Kentucky coach Mark Pope has to disprove a negative narrative about his recruiting

It has now been over a year since Kentucky hired Mark Pope to be the school's new head basketball coach, and fans could not be happier with what he has done to this point.

In year one, Pope took the Wildcats to the Sweet 16 with a team that he put together in under a month, and now his team for the 2025-26 season is looking like one of the best in the nation.

Since becoming the head coach at Kentucky, Pope has landed five high school recruits: Trent Noah, Travis Perry, Jasper Johnson, Malachi Moreno and Braydon Hawthore. Tecnically Collin Chandler is a part of this list but his situation is different after the mission trip. The only one of these five high school recruits who isn't a Kentucky native is Hawthorne.

This fact has created a narrative around Pope as a recruiter, as some are saying that he can't recruit elite high school players outside of the Bluegrass State.

While this narrative is not true, others will continue to use it until Pope lands a big-time recruit from outside of Kentucky. Fans felt great about the recruitment of Jason Crow Jr., who is committing on July 18th, but things are changing.

Crowe Jr. has ties to the Kentucky staff, and many felt he was a Kentucky lock, but according to Joe Tipton of On3, the California native Crowe Jr. is now leaning to Missouri, with a decision only 11 days away.

Coach Pope has done an excellent job building relationships with recruits early into his Kentucky tenure, and this will lead to him landing some great players from outside of Kentucky state lines.

While it is fair for fans of opposing teams to question Pope as a recruiter since he hasn't landed a five-star high school player outside of Kentucky yet, it will come, and this narrative will be put to bed.