.jpg) Pope with Kentucky in 2024 | |
| Kentucky Wildcats | |
|---|---|
| Title | Head coach |
| League | Southeastern Conference |
| Personal information | |
| Born | (1972-09-11)September 11, 1972 (age 53) Omaha, Nebraska, U.S. |
| Listed height | 6 ft 10 in (2.08 m) |
| Listed weight | 235 lb (107 kg) |
| Career information | |
| High school | Newport (Bellevue, Washington) |
| College |
|
| NBA draft | 1996: 2nd round, 52nd overall pick |
| Drafted by | Indiana Pacers |
| Playing career | 1997–2005 |
| Position | Power forward /small forward |
| Number | 43, 41 |
| Coaching career | 2009–present |
| Career history | |
Playing | |
| 1996–1997 | Anadolu Efes S.K. |
| 1997–1999 | Indiana Pacers |
| 1999 | La Crosse Bobcats |
| 1999–2000 | Ülkerspor |
| 2000–2002 | Milwaukee Bucks |
| 2003–2005 | Denver Nuggets |
Coaching | |
| 2009–2010 | Georgia (assistant) |
| 2010–2011 | Wake Forest (assistant) |
| 2011–2015 | BYU (assistant) |
| 2015–2019 | Utah Valley |
| 2019–2024 | BYU |
| 2024–present | Kentucky |
| Career highlights | |
| Career statistics | |
| Points | 285 (1.9 ppg) |
| Assists | 63 (0.4 apg) |
| Rebound | 261 (1.7 rpg) |
Stats at NBA.com  | |
| Stats atBasketball Reference | |
Mark Edward Pope (born September 11, 1972) is an American collegiatebasketball coach and former player who is head men's basketball coach at theUniversity of Kentucky, his alma mater.
As a player, Pope playedpower forward andsmall forward. He wasPac-10 Freshman of the Year with theWashington Huskies and then transferred to Kentucky, where he served as a team captain of its1996 NCAA national championship team. After college, Pope spent almost a decade playing professionally in the U.S. and internationally.
Pope has held various coaching roles at the collegiate level. Prior to taking the helm at his alma mater, he was the head coach atUtah Valley from 2015 to 2019 andBYU from 2019 to 2024.
Pope played atNewport High School inBellevue, Washington, a suburb east ofSeattle. In college, he played two years nearby at theUniversity of Washington under head coachLynn Nance and earned Pac-10 Freshman of the Year honors in1992 after setting a freshman single-season school record with 8.1 rebounds per game. After his second season with the Huskies in1993, Nance resigned and Pope transferred to theUniversity of Kentucky, then led by head coachRick Pitino. After sitting out the1994 season due to NCAA transfer rules, Pope appeared in every game for the Wildcats over the next two seasons, winning twoSEC championships. As a senior, he was ateam captain on the1996 team that won theNCAA national championship, averaging 7.6 points in 20.3 minutes per game.
Following his college career, Pope was a second-round pick for theIndiana Pacers in the1996 NBA draft. He played six seasons in the NBA for the Pacers,Milwaukee Bucks, andDenver Nuggets; his playing career ended in 2005.
In 2006, Pope enrolled inmedical school atColumbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons inNew York City. In 2009, he left medical school and joinedMark Fox's coaching staff at theUniversity of Georgia as director of basketball operations for the 2009–10 season. Fox was an assistant coach when both were at Washington. The following season (2010–11), Pope moved toWake Forest to serve as an assistant underJeff Bzdelik.[1]
From 2011 to 2015, Pope was an assistant underDave Rose at BYU.[2] In four years, Pope helped the Cougars to four straight 20-win seasons and four straight postseason appearances, including three NCAA Tournament bids and a trip to the semifinals of the 2013 NIT.
In 2015, Pope was hired as the head coach atUtah Valley University (UVU). In four years at UVU (2015–19), Pope's teams made improvements each season, going from 12 wins in 2015–16 to 25 in 2018–19. He also led the Wolverines to three-straight postseason appearances (2017, 2018, 2019) and back-to-back 20-win seasons (2017–18, 2018–19).[3]
On April 10, 2019, Pope was hired to replace Dave Rose as BYU's 19th men's basketball head coach, after Rose's retirement.[4] In his first season, Pope led the Cougars to a 24–8 record, the most wins for a first-year coach in program history. He became just the second first-year BYU coach to lead his team into the top 25 and the first to end his debut season ranked. The Cougars entered the top 25 as No. 23 in the AP Poll on Feb. 17 and jumped to as high as No. 14. In league play, Pope guided the Cougars to a record of 13–3, second in theWest Coast Conference (WCC). The 13 wins – which included a 91–78 victory over No. 2Gonzaga in theMarriott Center – were tied for the most by BYU during their time in the WCC. Gonzaga was the highest-ranked team BYU has defeated in the history of the Marriott Center. The Cougars finished the regular season on a nine-game win streak, the team's longest win streak in WCC play. BYU boasted one of the most efficient offenses in the nation in 2019–20, evidenced by top 5 national rankings in several statistical categories. The team was projected to be a lock for an at-large bid for the NCAA Tournament, which would have been their first berth since 2015. However, theCOVID-19 pandemic cancelled the tournament and prematurely ended the successful season. BYU ended the season at No. 18 in the AP Poll and No. 16 in the USA Today Coaches Poll.
Pope's early success with the Cougars continued in 2020–21. BYU finished 10–3 in WCC play. The team reached the finals of theWCC Tournament, losing to Gonzaga, 88–78, in the championship. The team received an at-large bid for theNCAA Tournament for the first time since 2015. They were defeated in the first round byUCLA, 73–62. On January 20, 2022, BYU defeated San Diego 79–71, which marked Pope's 60th career win at BYU and made him the fastest BYU head coach ever to reach that benchmark. The win also gave the Cougars a 16–4 record for the season, which was Pope's best start through 20 games as head coach.[5] Pope and the Cougars went 24–11 in2021–22 and ended their season in the quarterfinals of theNIT. During 2022–23, BYU failed to reach 20 wins for the first time in Pope's tenure as head coach, going 19–15 overall and 7–9 in-conference for the Cougars' final season as a member of the WCC. The Cougars failed to reach the postseason for the first time since 2019.
On July 1, 2023, BYU became a member of the Big 12 Conference, with Pope coaching the Cougars in their first-ever season as part of a major conference in2023–24. BYU posted a 22–9 regular season record and a 10–8 record in Big 12 play during the 2023–24 season. The Cougars advanced to the quarterfinals of the Big 12 tournament, where they were defeated byTexas Tech. They received a bid to theNCAA Tournament as a 6-seed and lost to Duquesne in the Round of 64.
On April 12, 2024, Pope was hired to become the 23rd men's basketball head coach at Kentucky, replacingJohn Calipari.[6]
Pope's coaching debut at Kentucky was a 103–62 win againstWright State University. The score received some media attention for being a 41-point win, as #41 was the number of Pope when he was a player at Kentucky.[7][8]
In Pope's third game as coach, ranked #19, he faced Kentucky's long-time rival #6Duke University in theChampions Classic inAtlanta, Georgia. He won 77–72 in his first win against a ranked team as head coach of UK, giving the Wildcats their first win over Duke since 2015.[9]
Pope and his wife, Lee Anne, a former assistant to talk show hostDavid Letterman, have four daughters. Lee Anne is the daughter of the lateLynn Archibald, the head basketball coach atIdaho State University (1977–1982), theUniversity of Utah (1983–1989); and was an assistant at BYU in the 1990s.[10] Pope is a member ofthe Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.[11]
| GP | Games played | GS | Games started | MPG | Minutes per game |
| FG% | Field goal percentage | 3P% | 3-point field goal percentage | FT% | Free throw percentage |
| RPG | Rebounds per game | APG | Assists per game | SPG | Steals per game |
| BPG | Blocks per game | PPG | Points per game | Bold | Career high |
Source[12]
| Year | Team | GP | GS | MPG | FG% | 3P% | FT% | RPG | APG | SPG | BPG | PPG |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1997–98 | Indiana | 28 | 0 | 6.9 | .341 | .333 | .588 | .9 | .3 | .1 | .2 | 1.4 |
| 1998–99 | Indiana | 4 | 0 | 6.5 | .143 | .000 | .000 | 1.0 | .0 | .0 | .0 | .5 |
| 2000–01 | Milwaukee | 63 | 45 | 15.0 | .437 | .208 | .629 | 2.3 | .6 | .3 | .4 | 2.4 |
| 2001–02 | Milwaukee | 45 | 12 | 9.5 | .396 | .160 | .524 | 1.6 | .4 | .2 | .2 | 1.9 |
| 2003–04 | Denver | 4 | 0 | 5.0 | .500 | – | .000 | .8 | .0 | .1 | .0 | .5 |
| 2004–05 | Denver | 9 | 0 | 3.0 | .333 | – | – | .9 | .1 | .1 | .2 | .4 |
| Career | 153 | 57 | 10.7 | .401 | .179 | .573 | 1.7 | .4 | .2 | .3 | 1.9 | |
| Year | Team | GP | GS | MPG | FG% | 3P% | FT% | RPG | APG | SPG | BPG | PPG |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1998 | Indiana | 7 | 0 | 6.0 | .667 | .000 | 1.000 | .7 | .1 | .1 | .0 | 1.3 |
| 2001 | Milwaukee | 6 | 3 | 7.7 | .500 | .000 | – | 2.0 | .3 | .3 | .0 | 1.7 |
| Career | 13 | 3 | 6.8 | .563 | .000 | 1.000 | 1.3 | .2 | .2 | .0 | 1.5 | |
| Season | Team | Overall | Conference | Standing | Postseason | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Utah Valley Wolverines(Western Athletic Conference)(2015–2019) | |||||||||
| 2015–16 | Utah Valley | 12–18 | 6–8 | 5th | |||||
| 2016–17 | Utah Valley | 17–17 | 6–8 | 5th | CBI Semifinal | ||||
| 2017–18 | Utah Valley | 23–11 | 10–4 | 2nd | CBI Quarterfinal | ||||
| 2018–19 | Utah Valley | 25–10 | 12–4 | 2nd | CBI Quarterfinal | ||||
| Utah Valley: | 77–56 (.579) | 34–24 (.586) | |||||||
| BYU Cougars(West Coast Conference)(2019–2023) | |||||||||
| 2019–20 | BYU | 24–8 | 13–3 | 2nd | No Postseason (COVID-19) | ||||
| 2020–21 | BYU | 20–7 | 10–3 | 2nd | NCAA Division I Round of 64 | ||||
| 2021–22 | BYU | 24–11 | 9–6 | 5th | NIT Quarterfinal | ||||
| 2022–23 | BYU | 19–15 | 7–9 | T–5th | |||||
| BYU Cougars(Big 12 Conference)(2023–2024) | |||||||||
| 2023–24 | BYU | 23–11 | 10–8 | T–5th | NCAA Division I Round of 64 | ||||
| BYU: | 110–52 (.679) | 49–29 (.628) | |||||||
| Kentucky Wildcats(Southeastern Conference)(2024–present) | |||||||||
| 2024–25 | Kentucky | 24–12 | 10–8 | T–6th | NCAA Division I Sweet 16 | ||||
| 2025–26 | Kentucky | 17–8 | 8–4 | ||||||
| Kentucky: | 41–20 (.672) | 18–12 (.600) | |||||||
| Total: | 225–128 (.637) | ||||||||
· Basketball Reference