Through changes in college basketball, Mark Pope believes it's the 'best time to coach'

In a time when many coaches are stepping away from the game entirely using NIL and rev-share hurdles as excuses, Mark Pope is digging even deeper at Kentucky. The second-year coach is embracing all of the changes that have come and are on the horizon in the sport, saying there is no better time than now to lead a program — especially in Lexington.

That’s not to say it’s not challenging, but that’s what you sign up for at UK, right? If you’re not exhausted, you’re not trying hard enough, because that’s what it takes to hang banners inside Rupp Arena. Pope is having fun with that challenge.

“I love coaching right now. I think it’s probably the most challenging, fascinating, stimulating, energizing time to ever coach the game of college basketball,” he said in a one-on-one interview with KSR on Friday. “Our responsibilities as a staff have broadened, so every time you add a new slice of what you need to do as a coach, the job gets more interesting, right?

“It’s complicated and it can be exhausting at times, but I think it’s the greatest time to be a coach. It is just unbelievable.”

Some coaches are saying the game they grew up with and loved has gone and been replaced by a professional product — and Pope doesn’t disagree, to an extent, because those traits are obviously there. That doesn’t mean it’s all bad, though, and whining about it doesn’t do anybody good. Change or let the world pass you by, something we don’t need to worry about in Lexington.

You can call it a pro game, or you can say it’s still a college basketball game with pro aspects that make your job more important as a coach. Right when he was about to lean into the NBA thing, this current group reminded him that the same core principles remain.

“There was a time this spring where I felt like this is more of a — it’s more of a professional tenor. Now in college basketball, there are so many rules that have led us to be in that space. There was a point where I was like, ‘I’m going to start treating these guys like pros. I’m going to be more like an NBA coach.’ I spent a lot of time in the league, and I have a very good vibe for that,” Pope said. “And then the first time we met with our whole team, and I got to see my guys and how eager and how hungry and how still young people that they are, it changed my whole view.”

The players are rich, sure, but they’re young and rich. They’re immature and rich. They make mistakes while also being rich. We can talk about the money until we’re blue in the face, but at the end of the day, a kid is a kid and they have the same hopes and dreams as every kid in the sport up to this point.

No backing down when student-athletes need leaders now more than ever.

“I feel like it’s not only the best time to coach college basketball, but our players need us as mentors more than they’ve ever needed coaches before — because their lives are more complicated,” Pope told KSR. “Their lives have gotten better, but they’ve gotten way more complicated. These are still incredible young people that are chasing their dreams, that are trying to grow into the men that they want to be someday. For all those reasons, I think this is the best time ever to be a coach.”

The right guy is leading the Wildcats.