Citing the desire to fill his vacant head coaching position with someone who possessed “a complete understanding of what our program means to the people of our state,” Kentucky Athletics Director Mitch Barnhart formally announced the hiring of Mark Pope on Friday morning.

Pope, who played for the Wildcats from 1994-96 and was captain of UK’s 1996 national championship squad, returns to Lexington after spending the last five years as head coach at BYU.

“The University of Kentucky is the pinnacle of coaching in college basketball. It’s the definition of a blueblood program where hanging a banner is the expectation every year,” Pope said in a statement released by UK. He is expected to be formally introduced to Big Blue Nation during a public press conference on Sunday at Rupp Arena.

“UK changed my life forever as a human being,” Pope continued. “The love and passion I have for this program, this University, and the people of the Commonwealth goes to the depth of my soul. I’m thankful to Dr. (Eli) Capilouto and Mitch Barnhart for this opportunity. I’m proud to be your next head coach, and I can’t wait to do this together.”

The 51-year-old Nebraska native is the 23rd head coach in program history and will succeed John Calipari, who stepped down earlier this week to take the same position at Arkansas after leading the Cats for 15 seasons.

“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 in a statement released by UK.

“He fully embraces our high expectations and standards.”

Pope has a 187-108 career record as a head coach at Utah Valley and BYU. His squads have won 20 or more games in six of the last seven seasons, including a 23-11 mark in 2024 as the Cougars earned a 6-seed in the NCAA Tournament.

Although BYU was upset by 11-seed Duquesne in the first round of the tourney, the Cougars had several memorable wins during the course of the season, including San Diego State (who reached the national championshp game a year earlier), NC State (who reached this year’s Final Four), Texas, No. 11 Baylor, No. 24 Iowa State, and No. 7 Kansas (on the road at Allen Fieldhouse).

Three of Pope’s five BYU teams ranked in the Top 20 of the Ken Pomeroy efficiency rankings.

“He is highly regarded nationally as an innovator,” Barnhart said. “His teams run a unique and dynamic up-tempo offense, and they get after it on defense.”

The Cougars ranked No. 14 in KenPom’s offensive efficiency ratings and scored 41% of their points from the 3-point arc using Pope’s “5 out” offensive system. They led the Big 12 in scoring at 81.4 points per game, ranked third in the country in made 3-pointers per game at 11.1, and were Top 10 in both assists and assists-to-turnover ratio.

Pope averaged 7.9 points and 5.7 rebounds in 69 career games at Kentucky after transferring from Washington. He helped win the 1995 and 1996 SEC regular season championships, the 1995 SEC Tournament title, and the 1996 NCAA Tournament title under head coach Rick Pitino, who offered a ringing endorsement of his former player via social media on Friday. (See below)

Pope was drafted by the Indiana Paces in the second round of the 1996 NBA Draft and played professional basketball from 1997-2005. He helped the Milwaukee Bucks reach the Eastern Conference Finals during the 2000-01 season.

After his playing days, Pope enrolled in medical school at Columbia University and completed two years before returning to basketball. He joined Mark Fox’s staff at Georgia in 2009. He then spent one season as an assistant coach for Jeff Bzdelik at Wake Forest and four seasons at BYU under Dave Rose.

Pope and his wife, Lee Anne, have four daughters, Ella, Avery Layla and Shay. He is a 1996 graduate of Kentucky with a degree in English.

POPE HEAD COACHING CAREER:

Season School Overall Conference, Place Postseason

2015-16 Utah Valley 12-18 6-8, 5th

2016-17 Utah Valley 17-17 6-8, 5th College Basketball Invitational

2017-18 Utah Valley 23-11 10-4, 2nd College Basketball Invitational

2018-19 Utah Valley 25-10 12-4, 2nd College Basketball Invitational

2019-20 BYU 24-8 13-3, 2nd postseason canceled

2020-21 BYU 20-7 10-3, 2nd NCAA Tournament

2021-22 BYU 24-11 9-6, 5th National Invitation Tournament

2022-23 BYU 19-15 7-9, 5th

2023-24 BYU 23-11 10-8, 5th NCAA Tournament