That makes no sense. Retired former BYU Basketball coaches who live in Utah are not the same as an active head coach.

If Pope attended the press conference then Kentucky would justifiably wonder why he was spending time at such an event when he's still in the first few days of working for them and he needs every second of his time to be spent on building his next roster.

So it's not just that Pope should not be criticized for failing to attend, it would be foolish for him to have been there. Pope should have posted a brief "thanks for the memories" statement about BYU and it was bush league to snub his former employer, but attending a press conference for the guy they hire after you? No.