Jon Rothstein jokingly praises Mark Pope after election of Pope Leo

There aren’t many people who love college basketball as much as CBS Sports’ Jon Rothstein. Over the years, he’s demonstrated a near-maniacal devotion to the game, often tweeting as if he’s entirely oblivious to anything happening in the world outside of college basketball.

Whether or not Rothstein’s lack of awareness is legit, it never fails to entertain the masses. On Thursday, Rothstein put out perhaps the best response of his career when asked for his thoughts on the election of the new Pope.

“Has done a great job at Kentucky!” Rothstein responded. “The Mouhamed Dioubate addition out of the portal was very underrated.”

Not exactly the Pope the fan was asking about. On Thursday, the Conclave concluded with the election of Cardinal Robert Prevost. Prevost will be the first American Pope and will be known as Pope Leo XIV.

Of course, Rothstein isn’t talking about Prevost in his post, but instead is making a tongue-in-cheek reference to Kentucky head coach Mark Pope. In his first year at the helm of the Wildcats, the 52-year-old head coach led the historic program to a Sweet Sixteen appearance.

Pope has been busy this offseason hauling in the No. 1 class in On3’s 2025 Team Transfer Portal Rankings. That class is highlighted by standouts such as former Alabama forward Mouhamed Dioubate.

He played in all 37 of Alabama’s games last season, averaging 7.2 points, 5.9 rebounds and 0.7 blocks in 16.0 minutes per game. Dioubate shot 61.7% from the field and 46.2% from beyond the arc but he only shot 26 total 3-pointers on the season.

Mark Pope’s previous connection to the Vatican

Oddly enough, this isn’t Mark Pope’s first connection to the highest position in the Catholic Church. In January, Father Jim Sichko of Lexington took a Mark Pope jersey, which was signed by the Kentucky headman, to the Vatican with him.

While there, he had the jersey signed by Pope Francis, who died only a few months later on April 21. Sichko even posted a video of Pope Francis signing the jersey on X to confirm the signature was legitimate.

pic.twitter.com/lxbZhXEuAw

— Father Jim Sichko (@JimSichko) January 22, 2025

It wasn’t the first time that Sichko had shared a bit of the Bluegrass State with the Pope. In 2018, Sichko gifted the Pope a 23-year-old bottle of Pappy Van Winkle Bourbon. Sichko claimed Pope Francis immediately recognized the Kentucky-based bourbon.

“He knew I was from Kentucky so when I handed it him, he immediately said ‘bourbon’ and I said yes, and then he said ‘very good bourbon,'” Sichko recalled.