Mark Pope plans to hire GM -- but won't rush 'finding the right person'

The general manager topic is not new for Kentucky basketball under Mark Pope. Those conversations have been around since he first got the job as the former BYU coach scrambled to build a roster on short notice, late in the portal and with zero high school recruiting base outside of Collin Chandler’s return after two years away from the sport. That led to a mostly magical debut season in Lexington with the puzzle pieces fitting together perfectly — to the point that the program’s first Sweet 16 since 2019 could have actually been the first Final Four since 2015, if the Wildcats had stayed healthy.

Then came the $22 million offseason with expectations even higher, gloating about Ferraris with ’96 title comparisons. At the time, Pope was praised for his roster construction — including from yours truly — while the consensus remained that a GM could help him even more. He even admitted to open the spring that he was still interested in the position, but wanted to see how the House v. NCAA settlement unfolded before moving forward with anything.

The dust settled there, but no movement on a GM.

“General managers are really interesting. Designating someone exclusively in that spot is a calculated decision that comes with all kinds of complications,” Pope said back in April. “Right now, we’re dealing with it in-house by dividing up those responsibilities. We’ll see.”

Then the season started after a summer and fall of excitement, tipping off with a double-digit exhibition win vs. No. 1 Purdue — vibes right where you want them to be. They have gone from questionable to bad to ugly to downright terrifying in the seven weeks since, Kentucky losing to every name-brand opponent through mid-December, starting with the second exhibition vs. Georgetown and followed by Louisville, Michigan State, North Carolina and Gonzaga. Everything we thought we knew about this group has been scrapped and new expectations are being reset seemingly by the game.

With the losses piling up, so are roster construction questions and whether or not these puzzle pieces will ever fit together. Hiring a GM is the hottest trend in college basketball — Arkansas, Baylor, BYU, Duke, Michigan, NC State, Syracuse, Texas Tech and Villanova are among the schools to make a move on one (or a comparable role) — designed to take weight off their head coach’s shoulders with high school and portal recruiting (along with all of the NIL and rev-share hurdles that come with it). The coach can focus on coaching and the GM can focus on GMing.

Pope’s stance in the middle of the hurricane? Still TBD — but seemingly more negative about the possibility than positive.

“It’s interesting as we figure out kind of the new space that we’re living in,” he said during his call-in radio show on December 1. “There are some real potential positives with the general manager spot, but there are also some complications that come with it that I actually don’t like for our guys. So we’re in the process of — in some places, we’ve seen some positive results as we watch other programs. In some places, it’s turned into a really negative, negative situation — or at least a fruitless situation. So it’s a space we’re exploring right now, and we’ll kind of see where we end up.”

Since those comments, Kentucky has added losses to North Carolina at home and Gonzaga essentially at home — that Bridgestone Arena crowd was like Rupp Arena on steroids — the latter by 35 points with the boo birds out in full force. Injuries have been an issue, finally getting Jaland Lowe back while still waiting on Mo Dioubate and Jayden Quaintance, but it all feels so much bigger than what’s missing with the availability report.

It’s a question of Pope signing the right guys, especially at their cost with the most expensive payroll in the sport. KSR reported on some of those roster decisions and this program’s current reputation in the basketball world, with outside sources stressing Kentucky’s need for a full-time GM.

When asked to expand on those pros and cons discussed last week relating to the position, the second-year coach actually confirmed with KSR that the plan is to eventually hire a general manager. In fact, he’s already interviewed a few candidates.

But he’s serious about some of those aforementioned “really negative” and “fruitless” situations elsewhere and avoiding them at all costs. That’s why he’s not rushing into anything and trusting the guys he has on staff now to get the job done until then.

“I like it in terms of the manpower, for sure. I like it in terms of the manpower, I like it in terms of the focus. I like it in terms of the 24/7, just being solely focused on that,” Pope told KSR on Friday. “One of the ways where I think it kind of can hurt is — the purpose is to purchase one degree of separation. There’s also some danger that comes with that in terms of, I think sometimes it can be less beneficial for student-athletes. I think sometimes it can be a little bit problematic in terms of communication. That’s the whole purpose of it, right? That’s the part that, if we go that direction, we’ll have to be very clear and very focused on that, because at the end of the day, we have things that have to be done here.

“We have to win. We have to put together great rosters. We have to do it in the most responsible way we can. And, believe it or not, these student-athletes still matter, right? They still matter. That’s still the most important thing that’s going on, so honoring that is really, really important.”

His interest remains high, but the who and how remain extremely important. And until he can confidently answer those things, he’s going to hang tight.

When he’s comfortable making a move, one that will do more good than harm, he’s going to make it.

“It’s really important finding the right person. The right person to do that is really important,” Pope continued. “We’ve seen places around the country where it’s been an epic disaster, and we’ve seen places where it’s been functional. It’s just one of those things where when it lands right, we’ll do it — but it’s not something that we want to rush into, because it can be really costly.

“There’s the do-no-harm vibe.”

That’s not to say he’s kicking the can down the road and avoiding it — there have been conversations and candidates regarding the position even here recently.

Not finalists, but conversations and candidates, as they carve out a specific role and the vision for that role to put Kentucky back atop the college basketball world. As for the when? Again, still TBD, but closer today than yesterday.

“There’s just a million different parts of this,” Pope said. “But that’s all in the conversation of, how we do the management part of this program? It’s something that we’ve spent an inordinate amount of time talking about. We’ve actually had long, long discussions with — I’ll tease you guys — a bunch of people that could, at some point, maybe in some way, fill a position like that.

“Nothing formal, but just like exploring what it would look like and how it’d be. It’s someone we’ve got to get.”

With every loss, it becomes more glaring. With every win? Well, we’ll see what happens when we get there.