Tom Izzo remembers Mark Pope more as a player than coach -- but 'he's done a good job'

Tom Izzo has been coaching for 31 years, starting his Michigan State career back in 1995-96 with 1042 games under his belt and 740 wins — one of the best to ever do it, sitting comfortably with a .710 win rate and eight Final Fours with a national championship in 1999-00.

Interestingly enough, he’s been around long enough to see Mark Pope‘s full-circle transition from Kentucky basketball player to head coach. In his first season in East Lansing, Pope was the team captain of the Wildcats, averaging 7.6 points and 5.2 rebounds in 20.3 minutes per contest with 34 wins en route to the ’96 title — one of the best groups ever assembled.

That led to a six-year NBA career with stops in Indiana, Milwaukee and Denver. From there, he went to medical school, dropped out to become a director of basketball operations at Georgia, followed by assistant stops at Wake Forest and BYU before his first head coaching gig at Utah Valley (2015-19). Then came his time leading the BYU program (2019-2024) until the call from Mitch Barnhart came to take the Kentucky job in 2024.

Now in his second season with the Wildcats, again, he’s gonna take on Izzo’s Spartans in the Champions Classic at Madison Square Garden, looking to break the 2-2 tie between the prestigious programs in the event. Funny how life works, right?

When asked about Pope as a coach, Izzo said his on-court playing ability first caught his eye decades ago, and now, he’s putting together a heck of a career and has his alma mater in a good spot.

“I don’t know him that well,” the legendary MSU coach said of the 53-year-old. “I mean, I know him a little bit — I did a clinic with him last spring. But I think he’s a good coach, no doubt about it. He had success at BYU. But I remember him more as a player.”

Pope tied the all-time NCAA record for most top-15 wins in a season with eight in his debut run with the Wildcats, returning to the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2019. Now, he’s got a Final Four contender on his hands, Kentucky sitting at No. 12 nationally — but serious upside, especially at full strength.

“I think he’s done a good job,” Izzo continued. “He’s got some talent there now. I mean, he’s got some talent.”

By now you’ve certainly seen Izzo’s comments on Kentucky’s roster compared to Michigan State’s only other name-brand opponent, John Calipari’s Arkansas Razorbacks — a 69-66 win for the Spartans.

As much as he likes Coach Cal’s group, he thinks Pope’s team is even better.

“I thought Arkansas was one of the most talented teams I saw, and I did, but they had some younger guys, they didn’t have as much experience,” Izzo said. “Kentucky is even more athletic and tougher. They really push the ball. Arkansas had one guy that really pushed the ball. Kentucky’s got multiple guys that push the ball.

“They have more than a couple of shooters. And they can shoot it from deep, deep. Arkansas had one, maybe two. They have three, maybe four. They’re big inside, and those two guys inside (Brandon Garrison and Malachi Moreno) complement each other. They kinda play about 22, 18 minutes, so they’re usually fresh. They’re well-coached. Again, I think we’re gonna hit some of the better teams in the country, and they’re one of them.”

Will the Spartans be able to pull off the roster? Izzo is confident in his guys to respond to the challenge.

“I’ll be shocked if we don’t play well,” he continued. “Whether that’s enough — I mean (Kentucky is) a hell of a team with a hell of a roster. That’s 10 deep of really good players. So we’ll see.”

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