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Cameron Mills was so excited, his canine peed in the home. As soon as the news was official on Friday that his previous Kentucky teammate, Mark Pope, could be the subsequent head coach of their alma mater, Mills was bombarded by telephone calls and textual content messages. Within the delirium, he uncared for to take the canine for a stroll in time.
“I can’t get off the telephone,” Mills stated. “Our boy obtained the job, and we’re all type of dropping our minds.”
Mills and his teammates from the 1996 nationwide championship squad have a group-text thread collectively, and it’s been lit up since John Calipari’s surprising departure for Arkansas was first reported every week in the past.
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“All of us knew who we needed: Rick Pitino or Billy Donovan or Mark Pope,” Mills stated. “Clearly, we’re biased. All of us obtained recruited by Donovan, coached by Pitino and performed with Pope. However we didn’t assume it was real looking for any of them, actually. For it to be our boy Pope, everyone is salivating, as a result of everyone that coached him or performed with him is aware of what’s coming.”
Within the broader sense, what’s coming is a reconnection to the wealthy historical past and custom of Kentucky basketball. For all Calipari’s success in 15 years main this system, its picture turned a bit distorted throughout his tenure. Whether or not true or not, and Calipari insisted it wasn’t, many followers felt like accumulating NBA Draft picks was extra essential to him than hanging banners. In 9 years because the final a type of was hoisted to Rupp Enviornment’s rafters, a rising quantity puzzled whether or not placating future execs took precedence over satisfaction in what this system means to so many throughout the state — and throughout generations.
There can be no query what issues most to Pope, who has all the time worn the love for his alma mater on his sleeve. Or underneath his go well with. When he couldn’t make it to Lexington for one of many ’96 staff reunions, as a result of he was busy teaching his BYU staff, Pope recorded a video during which he ripped off his gown shirt and jacket to disclose a full Kentucky uniform. Then he belted out a C-A-T-S chant on the high of his lungs and completed with a heartfelt, “I really like you guys.”
BREAKING: pic.twitter.com/nBrpx8TFxC
— Steve Pierce (@PostJimmer) April 11, 2024
“How can that not excite you? There is no such thing as a higher individual for this than Mark,” stated former UK star Wayne Turner, a member of the 1996 and 1998 title groups. “After I walked into work after he obtained the job, I had just a few individuals hollering at me, ‘Mark Pope! Mark Pope! Mark Pope!’ I used to be simply pumping my fists, like, ‘Let’s go!’ What an ideal day for this system.”
Within the Calipari period, Pitino, his longtime nemesis, was basically erased at Kentucky. To be honest, he was additionally the coach of rival Louisville for lots of that point. However by extension, Pitino’s nice groups, from the 1992 Unforgettables to the ’96 Untouchables, the staff that breathed life again right into a program decimated by NCAA sanctions and the one which formally put the Cats again on high of faculty basketball, had been additionally minimized.
“It’s nothing towards Calipari in any respect, however I feel all of us know what we did within the ’90s was particular,” Mills stated. “We all know why we had been capable of do it, and his title is Rick Pitino. So now you’ve obtained a man coming in right here who’s from the Pitino tree and, whereas he’s in all probability not going to cuss like Coach cusses, he’s going to educate with the identical degree of depth and enthusiasm. That’s the way in which he performed, and there’s an entire era of followers who in all probability don’t know that about Mark. However the state is about to fall in love with him once more.”
The final word sign that Pope’s hiring will reconnect Kentucky to its previous glory got here nearly instantly after the announcement. From his workplace at St. John’s, Pitino recorded a video congratulating his former captain and assuring UK followers that Pope will “go on to greatness.” Later within the day, Pitino referred to as in to a Lexington radio present and stated he was so pleased with Pope that he’d signal a verify to assist fund the Wildcats’ title, picture and likeness collective.
“I can assure you one factor: No one, no person epitomizes the title Kentucky on the entrance of the jersey like Mark Pope,” Pitino stated in his video. “You might have one of many premier younger coaches within the recreation. Relish it, as a result of he’ll do you proud.”
— Rick Pitino (@RealPitino) April 12, 2024
Some have questioned whether or not the Wildcats jumped the gun bringing in Pope now — and so rapidly after Calipari’s departure — as an alternative of making an attempt tougher to land a much bigger title and extra achieved coach. However Alabama’s Nate Oats, Baylor’s Scott Drew and Connecticut’s Dan Hurley all stated no. Donovan, Pitino’s protege and former UK assistant who received two titles at Florida and now coaches the Chicago Bulls, would’ve required a for much longer wait with no assure he’d take the job. He had, the truth is, turned it down twice beforehand.
The 51-year-old Pope, in the meantime, received 25 video games in his fourth season at Utah Valley and received 68 p.c of his video games in 5 years at BYU, however he’s by no means received an NCAA Match recreation. His supporters level out that Kentucky isn’t BYU, and now he has almost limitless sources, a blue-blooded model title behind him and not one of the admissions challenges that restricted his recruiting choices on the final cease.
“Hurley’s successful proportion earlier than UConn was 59 p.c. Generally an ideal coach simply wants the good sources, the good followers, the good custom of an ideal program to develop into a Corridor of Fame coach,” Mills stated. “I get the people who find themselves questioning the rent, however in just a few weeks, in just a few months, once they see who he’s, he’ll begin successful over the doubters fairly rapidly. As a result of that is the man who outworked everyone, who out-studied everyone, whether or not we’re speaking scouting reviews or college. This isn’t the man you run by a brick wall for; that is the man you comply with after he’s already run by the brick wall for you. He’s the Kool-Help Man.”
Anthony Epps, place to begin guard for the 1996 staff, remembers two issues clearly about Pope. First, that he and roommate Jeff Sheppard would hop on their bicycles and trip absurd distances collectively — typically to Frankfort or London, Ky., and again — simply to clear their minds and keep targeted amid the chaos that comes with Kentucky basketball. Second, that when different gamers on the staff had been down, they went to Pope for a pick-me-up.
“He was so optimistic and upbeat on a regular basis, and he’d let you understand all the things was going to be OK. When Pope stated that, you believed him,” Epps stated. “He was like everyone’s massive brother, and now our brother is within the massive seat at UK. The best way he was all the time there for us, it’s time for not solely his previous teammates however the entire Massive Blue Nation to get behind him and belief that he’s going to get us again the place we wish to go. He’ll let you know that Kentucky basketball modified his life, and I can let you know he’s going to educate with a lot ardour and provides all the things he can to present again to this place.”
Outdoors of the Pope household, no person is happier about his new job than Sheppard, who lived with him for 2 years in school. “It’s nearly obnoxious how a lot power he brings to a room,” Sheppard stated. The phrase optimistic would be the one repeated most frequently about Pope, Sheppard predicted, as a result of he radiates pleasure. His subsequent most essential trait is a thirst for data, which isn’t shocking for a man who was a Rhodes Scholarship candidate and went to medical college at Columbia earlier than realizing he couldn’t shake the basketball bug.
“He’s all the time trying to develop and study and grasp his craft,” Sheppard stated. “That’s so essential in right now’s school basketball setting, as a result of this factor is a consistently transferring goal. What used to work nicely, it’s only a totally different recreation now. So positive, he’s a connection to our previous, however he’s all the time interested by the long run. That’s one of many causes I do know he’ll achieve success, as a result of he’s dedicated to placing all of the items round him — to convey gamers collectively, convey coaches collectively, convey the administration collectively, convey the college collectively, convey the state collectively — to make this occur. That’s what I’m excited to assist him with.
“I don’t know what my position can be. It received’t be on the bench, however I’m able to do my half from the row proper behind the bench, proper there supporting him in any means that I can.”
The best means, in fact, could be to inform his son, nationwide freshman of the yr Reed Sheppard, to carry off on the NBA Draft and play yet one more yr at Kentucky for his previous roommate. Sadly for Pope, Sheppard is a projected top-10 decide, and that’s in all probability going to show too arduous to move up. If it had been some other participant at some other program, there wouldn’t even be a call to be made.
However, Jeff Sheppard stated, “We’re open for all the things. Mark and I’ve had some conversations already, and Reed continues to be within the course of of creating that call. There’s appreciable curiosity proper now from the NBA, so we now have to take heed to that. There’s additionally appreciable curiosity from the followers at Kentucky, in order that makes it arduous. That makes it very tough.”
It’s nonetheless a protracted shot, however Pope does have one factor going for him. When he was an assistant coach at Georgia and the Bulldogs performed at Kentucky, Pope stopped by the Sheppard home. Reed was solely 7 years previous on the time, removed from an precise prospect, however Pope instructed him by no means to neglect who made his first in-home recruiting go to.
Neither of them might have imagined then the place they’d each be proper now, lifelong goals coming true on the identical place and time. For a star participant, a program and its new coach, all the things has come full circle.
“This isn’t simply in regards to the ’96 staff. That is about all of the ex-players — and all of the individuals who had been born into Kentucky basketball,” Mills stated. “That is, ‘Hey, he’s our man, and our man simply obtained the job.’”
On the morning it was official, Pope despatched a message to the 1996 group chat. He instructed them he wants them now simply as a lot as again then. (A lot of them plan to be at his public introduction Sunday afternoon at Rupp Enviornment.) He instructed them the one means this works is that if his former teammates are all-in with him. He instructed them he couldn’t wait to return residence.
“The very last thing he wrote,” Mills stated, “had us able to run behind him by one other brick wall: Let’s do that. That obtained me. Yeah, we’ve executed this earlier than. Let’s do that once more.”
(Picture of Mark Pope, middle, and Kentucky teammates cheering in the course of the 1996 Midwest Regional remaining: Jim Mone / AP)
