There are always great expectations with the University of Kentucky basketball team. This season, however, will be a little different. For the first time in over 50 years, the Wildcats hired a coach without an NCAA tournament victory. Mark Pope is in charge after leaving BYU to return to his alma mater, where he won the 1996 National Championship.
Pope is bringing new energy to a blueblood program that hasn’t had much postseason success in recent years under John Calipari. How long will Pope’s honeymoon with the demanding Kentucky fans last? We recently caught up with Mark Story, the longtime Lexington Herald-Leader sports columnist, to learn more about Pope’s Wildcats.
Kentucky plays its season-opener Monday night at home against Wright State. The game is available on ESPNU.
Note: This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.
Awful Announcing: What are reasonable expectations for this Kentucky team?
Mark Story: “I think it’s realistic to establish the style of play, to try to win a fair number of rivalry games, and to win some postseason tournament games. Kentucky has not been out of the first weekend of the NCAA tournament since 2019. Kentucky has not won the SEC tournament since 2018. Kentucky’s 1-4 in the SEC tournament in the last four years. So, just be better than they’ve been in recent years is what I would regard as the realistic expectation.”
Will fans be patient?
“They will if they think progress is being made. Recruiting is important in that. That was maybe the biggest question about Mark Pope when he was hired because he had not recruited at the level that Kentucky traditionally recruits. He’s off to a good start. He’s fortunate that there were two high-level players (Malachi Moreno and Jasper Johnson) from the state of Kentucky that he’s already been able to get. That’s important in terms of keeping the fans on board.
“There’s a big yearning to see Kentucky play a more modern style, meaning an analytics-driven Golden State Warriors-style three-point shooting attack, and I think Mark Pope brings that. If the recruiting continues to be solid and people see an exciting style of play on the court, they’ll be patient.”
How is this team built differently than Calipari’s Kentucky teams?
“It’s totally different There’s not anybody expected to be a one-and-done freshman. It’s a veteran-laden team built out of the transfer portal by necessity. When Mark Pope got this job, he eventually wound up with no returning scholarship players, so he had to go to the portal and rebuild his team. It’s almost certainly the most experienced team in terms of metrics like career games started that Kentucky’s ever had. The qualifier is that none of these guys have played together at Kentucky. It’s a polar opposite to how people had come to think of Kentucky during the Calipari years.”
What will be the Wildcats’ style of play?
“They shot 42 three-pointers against Kentucky Wesleyan (in a 123-52 exhibition game victory). I’m a bit of an insomniac, so I stay up late. I watched a lot of BYU. They shoot the three. There’s not a lot of dribble driving, but there’s a lot of back-cutting and ball movement. I said earlier, I think there’s a big yearning to see UK play a modern style driven by analytics: a lot of three-pointers and a lot of shots at the rim.”
As of right now, who is Kentucky’s best player?
“Jaxson Robinson, who came with Mark Pope from BYU and was the Big 12 Sixth Man of the Year last year, is probably expected to be the best player. He’s a 6-foot-7 wing. He can really shoot it. He is the one player on the team who has played in Mark Pope’s system before, so he has an important role in helping the other guys learn. He’s long so I think he’ll be an effective defender. I anticipate him being Kentucky’s leading scorer.”
Calipari routinely brought in blue-chip recruits. Will Pope have an impact freshman?
“Well, there are only three freshmen, and probably the one with the best chance to make an immediate impact is Collin Chandler, who was highly recruited out of high school. He’s from Utah and had signed with Pope at BYU, but he went on a two-year mission and came with Pope to Kentucky. He’s got a lot of bounce to his game.”
Being a Kentucky player is different from being a Kentucky coach. Does Pope fully grasp what he’s getting into?
“I think he does. He was here three years in college so I think he knows this program. I think he can communicate with the fans. He understands the expectations. He understands the tradition and the history, and knows how the fans look at things and view things, and I think that’s a strength he brings to this job.”
🎥 Highlights: Kentucky 98, Minnesota St. 67
— Kentucky Men’s Basketball (@KentuckyMBB) October 30, 2024
Jaxson Robinson – 24 PTS (8-12 3 FG) | 6 REB | 3 AST
Otega Oweh – 15 PTS (7-8 FG) | 6 AST | 3 STL
Andrew Carr – 14 PTS (5-7 FG) | 3 REB | 3 AST
Brandon Garrison – 12 PTS (6-9 FG) | 4 REB pic.twitter.com/gDBH6mG80C
For years the Louisville vs. Kentucky game was Rick Pitino vs. Calipari. What are your thoughts on the Dec. 14 game?Â
“This is a different situation. You have two coaches, neither of whom has ever won an NCAA tournament game. I’m looking forward to it. I think that from what I know, and obviously I know more about Pope than I do Pat Kelsey, but I think they play similar styles. I think we could have 80 three-point attempts in the Kentucky-Louisville game. I think it’ll be exciting. Both programs are sort of starting over, and that resets the rivalry too.”
What kind of reception will Calipari get when he returns to Rupp Arena on Feb. 1 as Arkansas’ coach?
“I think it will mostly be positive. I think most people in Rupp Arena will cheer him and cheer the former Kentucky players. I understand people were upset with the way things finished at Kentucky. The last four years in particular were not up to the Kentucky standard. A lot of the fans were ready for a change. Calipari, the early part of his coaching tenure was tremendously successful for Kentucky. He did an awful lot for our state off the court, especially in terms of raising money during times of weather disasters, be it tornadoes or flooding. John Calipari did a lot to help people out when they were in tough situations. For all those reasons, I think you’ll get a respectful reception when he returns to Rupp Arena.”
Do you have a prediction on how this season will end?
“I think they’ll make it to the second weekend of the NCAA tournament. I think the roster is well-constructed. I think he put together a team that the parts, on paper, fit. We’ll have to see that in action. I’m pretty bullish on this team. There may not be a lot of high-level NBA talent like Kentucky has recently traditionally had. But I think there are a lot of really good, experienced college players. I think that can take you a pretty good ways.”
Do you have any fun stories of how crazy Kentucky fans can be?
“One year I got to thinking about the experience of being a fan and what defines that. What kind of lucky charms and things do fans do to try to influence the outcome? So I ran a prompt, ‘Tell me what you do to help Kentucky win.’ I got amazing responses. One woman had dropped something underneath her coffee table during a game and she was down there trying to get it out. Kentucky was way behind, rallied, and won. So for the rest of her life, anytime Kentucky was in trouble, she got under the coffee table.
“There was another woman who during the 1998 NCAA tournament, Kentucky was playing Duke and they were down 17 points with less than 10 minutes to go (in the Elite Eight). She got disgusted and did her laundry. Well, you know what happened. Kentucky won. So the next game they’re down to Stanford in the Final Four. She goes to the laundry and sure enough, they come back. In the national championship game, she and her husband watch at another couple’s house. Kentucky again is down double digits (to Utah). She turns to this woman and goes, ‘This is going to sound a little funny, but do you have any laundry here I could do?’ She does this family’s laundry and Kentucky wins. There were all kinds of stories like that.”
