Mark Pope knows he has big shoes to fill as Kentucky’s new men’s basketball head coach.
The former national champion returns to his alma mater to replace John Calipari, who went to Arkansas after 15 seasons at Lexington. He led the program to a national championship while coaching several future NBA stars.
Pope paid respect to Coach Cal when speaking to reporters about his predecessor earlier this week.
“Cal is one of the great coaches to ever coach here,” Pope said, via On3. “He went to four Final Fours in five years, coached a billion draft picks, and represented Kentucky really, really well. Gave his heart and soul to this place. As BBN, and I’m just as much a member of BBN as anybody, all of us will be grateful to him forever. He’s a Hall of Fame coach.”
Pope said Calipari has always been “super generous” when they’ve spoken over the years, and he’s working to extend that “incredible legacy” in Lexington.
Before Calipari, Kentucky also won national titles under Rick Pitino and Tubby Smith. While he admires those coaches and will occasionally “steal stuff” from them, he plans to do things his own way.
“One of the things that you learn really early on if you have great mentors in this game is you just have to coach you,” Pope said. “I have to be me. I can’t be Coach Pitino. I can’t be Tubby. I can’t be Cal. It would be disingenuous, and my guys wouldn’t actually believe it if I tried to take on that persona or personality, or even approach to the game. We’re us.”
Related: Mark Pope Doesn’t Hold Back On Replacing John Calipari At Kentucky