LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — Before there were 20-win seasons at Utah Valley State and 20-win seasons at Brigham Young and social media rage about why he has never won an NCAA Tournament game, there was the week Mark Pope officially decided he no longer wanted to work shifts at New York Presbyterian Hospital because he wanted to coach basketball.
And, I know who wrote the first column about Mark Pope leaving medical school at Columbia University in New York City to chase his dream:
Me.
It was July 16, 2009. The column appeared on C1, the front page of The Courier-Journal sports section, tucked on the left side of the newspaper (ask your grandmother), next to stories about the British Open, KHSAA safety rules and Drew Stubbs of the Louisville Bats.
In other words, it was a slow news day. For me, in my previous life as a sports columnist there, that meant writing about college basketball because in this market you can write about college basketball 53 weeks a year.
Especially when the subject was a former University of Kentucky basketball captain, who walked away from his fourth year of classes from a prestigious Ivy League medical school that admitted about 6% of its male applicants to become the lowest man on the staff of a rebuilding, mid-level program in the Southeastern Conference — director of basketball operations at the University of Georgia.
BYU coach Mark Pope watches the team take on South Florida during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game Wednesday, Dec. 22, 2021, in Honolulu. (AP Photo/Marco Garcia)
Now, on the day before Pope will be officially introduced as the successor to John Calipari as the men’s head basketball coach at UK during a press conference in Rupp Arena at 4:30 p.m. Sunday, this is a perfect moment to reprise what Pope said a week into the move.
“I loved being with patients,” Pope said. “I absolutely loved it.”
What Pope did not love, he said, was the 16-hour study sessions and being away from the competitive joy of being part of a basketball team.
This was a guy who upgraded his college career by transferring from the University of Washington, sitting out an entire season (pre-current transfer and NIL rules) so he could play two seasons for Rick Pitino at Kentucky.
Pope started at center for Pitino’s best UK team, the one that took down Calipari and UMass and Jim Boeheim and Syracuse to win the 1996 NCAA title at the Meadowlands in New Jersey.
This was a guy who somehow bounced through parts of six seasons of professional basketball in the NBA and Europe, even though he was a 6' 9" power forward who made only 40% of his 2-point field goal attempts and 18% of his 3-point attempts.
According to BasketballReference.com, the Pacers, Bucks and Nuggets paid Pope around $4.4 million to score 285 points, while committing 242 fouls.
Med School, it is, fella.
Pope, remember, was nominated for a Rhodes Scholarship.
But in 2008, during his second year of studies, Pope called Pitino and told him that he was considering leaving med school to become a basketball coach. He had a wife (Lee Anne) and four daughters ages 8 and under.
“Mark said that he wanted to coach at the college level, but that he didn’t want to start at the bottom,” Pitino told me in the C-J column that I wrote on July 16, 2009.
“I told him that ‘I’d like to be President, too, but that’s not how it works.’ I told him that he really needed to be sure that coaching was his passion.”
Pope stayed in medical school for a third year. Then Mark Fox, a coach on the staff at Washington when Pope played for the Huskies, was hired from Nevada to coach Georgia. Pope had an offer to become the director of basketball operations there.
That was not a coaching position. That was an administrative position. Pope called Pitino, then the head coach at Louisville, one more time.
“I had this offer from the University of Georgia and I told coach that I thought I was going to do it,” Pope told me then.
“I told him that if coaching was truly in his heart that he should do it,” Pitino said.
Pope worked his final shift at New York Presbyterian on July 6, 2009. The next day he was in Athens, assisting Fox and his staff through the grind of summer recruiting.
“It was a tortuous decision but it was absolutely the right decision,” Pope told me. “It’s only been a week but it’s been totally awesome. I feel like this is what I was born to do.
“I loved medicine. It was unbelievably challenging and rewarding and really humbling. But I never fell in love with the research. I know I’m taking a huge risk but I like the idea of putting myself out there on the line.”
Pope’s risk has been rewarded. One season at Georgia in the operations job led to an assistant coaching opportunity at Wake Forest, which led to four seasons as an assistant to Dave Rose at BYU, which led to four seasons as the head coach at Utah Valley State, which led to five seasons as the head man at BYU, which led to the celebration at Rupp Arena on Sunday.
Mark Pope, a 15-year overnight sensation.
Pope always considered himself a gym rat, as well as a consummate student of the game. That’s how he made it as a player. That’s how he intended to make it as a coach.
What Mark Pope told me in July 2009 about his career change still fits as he prepares to take over the massive job at his alma mater.
“I think (being a grinder) helps me as a coach,” Pope said.
“Some guys here will look at me and say, ‘You played in the NBA? How?’
“I was a crummy player. I found all kinds of ways to compete and contribute.
“That’s one place where I can be effective, communicating to players there are so many other things besides talent that will determine you success.”
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