INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. (WDRB) -- Scott Drew, that's the Big Name you wanted to coach the University of Kentucky basketball team, right?
He won the 2021 national title at Baylor. He recruited at the highest levels. He had a strong relationship with UK athletic director Mitch Barnhart.
Danny Hurley, that's the Bigger Name you wanted to coach Wildcats, right?
He won back-to-back national titles at Connecticut. He had a job offer from the Los Angeles Lakers. Hurley calls himself the best coach in the game.
BREAKING NEWS: Barnhart got the right guy, Mark Pope, to lead the Kentucky basketball program in the post-John Calipari Era.
I did not write that sentence because Drew and Baylor as well as Hurley and UConn exited the NCAA Tournament last weekend — and Hurley handled his defeat like an ugly Little League parent.
I wrote it because of the way Pope has coached and represented Kentucky all season.
Not just the early season victories over Duke and Gonzaga, two of the Wildcats' 11 Quad I victories. Not merely the way Pope kept his team focused and driven over the grind of the Southeastern Conference despite significant injuries to his starting backcourt.
Not even the opening round NCAA Tournament victories over Troy and Illinois. Those wins pushed the Wildcats into this Sweet Sixteen game against Tennessee Friday at 7:39 p.m. in Lucas Oil Stadium, Kentucky's first appearance in the second weekend of the tournament in six seasons.
Pope represents Kentucky basketball the way Kentucky fans should want Kentucky basketball to be represented.
He's thoughtful, insightful, funny, competitive, cerebral, ambitious, appreciative and respectful.
Yes, winning and losing will ultimately determine Pope's success. His approval rating will rise or fall depending on whether his team wins two, one or zero games this weekend.
I believe Pope can coach basketball. I know he gets the other stuff right.
On Thursday at Lucas Oil Stadium, Pope was the first person to appear at the eight media sessions that featured players and coaches from Kentucky, Tennessee, Purdue and Houston.
He bounded up the stairs, eager to take his seat for 15 minutes of questions. He was greeted at the dais by Bill Benner, a former Indianapolis sports writer and college administrator.
As soon as Benner introduced himself, a king-sized smile spread over Pope's face.
"Benner?" Pope said. "Related to David Benner?"
Indeed. Bill Benner is the older brother of David Benner, the long-time media relations person for the Indiana Pacers. Pope immediately wrapped Bill Benner in a hug.
Pope played for the Pacers from 1997-99. Benner was 67 when he died after a long illness two years ago.
"David Benner was my guy," Pope said. "I loved me some David Benner. He helped me get started in my career. I was so sorry when we lost him."
Textbook Pope. If the Kentucky coach has stressed anything as his first Kentucky team has dribbled its way through this challenging season it's been to find happiness regardless or the situation. Get your medical textbook and follow along.
"I think joy in the gym has been a principle that's been really, really important to us," Pope said. "I think we play better when we work hard to find joy in the process.
"Because this can be a grind. It can be mentally and emotionally taxing and exhausting. The pressure can be immense.
"But I think finding the joy actually helps us perform. I think it helps us be more focused. I think it helps us be looser. I think it helps us be better decision makers.
"It takes us from our limbic system to our front cortex (remember Pope was a student in the Columbia School of Medicine for more than three years), like literally in a real sense, which helps us be better decision makers, which is such a crucial part of what we do on the court."
Pope was merely warming up, eager to ease into philosophy.
"And it also is, you know, what's the point?" Pope asked.
"What's the point of all this if you're not building relationships that are going to last forever, if you're not enjoying every moment, if you can't be here in this city for the Sweet Sixteen with this group of guys, if you can't enjoy that, you need to find another thing to do."
For Pope, this is more than Day Before the Game Talk. I asked him if this was a priority he learned while playing at Kentucky for Rick Pitino, when he started for the Wildcats' 1996 NCAA champs.
It was not. When I asked Pope for an example of joy that he shared with that Kentucky team, he laughed and shared that when the Wildcats took a summer trip to Italy that Pitino allowed the group to a one-lap bus ride around the Colosseum in Rome.
Pope has attempted to take the best things he learned from Pitino, Larry Bird, Rick Carlisle, Mark Fox and his other basketball mentors and add qualities that he considers important.
On Thursday when the UK players gathered for breakfast, Pope said he enjoyed listening to his guys debate which musical concerts would be appropriate to attend. He was working to find an activity for the squad Thursday afternoon to get the players out of the team hotel.
Pope was merely warming up. He expressed his joy that the Kentucky-Indiana basketball rivalry was returning to the schedule. He said Kentucky's two victories in two regular season games against Tennessee were nice but that he thought this "was mostly a free-standing game."
He said Tennessee's Rick Barnes was one of the game's best coaches, that the mid-majors would again have their day in the NCAA Tournament and that he loves the post-game handshake line when Kentucky wins but not after a loss.
"Every experience we have, good or bad, our goal is to make it a learning, teaching experience," Pope said. "How can it grow us?
"My staff is so good about refocusing me and saying, okay, relax, take a breath, how can this grow us? How can this grow us? How can this grow us?"
Mitch Barnhart did not get the Big Name many wanted to coach the Kentucky basketball program. But Mark Pope is the guy the UK basketball program needed.
Kentucky Basketball Coverage:
- BOZICH | Tennessee's Rick Barnes terrific coach -- except in NCAA Tournament
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- Better eat your Wheaties? Kentucky's Amari Williams credits Weetabix instead for his big game
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