Mark Pope has made a huge impact since becoming the head coach of the Kentucky Wildcats in April. In his introductory press conference, he made every fan realize that the assignment was to win national championships.
Since then, Pope and Kentucky have decided to remove the large NBA trading-card-style posters for each former player in the league and to keep only the national championship banners at the practice gym.
That is what Jimmy Dykes, a former American college basketball coach and current sportscaster for ESPN, noticed when he went to the practice facility.
During his coaching career, he was an assistant under Eddie Sutton at Kentucky from 1987-89 and also was the Arkansas women’s basketball coach from 2014-17.
“The first thing I noticed when I walked the practice facility, all of those individual banners are down,” Dykes said this week in an interview with Kentucky Sports Radio. “The only thing left on the wall is the national championships. That’s the standard. It’s about hanging those banners. It’s a new day for Kentucky.”
While Dykes was at the practice facility, he feels like the whole team now understands the assignment under Pope and what it means to be a Kentucky Wildcat.
“It’s a high, high premium on guys that want to play for Kentucky, and they understand what that program is about, the best they can for 18, 19, 21, 22-year-old kid. Now, does Trent Noah understand that? Absolutely. Does Travis Perry understand that? Absolutely. But I think he brought in guys and was very clear about the Kentucky standard under him and what they’re supposed to look like and play like.”
Although Dykes is good friends with John Calipari, he feels like Kentucky made the right hire when they went after Pope to become the next head coach.
Only time will tell if that’s the case, but there’s no denying it’s been a good start thus far. Between the great coaching staff that Pope assembled to building what looks like a top 25-caliber roster in just over a month on the job, there’s reason to be optimistic for the future of Kentucky Basketball under Pope’s watch.
