Kentucky signs Mark Pope to five-year deal to replace John Calipari as head coach

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Mark Pope replaces John Calipari, who left Kentucky this week to take over the head coaching job at Arkansas. (Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images)

Mark Pope is the new Kentucky men’s basketball coach, the school announced on Friday.

Pope, 51, signed a five-year contract to coach the Wildcats after spending the past five seasons at BYU.

“Mark Pope not only brings an impressive record in nine years as a head coach, but also a love of the University of Kentucky and a complete understanding of what our program means to the people of our state,” Barnhart said. “As a captain on the ‘96 championship team, Mark was a beloved and respected teammate. As a head coach, he is highly regarded nationally as an innovator. His teams run a unique and dynamic up-tempo offense and they get after it on defense. He is a strong recruiter with international ties and a person of integrity.

“He fully embraces our high expectations and standards and I know that as our fans get reacquainted with Mark, they will be eager to join him on what promises to be an exciting ride.”

According to CBS Sports’ Matt Norlander, Pope’s will earn $5.5 million per season, before incentives.

Pope played two seasons at Kentucky from 1994-96 under Rick Pitino, winning a national title in 1996, and now joins Joe B. Hall as the only coaches to go on to coach the men’s team after playing for the program. That’s a positive on Pope’s résumé as he takes over a blue blood.

His history as a coach, however, makes the hire quite a surprise.

Pope has worked as a head coach since 2015 at BYU and Utah Valley. With the Cougars, he has posted a 110-52 record in five seasons, with two NCAA tournament berths. His teams failed to win a game in both appearances, getting upset as a No. 6 seed in the first round of both.

Kentucky has only advanced out of the first round of the NCAA tournament once since 2019 after a run of dominance during John Calipari’s first 10 seasons in Lexington.

It was an interesting road to get to Pope for…

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Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/kentucky-signs-mark-pope-to-five-year-deal-to-replace-john-calipari-as-head-coach-143301633.html

Author : Yahoo Sports

Publish date : 2024-04-12 14:33:01

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