Kentucky has just hired BYU head coach Mark Pope to coach the Wildcats starting next season.

Coach Pope played at Kentucky under Rick Petino from 1994-1996. Coach Pope coached 5 seasons at BYU with a 110-52 record. BYU made the NCAA tournament this past season but lost in the first round to Duquesne. This is a unique hire many thought Kentucky would go for a bigger name. Baylor’s Scott Drew was rumored to be in the running for the Kentucky job.

Coach Pope is a Kentucky alum and a good coach but Kentucky is a powerhouse. The Wildcats should have had their pick of multiple great coaches who have a better body of work than Pope. Kentucky could have had Scott Drew from Baylor, Drew is one of the best coaches in the country. Billy Donovon could have been another potential hire. Not to speculate but this seems like a hire that multiple other coaches rejected for one reason or another.

I would predict that Kentucky made calls to Donovan and Drew, if that happened they said no or could not come to an agreement. Hiring Pope would have been a 4th or 5th option in my opinion, Kentucky should have made a call to Dan Hurley at Uconn and just handed him a blank check. Hurley would absolutely have success at Kentucky he has dominated college basketball the last 2 seasons.

With all that being said Coach Pope is an alum of Kentucky and knows that area well. Kentucky boosters will most likely get along with Pope and have a lot of input on the program. Pope will be the head coach of one of the best programs ever so he will have plenty of resources and opportunities to have success.

The difficult part is Kentucky standards are very high but Pope understands that with being a former player. Pope is an interesting hire and I am not sure if he will have success or not. It will be very interesting to see how it turns out.