Mark Pope adds former Syracuse star Jason Hart to Kentucky basketball staff

Posted by Admin April 22, 2024 Basketball

LEXINGTON — New Kentucky basketball coach Mark Pope tabbed a former college star for a spot on his staff Monday.

Jason Hart, one of the greatest players in Syracuse‘s proud history, is the newest coach on Pope’s first-year staff at UK.

“Jason Hart is everything as a coach that he was as a player,” Pope said in a news release announcing the hire. “He has boundless energy. He’s fearless. He is stubborn. But he has endless joy and love for this game and our players.”

It was the second assistant coaching hire Pope and the Wildcats revealed on Monday, occurring less than a half hour after UK announced Cody Fueger had joined the program.

Hart spent the past three seasons as the head coach of the NBA’s G League Ignite squad.

Prior to his stint with Ignite, Hart was an assistant at Southern Cal for eight seasons (2013-21) under then-coach Andy Enfield. Hart joined the Trojans as an assistant in April 2013 and received a promotion to associate head coach during the 2017-18 campaign. He was an assistant coach at Pepperdine during the 2012-13 season, following a one-year tenure (2011-12) as the head coach at Taft Charter High School in Woodland Hills, California, just outside Los Angeles. In his lone season at Taft, he led the school to a 29-4 record (10-0 in league play) and the Los Angeles City Section Division I title. For those efforts, Hart won the L.A. City Coach of the Year award.

“I’ve played and coached at every level of basketball and there is not a more passionate fan base than this one,” Hart said of Kentucky. “I will give every ounce of energy to our players and this program, and I can’t wait to get started.”

A Los Angeles native, Hart went into coaching after a 10-year professional career, which included nine seasons in the NBA. The Milwaukee Bucks selected Hart in the second round with the 49th overall pick of the 2000 NBA Draft. Hart finished his NBA career with averages of 4.8 points, 2.3 assists and 15.5 minutes per game in 341 appearances. He was part of four playoff teams: San Antonio (2004), Sacramento (2006), Utah (2008) and Denver (2009). Hart’s best season came with the Charlotte Bobcats in 2004-05, when he set personal bests in points (9.5) and assists (5.0) per game.

Hart entered the NBA after one of the best careers in Syracuse basketball history.

By the time he left the Orange in 2000, the four-year starter at point guard had set the school’s career mark for steals (329) and ranked second in assists (709). His 101 steals during the 1998-99 campaign set a single-season school record, tied by James Thues in 2001-02. (Michael Carter-Williams broke the shared record with 111 swipes in 2012-13.) In Hart’s four seasons at Syracuse, the team went to three NCAA Tournaments (two Sweet 16 appearances) and an NIT.

In the middle of his senior season, during which he was an All-Big East first-team performer, Hart earned a spot on Syracuse’s All-Century Team, which recognized the top 25 players in program history. In 2011, he received the Vic Hanson Medal of Excellence, awarded by the Syracuse University Hardwood Club to those with ties to the men’s basketball program who have made outstanding contributions to college basketball.

“He has all of the grit that you’d expect from a big-time Syracuse point guard, and he earned everything he got in his decade-long NBA career through pure blood, sweat and tears,” Pope said. “Jason is going to win over Kentucky players and Kentucky fans in about 10 seconds.”

Reach Kentucky men’s basketball and football reporter Ryan Black at rblack@gannett.com and follow him on X at @RyanABlack.