College basketball’s coaching carousel just got a lot crazier.
ESPN reported Sunday night that Kentucky head coach John Calipari is nearing a five-year deal to take the same position at Arkansas, a move that will surely shake up the entire sport.
Such ripple effects could even reach Provo, as BYU head coach Mark Pope has already been listed by ESPN as a possible candidate to replace Calipari, even if it might be a long shot.
Pope’s name has already been floated around for a number of other major jobs in this current cycle — including USC and Louisville — but Kentucky is a whole new ballgame.
Not only is it “arguably the biggest job in college basketball,” according to Jeff Borzello, but it’s also Pope’s alma mater, as he played for Rick Pitino’s 1996 national champion Wildcats squad.
“In his nine years as a head coach at Utah Valley and BYU, he’s gone to two NCAA tournaments — but is yet to win a tournament game,” Borzello wrote of Pope.
In addition to Pope, Borzello listed Dan Hurley, Scott Drew, Billy Donovan, Jay Wright, Nate Oats and others as possible Calipari replacements, along with Pitino himself.
The Athletic put out its own list of Kentucky candidates, which was quite similar to that of ESPN, but also included the 51 year old Pope.
“Pope was part of Rick Pitino’s 1995-96 national championship team in Lexington, and has long been rumored as a potential Calipari successor strictly because of that background,” the Athletic’s college basketball staff wrote. “... Pope has never won a NCAA Tournament game. Would Kentucky, one of the few championship-or-bust programs in the country, really put that much faith in someone without a win in the Big Dance?”
Pope has gone 110-52 in five seasons with the Cougars, finishing an encouraging 23-11 in the program’s inaugural Big 12 campaign, which ended with an upset loss to No. 11-seed Duquesne in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. He is currently under contract at BYU through the 2026-27 season.