Jay Bilas explains what made Mark Pope a ‘home run’ at Kentucky: “(It’s) a pleasure to watch him work.”

Kentucky Wildcats head coach Mark Pope talks with his wife Lee Anne after the game against the Georgia State Panthers at Rupp Arena at Central Bank Center.

 

The Kentucky Wildcats celebrated 500 days of Mark Pope this week, the BYU head coach making his move to Lexington on Friday, April 12, 2024. That means it’s been 501 days since fans lost their minds and rivals danced on the program’s grave for running off a Hall of Fame coach in favor of a guy with zero NCAA Tournament wins at the time.

 

Funny how life works, Pope’s approval rating sky-high following a record-breaking season with eight top-15 wins and a run to the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2019. We sit here today, entering his second season at the helm, totally confident in his ability to hang banner No. 9 inside Rupp Arena.

 

Jay Bilas knows a thing or two about championship culture and doing what it takes to win trophies — he was a four-year starter for Mike Krzyzewski at Duke and helped the Blue Devils win it all in 1986. Wrong shade of blue for Big Blue Nation, but it’s inarguable that the guy knows his stuff as ESPN’s leading basketball voice for three decades.

 

What was his reaction to Mitch Barnhart‘s polarizing hire as he watched it all unfold at the time?

 

“I don’t know that you can ever feel like anyone’s a fit for that job — it’s such a demanding job, as you guys know,” Bilas told KSR on the Sources Say Podcast this week. “There are so many great candidates for a job like Kentucky, but Mark was a home run. And I think 501 days ago, like most people, I didn’t know what to expect other than it was going to be a positive environment and a really good offense, because Mark’s one of the best offensive coaches in the game.”

 

He trusted the mind, obviously, but putting together a roster on short notice with no high school recruiting base or continuity from the previous administration was tricky. It was an island of misfit portal toys, coming from different schools, conferences and levels of basketball. How would the pieces come together? Was the team talented enough to win at Kentucky?

 

Bilas used Ansley Almonor as the best example of Pope zigging while others zagged, essentially playing transfer portal Moneyball to find the perfect winning fits.

 

“I didn’t know what to expect from the roster. I had seen all the players that he had brought in, but you didn’t know how they were going to fit together,” he said. “And I honestly didn’t really understand the depth of the analytics they did with regard to each player.

 

“Whether it’s (Ansley) Almonor, who maybe wasn’t at the top of everyone’s list, but because he was such a good cutter and could make corner threes and move without the ball so well, Mark and his staff thought that would be a great fit for that team. It turned out to be just that.”

 

Bilas was a regular on the broadcast for Kentucky games, getting a front-row seat to Pope’s debut season in Lexington. That included a lot of Rupp Arena ice cream — “I probably gained 10 pounds,” he told KSR — but more one-on-one time with the staff.

 

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His biggest takeaway? Positivity.

 

“It was one of the things that I enjoyed most about watching Mark and his staff, just the positive environment,” Bilas said. “I was just at a clinic recently, and he was talking about this. Like, if you want to reduce turnovers, Mark and his staff aren’t the type that are going to say, ‘Don’t turn the ball over.’ They’re going to emphasize protecting the ball.

 

“They tell their players what they want them to do, not emphasize what they don’t want them to do.”

 

For Pope, it’s not about correcting bad habits, but rather building good habits to begin with. He instills confidence in players to be the best version of themselves — no micromanaging, making guys worry about messing up or looking over their shoulder.

 

That’s what makes him a special coach that, as a former player himself, Bilas can’t get enough of. And for those reasons, Kentucky won big in Pope’s first season in charge.

 

“I’m sure he blows a stack from time to time. I never really saw it, but all his corrections with his players, he’s just insanely positive,” he continued. “I think you saw a group that reacted in a positive way to that. They were taking risks without fear of making a mistake, and sometimes — and I don’t mean this in a bad way, but a lot of coaches coach from more of the negative side, the correction side.

 

“That can make players sometimes fearful of taking a risk or making a mistake. That’s not the way Mark and his staff operate.”

 

He gets paid to provide analysis on wins and losses, but as a pure fan of the game, it doesn’t get much better watching Pope operate.

 

“It was really enjoyable for me to watch, not only as a basketball analyst, but also as just a fan of the game and somebody who loves watching practice and watching coaches work,” Bilas told KSR. “It was just a pleasure to watch him work.”