There’s hope in Mark Pope.
Big Blue Nation raced through the usual progression of coaching search emotions and finally reached the end stage in feeling optimism in Kentucky’s hire.
Let’s review the steps to arriving at this point.
Step 1: Convince yourself that Kentucky is better off without John Calipari.
Step 2: Believe that this is the time Kentucky lands its white whale, Billy Donovan.
Step 3: OK, so maybe no Donovan, but the fallback plan remains ironclad. Surely Scott Drew can’t prefer Baylor to Kentucky’s blue blood, right? Ha!
Step 4: Drew did what?!He said no?! Forget him. It’s on to the fallback fallback plan. Hire Bruce Pearl.
Step 5: Outrage! Surely Kentucky isn’t hiring BYU’s coach, right? Can’t be. Fire Mitch Barnhart!
Step 6: Excitement. The Cats are back! Never mind yesterday’s disappointment and frustration. Not only is Pope one of BBN, he’s a basketball savant! Calipari couldn’t carry Pope’s chessboard.
Pope won over more believers during an upbeat introduction at Rupp Arena that mirrored a revival.
Let’s go to the mailbag for feedback from Kentucky fans and others on this hire:
Jim writes: Pope is actually an outstanding coach. Kentucky got a great hire. Try to even get BYU to Field of 68, that is NOT an easy task. … Kentucky’s just bettered their chances with this gift of Calipari leaving and the hiring of Pope!
