Kentucky basketball coach Mark Pope is at the 2025 Kentucky Derby
For the second straight year, Kentucky basketball coach Mark Pope is at Churchill Downs in Louisville for the Kentucky Derby.
Pope — fresh off his debut season as the UK head coach — was seen stopping by the jockey room at Churchill Downs on Saturday.
Earlier in the day, the Kentucky men’s basketball team’s account on X revealed the coaching staff’s Derby picks. Pope went with Render Judgment while Mark Fox chose Sovereignty, Jason Hart picked Sandman, Cody Fueger selected Publisher, Mikhail McLean had Burnham Square and Alvin Brooks III took Journalism.
The UK women’s basketball team’s account did the same on X. Head coach Kenny Brooks picked Owen Almighty. Other staff members picked the following horses: Lindsey Hicks (Citizen Bull), Radvile Autukaite (Chunk of Gold), Josh Petersen (Burnham Square), Ciara Gregory (Journalism), Will Sims (American Promise), Kendall Dillard (Admire Daytona), Kevin Konopasek (Luxor Cafe).
Pope also attended the Kentucky Derby last year, just weeks after he was named the successor to John Calipari in Lexington.
In his first season leading the Wildcats, Pope guided Kentucky to a 24-12 overall record and a trip to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament. It was the first time since 2019 that the Cats advanced to the second weekend of March Madness.
Mark Pope is about to begin second season as UK’s head coach
A member of Kentucky’s 1996 national championship squad, Pope has already had an active second offseason as the UK coach.
The core of the Wildcats’ roster for the 2025-26 season is in place. Currently, UK has 12 scholarship players in place for next season’s team.
This group includes four expected returnees from last season’s UK squad. Those players are freshmen guard Collin Chandler, freshman forward Trent Noah, sophomore center Brandon Garrison and junior guard Otega Oweh.
Oweh has declared for the 2025 NBA draft, but he still has the option to return to UK for his senior season.
Noah was also seen at the Kentucky Derby on Saturday.
Kentucky lost two players from last season’s team to the transfer portal. Freshman guard Travis Perry entered the transfer portal just before the deadline to do so last month. Fifth-year guard Kerr Kriisa has already transferred from UK to Cincinnati.
Along with those four returnees, Kentucky has already announced the additions of five players from the transfer portal this spring. Those future Cats are junior guard Denzel Aberdeen (Florida), sophomore forward Mouhamed Dioubate (Alabama), sophomore guard Jaland Lowe (Pittsburgh), freshman big man Jayden Quaintance (Arizona State) and freshman wing Kam Williams (Tulane).
Pope is also welcoming three first-year college players for next season.
Those players are left-handed guard Jasper Johnson, in-state center Malachi Moreno and European big man Andrija Jelavic.
Johnson is a five-star recruit. Moreno was the 2025 Kentucky Mr. Basketball at Great Crossing (Georgetown) and also won the Sweet 16 state tournament. Jelavic, who is from Croatia, has played multiple seasons for Mega MIS (also known as Kosarkaski klub Mega Basket and Mega Superbet) a professional team based in Serbia.
Kentucky is still involved in the high school recruitment of Braydon Hawthorne, a four-star small forward from West Virginia.
In addition to these roster moves, UK’s 2025-26 schedule is also slowly coming into focus.
The recent headline news in this regard came on Thursday, when it was announced that Kentucky would play St. John’s — coached by Rick Pitino — in the CBS Sports Classic in December in Atlanta. On Friday, it was announced that Kentucky would host Purdue for an exhibition game in October at Rupp Arena.
This story was originally published May 3, 2025 at 4:45 PM.
