{"id":293081,"date":"2025-10-10T22:40:11","date_gmt":"2025-10-10T22:40:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/293081\/"},"modified":"2025-10-10T22:40:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-10T22:40:11","slug":"through-changes-in-college-basketball-mark-pope-believes-its-the-best-time-to-coach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/293081\/","title":{"rendered":"Through changes in college basketball, Mark Pope believes it’s the ‘best time to coach’"},"content":{"rendered":"

In a time when many coaches are stepping away from the game entirely using NIL and rev-share hurdles as excuses, Mark Pope <\/a><\/strong>is digging even deeper at Kentucky<\/a>. 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 \u2014 especially in Lexington.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not to say it\u2019s not challenging, but that\u2019s what you sign up for at UK, right? If you\u2019re not exhausted, you\u2019re not trying hard enough, because that\u2019s what it takes to hang banners inside Rupp Arena. Pope is having fun with that challenge. <\/p>\n

\u201cI love coaching right now. I think it\u2019s probably the most challenging, fascinating, stimulating, energizing time to ever coach the game of college basketball,\u201d he said in a one-on-one interview with KSR on Friday. \u201cOur 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? <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s complicated and it can be exhausting at times, but I think it\u2019s the greatest time to be a coach. It is just unbelievable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some coaches are saying the game they grew up with and loved has gone and been replaced by a professional product \u2014 and Pope doesn\u2019t disagree, to an extent, because those traits are obviously there. That doesn\u2019t mean it\u2019s all bad, though, and whining about it doesn\u2019t do anybody good. Change or let the world pass you by, something we don\u2019t need to worry about in Lexington.<\/p>\n

You can call it a pro game, or you can say it\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a time this spring where I felt like this is more of a \u2014 it\u2019s 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, \u2018I\u2019m going to start treating these guys like pros. I\u2019m going to be more like an NBA coach.\u2019 I spent a lot of time in the league, and I have a very good vibe for that,\u201d Pope said. \u201cAnd 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

The players are rich, sure, but they\u2019re young and rich. They\u2019re immature and rich. They make mistakes while also being rich. We can talk about the money until we\u2019re 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.<\/p>\n

No backing down when student-athletes need leaders now more than ever. <\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like it\u2019s not only the best time to coach college basketball, but our players need us as mentors more than they\u2019ve ever needed coaches before \u2014 because their lives are more complicated,\u201d Pope told KSR. \u201cTheir lives have gotten better, but they\u2019ve 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

The right guy is leading the Wildcats.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In a time when many coaches are stepping away from the game entirely using NIL and rev-share hurdles…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":293082,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[1339,24390,70678,1317,1337,1338,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-293081","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-basketball","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-kentucky-basketball","10":"tag-mark-pope-91-newport-senior","11":"tag-ncaa","12":"tag-ncaa-basketball","13":"tag-ncaabasketball","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-united-states","16":"tag-unitedstates","17":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115352281267031238","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293081","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=293081"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293081\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/293082"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=293081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=293081"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=293081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}