Mark Pope’s journey from player to coach included many career crossroads
When it comes to finding a rewarding career path, former Kentucky player Mark Pope proves the wisdom in an old saying: If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.
Pope once aspired to be a writer, then saw his future in law and finally studied two years at a prestigious medical school before squaring the basketball circle by becoming a coach.
His latest coaching success came last week when a coveted graduate transfer, Matt Haarms, committed to Brigham Young. Three decades earlier, the present BYU coach was playing for UK while on his way to graduating with a degree in English.
English?
“I thought I’d like to be a writer,” he said Friday. “I love literature.”
Of the UK professors who taught literature, Pope said, “I’d just sit in their classes spellbound as they would unravel the mysteries of the written word.”
When he snapped out of it, Pope considered a future in law. “I took Latin at Kentucky,” he said. “I thought at one point I might study law.”
In his college career, which began with two seasons at Washington and concluded with two seasons at Kentucky, Pope scored 1,175 points and grabbed 845 rebounds. But he sensed a long NBA career was unlikely. So, he took pre-med courses while playing professionally.
When the Denver Nuggets cut him prior to the 2005-06 season, Pope applied to medical schools. He was accepted by Columbia University’s Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, which at the time was accepting only about 4.5 percent of applicants.
Pope wanted to become an orthopedic surgeon, but he found himself growing interested in mental health specialties.
According to a 2018 story in the Arizona Daily Star, a pivotal moment came one day as Pope made his way through a psychiatric ward like a coach. “I was a little bit too engaging, giving (patients) high-fives and everything,” Pope told the newspaper.
An attending physician cautioned Pope against such interaction. This led him to think his med school colleagues might be more passionate about medicine than he was.
“There were times I missed yelling, screaming and crying and doing things that are more acceptable” in basketball, Pope told the Daily Star.
About this time, Georgia hired Mark Fox as coach. Fox had been a graduate assistant at Washington when Pope played for the Huskies. Fox offered Pope a job as Georgia’s director of basketball operations.
Despite questioning his enthusiasm for medicine, Pope did not find closing that door easy.
“When ‘Foxy’ called, it was a really hard decision,” Pope said. “It was super hard.”
Coaching has brought success and happiness. After working as an assistant at Wake Forest and BYU, Pope became head coach at Utah Valley in 2015. UK fans might recall Utah Valley playing Kentucky competitively in the opening game of the 2017-18 season. UK won 73-63.
In Pope’s four years as coach, Utah Valley improved 229 spots in Ken Pomeroy’s rankings.
The 23 victories in 2017-18 were a record for Utah Valley. The record was broken the following season when Utah Valley had a 25-10 record.
“We were super proud of what we did there,” Pope said.
BYU hired Pope a year ago. The 24-8 record in 2019-20 set a record for most victories by a first-year BYU coach.
When asked more than once about this success, Pope relied again and again on self-deprecation.
Of his first season as BYU coach, he said, “The only thing I did well this year was just be smart enough to inherit good players and bring a couple in and watch them do their magic.”
Hidden gem?
Brigham Young Coach Mark Pope objected to the perception that his program was out of its league going against the likes of Kentucky, Gonzaga, Arizona and Texas Tech in the pursuit of graduate transfer Matt Haarms.
“It’s crazy to think about BYU being a hidden gem,” Pope said on a teleconference Friday. “Ridiculous. It’s not a hidden gem.”
To make his case, Pope cited two polls that reflect the interest in BYU basketball. The school’s Cosmo the Cougar won a fan vote sponsored by SiriusXM to name the nation’s best mascot. Cosmo beat Western Kentucky’s Big Red in the finals.
And BYU is in the finals against North Carolina in a vote sponsored by Fox Sports to name the nation’s best fan base. (UK lost to Illinois in the Sweet 16 round.) Voting ended this weekend.
“That reflects a fan base that cares,” Pope said of these polls. “And this fan base communicates with kids. I’m telling you this fan base went a long way toward winning Matt Haarms. That is not an overstatement.”
Entrance
Sports Illustrated recently posted its top 10 incoming freshman classes in college basketball next season.
SI.com rated Kentucky’s class No. 1. It labeled Brandon Boston and Terrence Clarke as “probable NBA lottery picks.” Two other UK freshmen, Cam’Ron Fletcher and Lance Ware, “should be ready to produce from day one,” it said.
A sobering note: Kentucky did not have a monopoly on highly regarded freshmen. SI.com ranked four other SEC teams in its top 10:
▪ No. 4. Tennessee adds “elite scoring guards” in Jaden Springer and Keon Johnson.
▪ No. 5. LSU adds Cameron Johnson, who is “arguably the most gifted scorer in high school.”
▪ No. 6. Auburn adds “arguably the top playmaker” in Sharife Cooper.
▪ No. 9. Arkansas adds shooter Moses Moody and point guard K.K. Robinson.
Other teams in the top 10 were Duke (No. 2), North Carolina (No. 3), Oklahoma State (No. 7) and Texas Tech (No. 10).
Exit
Of the 38 Kentucky players selected in NBA drafts since John Calipari became coach, 27 were freshmen. Of those 27 freshmen, 18 were lottery picks. And 25 were picked in the first round.
The two outliers? In the 2018 NBA Draft, Jarred Vanderbilt and Hamidou Diallo were the 41st and 45th picks, respectively.
In that same time frame, two seniors from Kentucky have been drafted: Josh Harrellson was the 45th pick in 2011 and Darius Miller was the 46th pick in 2012.
Assuming there will be a NBA Draft this year, Nick Richards can be the fourth junior from Kentucky selected during Calipari’s time as coach. He would follow Patrick Patterson (14th pick in 2010), DeAndre Liggins (53rd pick in 2011) and Willie Cauley-Stein (sixth pick in 2015).
Sports on TV
With the coronavirus pulling the plug on live events, sports networks must be creative in satisfying viewers’ appetites for competition. On April 19, ESPN aired a series of past spelling bees. And the CBS Sports Network aired past snowmobile races.
Earlier this month, Burke Magnus, the executive vice president/programming for ESPN, said his network sought to make its offerings as familiar as possible.
For example, ESPN wants to devote Monday programming to football because of its Monday Night Football games, Wednesdays to NBA basketball and Thursdays to college football. Movies on Friday nights and boxing on Saturday nights “sounded right,” Magnus said.
ESPN tries to be flexible. During what would have been The Masters week, the network aired highlights of past tournaments on that Thursday and Friday.
The CBS Sports Network has aired classic NCAA Tournament games (Christian Laettner’s game-winning shot against Kentucky got several replays) and SEC football games from last season that featured top prospects for this year’s NFL Draft (Joe Burrow, Tua Tagovailoa). And starting earlier this month, memorable NFL games are offered.
Happy birthday
To Fred Cowan. He turned 62 on Thursday. … To Bob McCowan. He turned 71 on Thursday. … To Dillon Pulliam. He turned 25 on Saturday. … To Todd Bearup. He turned 53 on Saturday. … To former UK assistant coach David Hobbs. He turned 71 on Saturday. … To Bob Tallent. He turns 74 on Sunday (today). … To LeRon Ellis. He turns 51 on Tuesday.
