John Calipari is a Razorback and Mark Pope is a Wildcat
In his fifteen seasons as the head coach at Kentucky John Calipari he only missed the tournament twice. While the last four seasons have not been up to Kentucky’s standards, which has resulted in some frustration from the Kentucky fanbase. However, to even consider getting rid of a coach that helped their program get to 3 final fours, win the SEC regular season title 6 times, and win the conference tournament 6 times as well is absolutely ridiculous. No reports come out to suggest that Kentucky’s program had any ill will toward Calipari or wanted him to leave in any capacity, but Calipari had to hear all the anger in the Wildcats fanbase. That kind of pressure from a fan base is going to take a toll on any coach and it had to affect his decision in some way. Kentucky’s fans got too spoiled to appreciate what a fantastic job Calipari has done. On the other hand, Arkansas got an absolute slam dunk of a hire. This first year could be rough for Calipari because there are quite literally zero players on the active roster. If any coach can make a roster solely based on recruiting in one off season it might be John Calipari. He has proven over and over he can win at the highest level while also preparing players for the next level. Kentucky currently has by far the most players in the NBA and that was all the recruiting and development of Calipari. Arkansas might have a couple of mediocre years before Calipari settles in but in the next five seasons Razorbacks will be competing at the highest level.
The replacement for arguably the best coach over the last 15 years is a coach that has never won a tournament game. After being turned down by the likes of Scott Drew and Dan Hurley Kentucky had to turn to Mark Pope. He is a good coach and is a great fit for the Kentucky program but to have to fill the shoes of such a legendary coach is going to be hard for anyone let alone someone with no tournament success. While it has resulted in no success on the biggest stage but at Utah Valley took a program that won just 11 games before he took over and by year three, they won 23 games. After year four at Utah Valley when they won 25 games Pope moved on to BYU. With the cougars Pope won at least 19 games in every season with his best season coming last season where he helped BYU to a six seed in the tournament. Winning at BYU has been historically very tough to do consistently. A few coaches have been able to get to the tournament pretty consistently, but the Cougars only have one elite eight and no final fours in their history. So, putting all the blame on Mark Pope is crazy. His roster was talented in some ways, but it did not feature any highly rated recruits. The only two top 100 recruits were Jaxon Robinson who transferred to BYU and Marcus Adams who only appeared in one game. Pope took a roster off less talented players in the best conference in basketball and made the tournament as a six seed based mostly on his system and his player executing that system. Once he is given the NIL money and recruiting power of one of a blue blood it is going to be fun to see what Pope can do. While this hire is not a slam dunk Pope is a guy who already loves Kentucky and can be a great coach. Kentucky fans should be excited for the future of this program with Mark Pope at the helm.
