Mark Pope and the Kentucky Wildcats staged quite the event for their new coach’s introduction on Sunday.
Kentucky introduced Pope as their new head coach with a packed rally at Rupp Arena, and the school went all-in to sell Pope to fans and emphasize his ties to the program as a former player.
As part of his introduction, the entire 1996 championship team was introduced, with Pope introduced last while carrying the trophy with him.
It certainly sounded like the crowd did not actually need to be sold on Pope. The new coach also addressed the crowd and made clear that he knows expectations are high, and very much embraced them.
“Every coach in America at every other job in America stands up in their press conference and they try and moderate expectations. We don’t do that here at Kentucky,” Pope said. “When Mitch (Barnhart, Kentucky’s athletic director) called me and talked to me about being the head coach here at Kentucky, I understand the assignment. We are here to win banners. And as we go through this journey, we’re here to win banners in Nashville, because you guys turn out in Nashville like nobody else, and that matters. And our job here, our assignment is to go win banners in the Final Four and win national championships. That’s our job.”
It would be unfair to say Pope’s predecessor John Calipari shied away from those expectations. Many Kentucky fans, however, would likely argue that Calipari never aggressively embraced them in the same way Pope is.
After all, Kentucky has not played in a Final Four since 2015, and Pope would unequivocally say that drought has lasted far too long.
Pope will have to back up his words with his team’s performance on the court. If he does, he will clearly be immensely popular with Big Blue Nation, even though he clearly was not the school’s first choice. If not, this event will wind up looking quite cringeworthy in retrospect.
More must-reads: