No one would have blamed Mark Pope for tempering expectations when he walked off that bus and marched up to the podium on that fever dream of a Sunday afternoon inside Rupp Arena. I mean, the guy hadn’t won a single postseason game in nine years as a DI head coach, one season at the high-major level — and that was only because BYU moved from the WCC to the Big 12 in his final year in Provo. Everyone kind of embraced a process when he took the job, believing in the long-term vision even if it meant a rebuild in the short term.
And then Pope lit that idea on fire in a matter of minutes.
“Our assignment is to go win banners in the Final Four, win national championships,” he said in front of a sold-out Rupp Arena crowd. “That’s our job.”
He’s responded by building a competitive roster in seven weeks, one loaded with talent, experience and depth. It’s a group you don’t have to pray to the basketball gods becomes something it doesn’t appear to be on paper. The pieces are there.
As you can probably imagine, Pope’s confidence hasn’t wavered — certainly not now. He’s passed his early tests with flying colors, and now, 60 days after his press conference, he wants fans to continue dreaming big right away. Not next year or a few down the road, this one.
“If you know Kentucky, you don’t really have an option. This is Kentucky basketball. You can try and go out there and moderate expectations, but that’s not going to be accepted by anybody,” Pope said in a sitdown with WDRB’s Tyler Greever. “If you want to moderate expectations, don’t take the job at the University of Kentucky. There’s one thing that’s expected here and there’s one thing that will seal your tenure as a coach here and as a player here. That expectation is to go win a championship.”
It’s not blind optimism, either. He’d be lying if he told you he wasn’t nervous to reach those otherworldly heights and win big immediately. We all know actions speak louder than words.
But if he didn’t feel he was capable of hitting those goals and maintaining the standard of championships in Lexington, why take the job to begin with? That’s why he refuses to back away and embraces the challenge.
“It’s terrifying, for sure. And it’s daunting and it’s humbling because you understand how hard it is. I’m not naive to understanding — that’s why no coach at any other program in the country is going to come say the things at their introductory press conference that I said here at the University of Kentucky, because it’s that hard,” Pope said. “It is nearly impossible, but this is the one program in all of college basketball where nothing less is acceptable. I want it. I want that challenge. Call me crazy, but I want it.”
It’s the reason he took the job. It’s also the reason he built a roster with likeminded personalities hoping to turn those same dreams into a reality.
“That’s why we want to be here. Our guys want it, our guys want to be here and have those expectations. That’s part of the defining feature of somebody that is going to be qualified to come here and do this,” he said. “There’s no reason to posture for anything less. If you want to posture for, like, ‘Hey, we’re gonna build this and we’re gonna go step by step, and we’re gonna celebrate a Final Four,’ then go to any other school in the country.
“You can’t do that here at Kentucky.”
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