Mark Pope will be a legendary head coach for the historic Kentucky basketball program

The Kentucky Wildcats have an elite basketball coach.

Mark Pope exits the bus with holding a trophy as he enters Rupp Arena greeting thousands of fans for his introductory press conference on Sunday, April 14, 2024. / Clare Grant/Courier Journal / USA TODAY

The college basketball world changed drastically during this offseason as Kentucky's head coach, John Calipari, left to be the new head coach at Arkansas.

This led to Kentucky Athletic Director Mitch Barnhart hiring Mark Pope to be the next head coach of the Kentucky basketball program. Some didn't like this hire as Coach Pope is still a relatively new head coach, and he has never coached at a massive program like Kentucky.

Coach Pope was at BYU previous to Kentucky, and it isn't easy to recruit at BYU, so this led to some being concerned about him being able to recruit at the level required to succeed at Kentucky.

These concerns are understandable, but looking at Coach Pope's track record, he is one of the best coaches in all of college basketball when it comes to the X's and O's. He has an offensive system that worked really well at BYU and is going to work really well at Kentucky. This system has a lot to do with cutting to the basket, passing the ball, and shooting a lot of threes.

While X's and O's plus recruiting will all be a big part of Pope's legacy at Kentucky, it isn't the main reason he will succeed in Lexington. Coach Pope is the perfect fit to be Kentucky's head coach, and he understands what the expectations are at Kentucky. Coach Pope made it very clear he is here to hang banners, and that is what he will do.

At Kentucky, Coach Pope will have the players necessary to run his system at a high level, and this will lead to championships.