Mark Pope's way out reaching out to recruits is very unique

Mark Pope reaches out to players very different than other coaches.

Kentucky head coach Mark Pope before the game of La Familia against Herd That in the Lexington Regional Final of the TBT. July 23, 2024 / Scott Utterback/Courier Journal / USA

One thing we have learned early into Mark Pope's tenure as Kentucky's head basketball coach is he likes to do things outside of the box. Coach Pope is young and energetic and this leads to him doing things differently than most college coaches.

During a conversation with Brandon Garrison during a recent media window, the Kentucky center talked about how Coach Pope first reached out to him. When reaching out to Garrison, Coach Pope gave him a Facetime call rather than a regular phone call because, according to Garrison, he doesn't "believe in phone calls."

Garrison said he was shocked when he received a Facetime call from Coach Pope because he hadn't ever seen a coach do that before. An excellent way to build a relationship with players is to stick out, and cleary, Coach Pope did that because shortly after origianal contact, Garriosn decided to pick Kentucky.

One of the questions about Coach Pope when he took the job as Kentucky's head coach was whether he could recruit at a high level.

Well, he put together a really competitive roster for the 2024-25 season and is doing a great job building relationships with players in the 2025 and 2026 classes, which should lead to some elite players picking Kentucky.

Perhaps Coach Pope's outside the box way of reaching out to recruits will lead to some excellent recruiting classes during his time in Lexington. All of Big Blue Nation is starting to believe that Coach Pope will succeed as Kentucky's head basketball coach.