Could Kentucky's Mark Pope win National Coach of the Year this season?

Mark Pope and the Kentucky Wildcats have a season coming up that is going to be quite special, thanks to the elite talent he brought in via the transfer portal and returning players from last year's roster.

The Wildcats were able to return Otega Oweh, who is going to be one of the best players in all of college basketball this season. Pope brought in three players in the 2025 recruiting class that are looking like they could all earn some playing time this season.

Kentucky is looking like a preseason top ten team with the upside to be the best teams in all of college basketball. If the upside hits for this Kentucky team, Coach Pope should be one of the names listed to potentially win the Coach of the Year Award in college basketball.

Last season, Pope did an excellent job in year one as the Kentucky coach, but his name was never on any of these lists. This had some Kentucky fans upset, but this season, Pope has a real shot to bring home this hardware.

The reason Mark Pope is such an excellent coach and the perfect coach for Kentucky is because he doesn't have any cares in the world about personal awards like this; he cares about bringing Kentucky basketball its ninth national title.

Coach Pope, coaching age-wise, is still a young coach, and he is looking like one of the best in the game. Coach Pope has the team to win a national title, and for him to win Coach of the Year.