John Wall is — and will always be — a Kentucky basketball legend. It’s only a matter of time before his No. 11 jersey is hanging in the rafters at Rupp Arena. Wall was the face of John Calipari‘s one-and-done era, but still rides with Kentucky basketball even after the high-profile coaching change.
On “Sunday Mornings with Matt and Myron”, Wall jumped on ESPN Radio to tell Matt Jones that he still supports Kentucky and likes what head coach Mark Pope is doing with the program.
“I’m happy for Mark Pope. I got an opportunity to meet him this past summer — or last summer — in Indiana when it was an EYBL tournament going on. Talked to him for a little bit,” Wall said on ESPN. “He got off to a hot start, I think a couple of injuries kind of slowed their team down. But for your first year to go that far that’s great. They got a lot of great pieces coming in this year with some good pieces coming back.”
“It’s great that he does it his way. Cal had it his way, and the people loved it for awhile, and now it’s a new transition with what’s going on. So you gotta respect Mark Pope, he’s a guy that has a championship there. He brings a different pedigree with how he wants to coach and do things.”
The one-and-done era is officially over at Kentucky but the goals remain the same — to hang banners. Pope is doing it a different way than Calipari but it’s becoming clear that the messaging towards the players that played for Coach Cal is that this program is still home.
John Wall feels the love.
“Kentucky’s always home for me. There’s always love. That’s the school I went to, the jersey I put on,” said Wall. “They gave me the opportunity to reach one of my goals and dreams in life to play college basketball, and play on one of the biggest levels for one of the best schools in the country, and a good opportunity to go to the league. So yeah, I’m definitely coming back.”
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