Just 1 paragraph from the very good article on Pope in The Athletic:
In the classroom, Pope was a high achiever who was nominated as a Rhodes Scholar candidate during his senior year. On the court, he was a borderline starter whose coach, Rick Pitino, called one of the hardest workers he ever had. “He showed up from Washington with his hat on backwards, flip flops and a Cannondale bicycle he rode all around campus,” recalls Jeff Sheppard, his former roommate at UK. “I don’t know that I’ve ever been around a harder worker in basketball and in school, but Mark always showed his confidence through his humility. He was very comfortable being different.”