LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) – It’s a bold strategy, Cotton, let’s see if it pays off for him.
Fire up the Keurig. We have more late-night University of Kentucky basketball news. Unconfirmed, but reported by Pete Thamel and many others of like credibility -- that is to say, a lot -- Kentucky athletic director Mitch Barnhart, who successfully presided over the departure of John Calipari, appears poised to replace him with Brigham Young coach Mark Pope.
Mark Pope, ladies and gentlemen. Mark. Pope. Former Wildcat captain. National champion. No. 41 in your scorebook but No. 6 or 7 (?) on your head coaching wish list.
I’ve been saying this for a while, and I must be consistent here. Don’t get hung up on name. And don’t get hung up, necessarily, on record. College basketball is a different world, and these “trophy coaches” aren’t worth as much as they used to be. A young coach with a good working knowledge of the game and an intelligent approach can be worth more than five old guys who still think practice facilities matter.
Mark Pope, a 51-year-old native of Omaha, Neb., who played for Rick Pitino’s 1996 NCAA championship team, is a really good man and stands a good chance of being successful given Kentucky’s resources and his passion for the school. I mean, everybody drives faster when they get behind the wheel of a Lamborghini, right?
But let’s be honest. Kentucky basketball is a lot of car for a guy with only nine years of experience behind a head-coaching wheel.
It must be said, Barnhart has replaced a Hall of Fame coach with more NCAA Tournament victories than any active coach in the game with a coach whose next NCAA Tournament win will be his first.
And they said the man doesn’t gamble. This is as high stakes a roll of the dice as an athletic director in Barnhart’s position can make -- far bigger than replacing Tubby Smith with Billy Gillispie.
I’m just going to be straight with you people, I again find myself slow-walking a column thinking that this deal will not materialize. That somebody got a source garbled in translation. That some brakes might be tapped. We’ve been talking about Barnhart approaching Scott Drew or Dan Hurley or Billy Donovan.
The straight line from Scott Drew saying no to Mark Pope saying yes is going to be a tough bridge to gap for many Kentucky fans. Frankly, you don’t let Calipari go unless you have something with Drew already worked out, if he was your top choice.
BYU head coach Mark Pope looks on during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game against Saint Mary's in the semifinals of the West Coast Conference men's tournament Monday, March 6, 2023, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/David Becker)
I get the frustration from some fans. Since the first NCAA Tournament in 1933, the only time Kentucky has hired a coach without a tournament head coaching win was Joe B. Hall, who was Adolph Rupp’s right-hand man and therefore continued the line of apostolic succession.
It's just a matter of pride, I’m afraid. Even when Kentucky basketball wasn’t Kentucky basketball, it still hired with ambition. Sure, it plucked Adolph Rupp out of the high school ranks, but Rupp had played for Phog Allen, who had played for James Nasimith, who invented the bleeping game. Naismith was an assistant at Kansas when Rupp played there, and Rupp, a reserve on the team at KU, got to know the game’s inventor quite well as a college player.
But enough about the past. If you’re a Kentucky fan, swallow your pride for a moment. Pope is a hire in Barnhart’s image. He’s a straight shooter, imminently likeable, and a hard-worker. Could he be like Oats, coming out of Buffalo to do big things? Like Hurley, from Rhode Island to hottest name in the game? Sure.
He will win the press conference. He will play a modern brand of basketball. He will build a team, not just a roster of future pros. His aim will be to build a championship team, not an NBA factory resume. He will put his head down and work.
Many fans who are angry today will find his approach refreshing and will find themselves excited in spite of their pride.
I already went through this with the situation at Louisville. Fans were angry, then ecstatic. It’s different, though, for us old folks. I was there at Louisville when a new coach got off the plane and news helicopters were swirling overhead while his motorcade made it to a packed convention center. Some of us have seen some stuff. It's harder to impress us.
And UK isn’t replacing a failed alum. It’s replacing a Hall of Famer.
UK fans have seen some things. Don’t expect a press conference to erase that, even a press conference that Pope wins. I remember a family vacation to Walt Disney World when I was a kid. On the way home, my parents took us to Rock City. They had fond memories of the place, but after seeing all the Disney pyrotechnics and animatronics, Rock City looked pretty tame to us kids.
Basketball fans around here are not going to be too impressed by Rock City.
But they are impressed with teams that play really hard. By players who play together. By coaches who are creative and intelligent. And Pope can accomplish those things. If he can get along with the NIL donors and work with the collective and get the players he wants, his ability to actually coach should make him effective.
Still, this was not a safe hire by Barnhart. It is a risk. The SEC is more of a basketball minefield than it used to be. Rick Barnes, Nate Oats, Bruce Pearl, Chris Beard, Buzz Williams, Lamont Paris, oh, and John Calipari. It’s a shark tank.
And the Louisville rivalry? Pat Kelsey vs. Mark Pope? It’ll be like watching two puppies wrestle at the dog park.
For Barnhart, this was either the hire of a lifetime or the last hire of a lifetime. He knows that. Nobody knows how this will go.
But we do know that Kentucky basketball will get some fresh ideas and a shot of energy. And if nothing else, some good, old-fashioned gambling does make things more interesting.
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