Kentucky Working Towards Hiring BYU's Mark Pope, Which Will Surely Be A Letdown For Fans At First: Report

Kentucky's search to replace John Calipari has seen a few hiccups along the way, but the Wildcats are reportedly looking to finalize a deal with BYU head coach Mark Pope. 

According to Pete Thamel, athletic director Mitch Barnhart and the former national title winning player for the Wildcats are close to finalizing a deal. A deal with Mark Pope is expected to ‘come together in the near future’. 

This move would certainly bring a lot of questions from Kentucky fans, who have been hellbent on bringing in a coach like Dan Hurley, Billy Donovan or Baylor head coach Scott Drew. Unfortunately for fans, both Scott Drew and Dan Hurley turned down the Wildcats job on Thursday, and there were discussions about whether Donavan would be ready to come back to the college game. 

To make matters more complicated for Kentucky, it's being reported that the school did not eagerly pursue Billy Donovan during this process  But, no matter what type of hurdles Mitch Barnhart had to go through, coming up with Mark Pope as the new head coach is rightfully going to be looked upon as a massive step down.

Pope coached at Utah Valley before taking the BYU job. After accepting the position at BYU in 2019, Pope has a record of 110-52 over the past five seasons. He has gone to the NCAA Tournament twice during his time in Provo, losing to 11-seed Duquesne just last month. 

According to people with knowledge of the situation, athletic director Mitch Barnhart first made contact with Mark Pope earlier in the week about the opening. Even though Kentucky tried to hire Scott Drew and Dan Hurley, while Nate Oats took his name out before the search truly started, Barnhart continued to speak with Pope while others made their decisions. 

Pope played for Kentucky and was part of the 1996 national championship team. 

But what does this hire say about the current state of Wildcats basketball? 

PROVO, UT - FEBRUARY 13: Head coach Mark Pope of the Brigham Young Cougars reacts during the first half against the University of Central Florida Knights at the Marriott Center on February 13, 2024 in Provo, Utah. (Photo by Chris Gardner/Getty Images)

This Hire Will Not Sit Well With Kentucky Fans, Reactions Coming In

As i'm sure you have seen over the past 72 hours, Kentucky fans have been very vocal about needing to hire someone with the pedigree of replacing John Calipari. This is also what happens during a coaching search, where some of the names mentioned were never going to take the job, or the situation wasn't right. 

But getting to a point where you go from having national title wining coaches on the list of candidates, and then potentially hiring a former player who has proven he can coach, but still does not feel as if it's enough. Did Kentucky officials decide that Pope fits better than Shaka Smart, Bruce Pearl, Kelvin Sampson. I'm not implying these coaches were offered the job, or even contacted, but this hiring of Pope feels like they are settling. 

"It's gonna be hard to get fired up about Mark Pope. I don't understand out of all the candidates we could've interviewed, Mitch Barnhard decided to move so fast to lock up Mark Pope," one Kentucky fan said during a twitter space. 

Who knows, maybe Mark Pope will do fantastic things in Lexington, if this is actually the final move. But to the fans and donors who just lost a high-profile coach to an SEC foe, this might feel like a kick to the stomach. 

Time will tell, but Kentucky fans have the right to feel skeptical tonight.