The Kentucky Wildcats' search to replace John Calipari is over.
Kentucky officially announced on Friday morning that BYU head coach Mark Pope will replace Calipari as the program's new head basketball coach.
Pope, who had been the head coach at BYU since 2019, is a former Kentucky basketball player who spent eight years playing in the NBA before getting into coaching.
The decision to hire Pope comes after Kentucky whiffed on several of their top options, including Baylor's Scott Drew and UConn's Dan Hurley.
Replacing Calipari with Pope is a bit of a letdown for Kentucky fans who were hoping to see the program land a "big name". Instead, the Wildcats made a less-than-inspiring hire to replace a Hall of Fame coach.
The national media, however, is working hard to help Kentucky fans rationalize the hire.
The national media is seriously hyping up a coach that a large majority of college basketball fans weren't even familiar with until 24 hours ago.
Of course, that shouldn't come as a surprise. We're used to seeing the national media flooding social media with "great hire" tweets only to see that hire fail in the ensuing years.
Pope might end up being great at Kentucky, but there's nothing on his résumé that suggests he's a sure thing.
I mean, the guy has never won an NCAA Tournament game as a coach. And sure, I know the national pundits will point out that he'll have more resources at Kentucky than he did at BYU. That's certainly true. But that doesn't change that Pope did absolutely nothing to elevate BYU's program while he was there. Dave Rose, the coach that Pope took over for in 2019, led BYU to eight NCAA Tournament appearances from 2005 to 2019, going 4-8 in 12 tourney games.
Pope, meanwhile, led BYU to two NCAA Tournament appearances from 2019 to 2024 with zero wins.
It was essentially status quo for BYU under Pope. No better, no worse. Just average.
(Note: There was no tourney held in 2019-2020 due to COVID and BYU was in a good position to reach the tourney that season under Pope.)
Maybe Pope turns into a superstar in Lexington. Or maybe he fails miserably and the Wildcats are looking for another head coach in a couple of years.
The truth is that no one knows how it'll play out. That includes Seth Davis, Jeff Goodman, Jay Bilas, and any other college basketball analyst that likes to think they have a crystal ball that tells the future. None of those guys have a clue how the hire will work out. They don't know any more than the average fan when it comes to predicting how a coach will fare at a new job.
Kentucky fans just need to buckle up and get ready for the ride under Pope and see where it goes. They certainly shouldn't hang their hopes and dreams on the opinion of some national analysts that are doing nothing more than gaslighting an entire fan base into thinking that they just made a "home run hire".
More must-reads: