Kentucky basketball head coach Mark Pope spoke to the media Tuesday to talk about not just the state of the team as it heads into the summer, but also about his predecessor in John Calipari. Pope would speak highly of the former Wildcats head coach during his press conference expressing that he “gave his heart and soul” to the Kentucky basketball program.
“Cal is one of the great coaches to ever coach here,” Pope said. “He went to four Final Fours in five years, coached a billion draft picks, and represented Kentucky really, really well. Gave his heart and soul to this place. As BBN, and I’m just as much a member of BBN as anybody, all of us will be grateful to him forever. He’s a Hall of Fame coach.”
“One of the things that you learn really early on if you have great mentors in this game is you just have to coach you,” Pope continued on Calipari. “I have to be me, I can’t be coach Pitino, I can’t be Tubby, I can’t be Cal. It would be disingenuous and my guys wouldn’t actually believe it if I tried to take on that persona or personality. We’re us. I love getting to coach me.”
Pope talks building the Kentucky basketball roster after Calipari
It was a bittersweet finale to Calipari's coaching career with the Wildcats as his 15-year stint with the program came to end in the Round of 64 in the national tournament in upset fashion against Oakland. However, it still should not take away from the fact that Calipari led the program to a national title in 2012, four Final Four appearances, and six conference championships.
Calipari would eventually take the head coaching job at Arkansas which led to Pope leaving BYU to take the reins of the Wildcats. Basically rebuilding the roster from scratch, he said his goal is to “build on this incredible legacy that is Kentucky basketball” which is no doubt in part to Calipari's stint.
“I’m a big believer in what we do and our staff,” Pope said. “So I think right now, we’re just trying to do everything we can to build on this incredible legacy that is Kentucky basketball and do it the way that we know how to do it that we really believe is gonna work. Cal has been super generous. I’ve had a chance to speak with him multiple times. He’s always been generous throughout my whole career.
“But as you step into this job, this is the only one of its kind,” Pope continued. “We’ve gotta go do this the best way we can and it’s us. Certainly I’ve been huge fans of these coaches and the coaches who coached me, so I steal stuff from every single one of those coaches, but we’re trying to do us.”
In any sense, the Wildcats are looking to improve off of a 23-10 record, 13-5 in conference play where they lost in the first round of both the SEC conference tournament and March Madness.
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