LEXINGTON, Ky. (WYMT/UK Athletics) – Kentucky introduced the newest men’s head basketball coach, Mark Pope, today to Big Blue Nation.

Check out the full news conference below:

UK announced Pope as the next head coach on Friday.

He was welcomed with thunderous applause as he and the 1996 national championship team exited the UK bus inside of Rupp Arena on Sunday for his introductory news conference.

“There are programs that don’t get this kind of crowd for five games. UK is here for a press conference, that is awesome. That is awesome,” said UK Athletic Director Mitch Barnhart.

Pope started the conference with an official address to Kentucky fans. One point that ran clear is that the expectation is championships and his goal is to get Kentucky back to that standard.

As a member of Kentucky’s 1996 national championship team, he has experience doing that firsthand.

He then took questions from the media while a sold out Rupp Arena listened.

Pope spent the past five seasons as the head coach at BYU, taking the Cougars to a pair of NCAA tournament appearances.

Pope was the head coach at Utah Valley before the Cougars.

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