John Fanta
Faculty Basketball Broadcaster and Reporter
One in every of Kentucky’s personal is returning to Lexington in an unlikely rent to switch John Calipari.
BYU head coach Mark Pope, part of Rick Pitino’s nationwide championship crew at Kentucky in 1996, is leaving Provo, Utah, to switch Calipari because the chief of the Wildcats program, a number of sources informed FOX Sports activities.
A deal has not been formally signed but, however the Wildcats and Pope are within the technique of finalizing a deal as Kentucky athletic director Mitch Barnhart has pegged Pope as the person to take over.
The 51-year-old Pope has spent 9 seasons as a school head coach, the final 5 of which have come at Brigham Younger, the place he’s led the Cougars to 2 NCAA Tournaments within the final 4 seasons. After spending seven seasons within the NBA as a participant with the Pacers, Bucks, Knicks and Nuggets, Pope obtained his begin in teaching as an assistant at Georgia from 2009-10 earlier than heading to Wake Forest, then serving as an assistant below Dave Rose at BYU from 2011-15.
Pope obtained his first head-coaching job in 2015 at Utah Valley, going 77-56 over 4 seasons earlier than taking on for Rose in 2019.
A captain on Kentucky’s 1995-96 nationwide title crew, Pope was considered one of 9 future NBA gamers on the 34-2 squad that featured Tony Delk, Antoine Walker and Walter McCarty.
Pitino known as Pope one of many hardest staff he’s ever coached, telling FOX Sports activities he “loves his former captain, a Kentucky nice” earlier on Thursday night time.
After Scott Drew and Dan Hurley got here out publicly and declined Kentucky’s profitable gives earlier on Thursday, it intensified the urgency of a search that appeared to have loads of unanswered questions getting into the night. Relatively than going deeper with Chicago Bulls head coach and former Kentucky assistant Billy Donovan, Barnhart goes the route of bringing again an alum to the college that ought to enable Barnhart to have extra of a say in how this system is run, actually extra so than what was in place with Calipari, who was launched because the Arkansas head coach on Wednesday.
Nonetheless, by way of teaching credentials, Pope has by no means gained an NCAA Match sport and is comparatively unproven in March in comparison with others who have been concerned within the search. He’ll have the highlight and expectations firmly on him now as he returns to his alma mater.
John Fanta is a nationwide faculty basketball broadcaster and author for FOX Sports activities. He covers the game in a wide range of capacities, from calling video games on FS1 to serving as lead host on the BIG EAST Digital Community to offering commentary on The Subject of 68 Media Community. Comply with him on Twitter @John_Fanta.
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