Mark Pope won his first 11 home games as Kentucky basketball coach. Where does that rank?

Posted by author January 24, 2025 Basketball

LEXINGTON — Normally jovial and verbose during postgame news conferences, Kentucky basketball coach Mark Pope struck a different tone after last week’s game against Alabama at Rupp Arena.

No wonder: The Crimson Tide won, 102-97. It marked Pope’s first home loss following an 11-0 start.

“Losing is the worst,” Pope said.

But he’s far from the worst when it comes to best starts at home for first-year UK coaches.

Here’s a look at the best beginnings for rookie Wildcats coaches, dating back more than a century:

John Calipari: 54 wins before first loss (Home venue: Rupp Arena; first loss: Baylor won, 64-55, on Dec. 1, 2012)
*Eddie Sutton: 20 (Home venue: Rupp Arena; first loss: Alabama won, 69-55, on Jan. 7, 1987)
Rupp: 19 (Home venue: Alumni Gymnasium; first loss: Vanderbilt won, 32-31, on Feb. 20, 1932)
Alpha Brumage: 12 (Home venues: Buell Armory Gymnasium and Woodland Auditorium; first loss: Vanderbilt won, 39-34, on Feb. 12, 1915; Of note: Brumage went 15-1 in home games in two seasons as coach in 1913-14 and 1914-15; He won all four contests he coached at Buell Armory and was 11-1 at Woodland Auditorium)
Pope: 11
Stanley A. Boles: 5 (Home venue: State College Gymnasium; first loss: Never; Boles went 5-0 in home games in his lone season as coach in 1917-18)
Rick Pitino: 5 (Home venue: Rupp Arena; first loss: Southwestern Louisiana won, 116-1113 in overtime, on Dec. 23, 1989)
Tubby Smith: 4 (Home venue: Rupp Arena; first loss: Louisville won, 79-76, on Dec. 27, 1997)
**George Buchheit: 2 (first loss: Tennessee won, 29-24, on Feb. 5, 1920)
William P. Tuttle: 2 (Home venues: State College Gymnasium and Buell Armory Gymnasium; first loss: Tennessee won, 23-20, on Feb. 9, 1917)
Clarence Applegran: 1 (Home venue: Alumni Gymnasium; first loss: Indiana won, 20-18, on Dec. 18, 1924)
Andrew Gill: 1 (Home venue: Buell Armory Gymnasium; first loss: Georgetown College won, 32-30, on Jan. 18, 1919)
Billy Gillispie: 1 (Home venue: Rupp Arena; first loss: Gardner Webb won, 84-68, on Nov. 7, 2007)
John Mauer: 1 (Home venue: Alumni Gymnasium; first loss: Miami of Ohio won, 36-31, on Dec. 20, 1927)
James Park: 1 (Home venue: Woodland Auditorium; first loss: Vanderbilt won, 39-25, on Feb. 4, 1916)
Edwin Sweetland/Robert Spahr: 1 (Home venue: Buell Armory Gymnasium; first loss: DePauw won, 24-11, on Jan. 24, 1910; Of note: Sweetland and Spahr co-coached the team in 1909-10; they were the first pair of official coaches the university ever had, as team managers various team managers served in the role without holding the title beginning with the inaugural squad in 1903)
Ray Eklund: 0 (Home venue: Alumni Gymnasium; first loss: DePauw won, 38-29, on Dec. 19, 1925)
Joe B. Hall: 0 (Home venue: Rupp Arena; first loss: Iowa won, 79-66, on Dec. 4, 1972)
Basil Hayden: 0 (Home venue: Alumni Gymnasium; first loss: Cincinnati won, 48-10, on Dec. 18, 1926)
Harold J. Iddings: 0 (Home venue: Buell Armory Gymnasium; first loss: Lexington High won, 36-29, on Jan. 13, 1911)
John Tigert: 0 (Home venue: Buell Armory Gymnasium; first loss: Lexington YMCA won, 27-25, on Jan. 24, 1913)

*Sutton’s win streak does not include three victories at Rupp Arena en route to capturing the 1986 SEC Tournament title. Though the event was held in Lexington, the tournament is considered a neutral site regardless of location.

**UK played its first three home games in the 1919-20 season at three different venues: Lexington Senior High Gymnasium, State College Gymnasium and Buell Armory Gymnasium. Kentucky won at Lexington Senior High and State College but dropped its first home contest at Buell Armory.

Here are other tidbits about the Wildcats, where this week, we’ll look at the past, present and future of Kentucky basketball.

With a week between Alabama and Vanderbilt games, Kentucky’s coaching staff used the extra time to hit the recruiting trail.

Pope checked in with 2025 signee Acaden Lewis on Sunday. Lewis, a four-star combo guard, was competing at the Hoophall Classic event, held at Springfield College in Springfield, Massachusetts, home of the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame.

Two days later, two more UK staffers visited Lewis: associate head coach Alvin Brooks III and assistant Jason Hart traveled to Washington, D.C.

UK had hoped to add another member to its 2025 class Friday.

Consensus five-star power forward Caleb Wilson was scheduled to make his announcement live on TNT following the game between the Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Lakers, slated to start at 10 p.m. But early Friday, Wilson committed to North Carolina; UK was his only other finalist. He announced his commitment to the Wildcats at 1:22 a.m. Friday during TNT’s “Inside the NBA” show.

Wilson possesses a five-star rating from each of the four major recruiting services: Rivals, 247Sports, On3 and ESPN. Per the 247Sports Composite, Wilson is the No. 5 overall player in 2025, ranking No. 3 among power forwards behind Cameron Boozer (a Duke commit) and Nate Ament.

With Wilson choosing the Tar Heels, it’s expected the Wildcats will turn their attention to Ament.

A star at Highland School in Warrenton, Virginia, Ament has trimmed the list of schools he’s considering to 11, a group that includes Kentucky. The other 10: Louisville, Louisville, Alabama, Arkansas, BYU, Duke, Georgetown, Kansas State, Notre Dame, Tennessee and Texas. Ament has said he plans to announce his decision in late February or early March.

Fifth-year senior forward Andrew Carr has appeared in, and started, all 18 games this season. But that doesn’t mean he’s at optimum health. The 6-foot-11, 235-pound Carr has battled a back issue recently. He’s played through it, however.

“Backs and bigs are complicated things, and Andrew is gutting it out,” Pope said during his weekly radio show Monday night. “When you go back and watch film of the game Saturday, there (were) times when you can see the pain just plastered all over his face as he’s trying to run back and transition defense.”

Even so, Pope said Carr still is “having a really positive impact” and will “continue to get better” as the injury heals.

Which the Wildcats hope is sooner rather than later. Pope said Carr is “undergoing every treatment under the sun” to speed up the recovery.

“He was with a specialist (Monday) and got a new treatment that we’re hopeful about,” Pope said. “He’s working hard.

“We have the best performance team there is.”

Kentucky’s two most well-known former coaches are at opposite ends of the spectrum at their new schools.

With Wednesday’s 79-71 overtime win over Xavier, St. John’s is 8-1 in Big East play. That has Pitino’s squad at the top of the Big East standings through Thursday. The Red Storm is 17-3 overall and squarely in the NCAA Tournament picture.

The same can’t be said for Calipari and Arkansas.

The Razorbacks began league play 0-5 — the second-worst conference start of Calipari’s college coaching career. (He was 0-6 in Atlantic 10 play at UMass in 1988-89, his first season as a college coach.) Arkansas finally got into the win column in the SEC on Wednesday, rallying from a 12-point halftime deficit to beat Georgia, 68-65, in Fayetteville, Arkansas.

At 1-5 in the SEC, the Razorbacks are 15th in the 16-team conference entering the weekend.

Calipari’s club also has work to do to be dancing in March: Arkansas would not be in the 68-team field if the NCAAs started today.

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