID injection of "players first program, changing lives, helping families, playing for NBA draft spots, and kneeling for the national anthem". And alot of our fan base went along his snake-oil COVID injection of no longer making being the UK coach and the UK program priority anymore. That was his chance to lash out at everything and at everyone who made him angry, it was his chance to stick it to the fan base for all the things about us that bothered him, it was his chance to stick it to Mitch for all he didnt like about him, it was his chance to stick it to the state for the way it leans politically and for all that enraged him about that. At that time, after everything that had happened in the country and the world, he began to view his situation differently than he ever had before, and THATS the essence of what changed him–all the BS that went down in this country politically and with COVID, caused him to begin viewing his situation as "Im coaching for a state that views bball as a religion and leans heavily in favor voting-wise for a president who tried to incite an "insurrection" on this country, and who are all a bunch of racist, COVID-vaccine-rejecting rednecks, and that goes against everything I try to do for my kids, so here is the way it’s going to be from now on: it’s players first and NBA draft status over UK bball and BBN, and it’s helping families pursue their dreams and get rich over coaching for UK, over win-loss results, and over pursuing championships in either post-season tournament. And to deliver my feelings and outlook on this publicly, I will personally inform the BBN and the state of those feelings by having myself and the team take a knee for the national anthem in the name of social justice and in honor of BLM and other activist organizations to bring awareness of systemic racism and white nationalism/domestic terrorists taking over our country today and trying to overthrow our government. And I will conduct this sideshow for our road game at the University of FLA away from the Rupp area crowd and the BBN faithful, like the chicken-shit that i am, because I know damn well what the reaction to it in LEX would be. My name is John Calipari and I am your KY COACH–AND I AM KING!!!YOU ARE STUCK WITH ME FOR LIFE!!! And to top it all off, I will gift-wrap the worst season in KY BBALL history for u as my little cherry on top of my little "politics over UK BBALL" announcement, along with the two worst NCAA tournament losses in UK history, and one win each in the SEC and NCAA tournaments, the worst stretch in UK history. My name is John Calipari, I am your coach, and with this kneeling, u will forever so be commanded to kneel for me, and support everything that I do or say, no matter how wrong or right it may be, from this point fwd, because I am politically correct, i stand for social justice, and i know what’s right for this state and for this country–BY GOD, I AM SOMEBODY!!! And after today, all the people who really count and matter to me are going to know where I stand and what im about—so let my true agenda at the University of Kentucky COMMENCE!!!"
Mark Pope, you are a miracle and a gift sent from GOD to BBN. We love you, and we thank you for coming back home to rescue us and rebuild us from this nightmare and hellish existence we have been relegated to. Thank you for bringing KENTUCKY back to Kentucky, and for bringing back the UK BBALL program. And most of all, thank you for bringing GOD with you into KY as well, because u know what, I believe HE has been missing around here for awhile now. Thank you for bringing class, dignity, integrity, and RESPECT back to the UK BBALL program. And remember, if we are 9-16 next year, remind that particular group of fans that "ITS ABOUT THE RIDE, AND THE JOURNEY, AND ABOUT GETTING TO SEE THESE KIDS PLAY, AND WATCHING THEM OUT THERE TRYING TO PURSUE THEIR DREAMS, WATCHING THEM MAKE US PROUD." remind them "WHAT WOULD THEY WANT IF IT WAS THEIR SON OR DAUGHTER IN YOUR HANDS". remind them that "YOUR KIDS ARE NOT ROBOTS AND THEYRE NOT MACHINES". remind them that your "TEAM IS BUILT FOR MARCH, and if u lose in the SEC tourney, remind them that "AH, THAT TOURNAMENT DOESNT MATTER, WE ARE JUST OUT HERE PLAYING FOR SEED". and most importantly, above all—remind them that "I LIKE MY TEAM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
I NEVER said Pope wasn’t the man for the job. You’re an idiot. You make up lies in that tiny brain of yours to fit your agenda. Sound familiar? That being said, a great reception for Pope or any other coach doesn’t Prove he is going to be successful.