Jan 25, 2025; Nashville, Tennessee, USA; Kentucky Wildcats head coach Mark Pope paces the sideline against the Vanderbilt Commodores during the second half at Memorial Gymnasium. Mandatory Credit: Steve Roberts-Imagn Images Steve Roberts-Imagn Images

What will it take for Mark Pope to become a coaching legend at Kentucky?

Originally posted on Kentucky Wildcats on SI
By Andrew Stefaniak | Last updated Sep 5, 2025 11:48 AM ET

When Mark Pope was hired to be the head coach of the Kentucky Wildcats, the initial reaction was a bit of shock. The Wildcats at first were after some bigger names, but after missing on some different options, Mitch Barnhart went with Pope, who holds a special place in the hearts of Big Blue Nation.

Coach Pope was, of course, a part of the 1996 National Title as the captain of Rick Pitino's team. Now, after getting into coaching early in his time as a head coach, Pope was given the nod in Lexington.

It didn't take long for the fan base to change from concerned to excited about the hire of Pope after doing more research on how good his offense had been at BYU. It was made obvious that fans were changing their opinion on Pope, knowing that Rupp Arena was full to the brim for his introductory press conference.

Over a year has gone by, and in his first season as the head coach in Lexington, Pope took the Wildcats to their first Sweet 16 since the pandemic with a team that not only he put together via the portal in a month but was also banged up, missing some key pieces.

Now, Coach Pope heads into year two in Lexington, and his team looks like it is good enough to win it all this season. The Wildcats will be a top ten team to start the 2025-26 season and have the deepest roster in all of college basketball.

Trevor Ruszkowski-Imagn Images

Let's discuss what it will take for Pope to become a coaching legend at Kentucky.

What it will take for Mark Pope to be a coaching legend at Kentucky?

Some legendary coaches have come through the University of Kentucky, and this is a big reason why the Wildcats are a blue-blood college basketball program.

Without question, the first thing Pope needs to do in order to be a legend is to win the Wildcats their ninth national title. Fans feel very confident that over the next handful of years, Coach Pope will find a way to get this done.

The other part of being a coaching legend is having the fan base love you and doing things for the community. One thing that is very clear is the fact that Big Blue Nation loves Pope, and he truly cares about the community and tries to help others.

On top of being a great human being, Mark Pope is an excellent basketball coach, and he is going to get this program back to the top.

This article first appeared on Kentucky Wildcats on SI and was syndicated with permission.

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