From last week, regarding Pope, the article says "He has won at a place with as limited a recruiting pool as any in Division I, a feat even more impressive after BYU’s move to the Big 12 in 2023–24"

"He was an excellent player in Lexington, part of the 1996 national championship team that is royalty in town forever. Pope was likely due for a better job than the one he had at BYU."

So, as limited a recruiting pool at BYU as any D1. Pope was likely due for a better job than BYU. We know its hard to recruit to BYU given the geographic and honor code and religious nature of the school but its often still jarring to me to see how outsiders view BYU.

Writer did get a slap at Pope though too - "Kentucky prides itself on being bigger, better and more serious about basketball than anyone else and wants to hire … BYU’s coach, who has advanced in the NCAA tournament as many times as this writer has?"

https://www.si.com/college/2024/04/12/kentucky-settle-mark-pope-coaching-landscape-changed