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Kentucky

Mark Pope calls coaching in the SEC in 2024-25 the greatest experience of his career

IMG_0985by: Griffin McVeigh05/03/25griffin_mcveigh
Mark Pope, Kentucky Basketball | Grace Hollars/IndyStar / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
(Grace Hollars/IndyStar / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images) Kentucky Wildcats head coach Mark Pope walks onto the court Thursday, March 27, 2025, during practice ahead of the Sweet Sixteen March Madness tournament game against the Tennessee Volunteers at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.

Last season’s success from the SEC in men’s basketball is well documented. Widely considered the greatest league in the sport’s history, Kentucky‘s Mark Pope was a huge part of the story. Pope took over for John Calipari, completely remade the roster, and turned UK into one of Big Blue Nation’s favorite teams of late.

Pope recently reflected on his experience from last year, his first in the conference as a head coach. He says it was the “greatest experience” of his coaching career thus far. Just the amount of quality inside the SEC, from top to bottom, really stood out to him.

“It was the greatest experience of my basketball coaching career, by far,” Pope said. “Last year, I was really blessed to coach in the Big 12, BYU‘s first year in the Big 12. And that was an incredible experience and it was a great league. I don’t think college basketball has ever seen a league like we saw last year in the SEC. Not just 14 teams in but seven teams in the Sweet Sixteen.

“I used to brag about my ’96 team that the league was so good, we had four teams in the Sweet Sixteen and two in the Final Four. We had double that, almost… It’s what you live for, as a competitor, to be in a league like that. Hopefully, we run it back bigger and better next year, as a league.”

Kentucky did get knocked out of the NCAA Tournament by an SEC team, as Pope noted. Tennessee was on the winning end of a Sweet 16 matchup, sending Rick Barnes to another Elite Eight. Had it not been for Houston, the Vols would have been team No. 3 from the SEC to make the Final Four.

Florida wound up cutting down the nets as a one-seed. In a season where somebody from the SEC primed to win a national championship, the Gators came through.

The competitiveness of the SEC is expected to continue moving forward. Pope’s squad is set to play a huge part in that too, once again having a great offseason of talent acquisition. Kentucky brings in a couple of skilled high school players while being quite aggressive in the NCAA transfer portal.

Likely nothing will top how the league performed in 2024-2025. Pope will be telling stories of how well the SEC performed, inside and outside of the conference, for years to come.