How Kentucky coach Mark Pope decided to follow a legend - ESPN

MARK POPE felt uncertain.

There was a moment, he admitted, after it was clear that he was Kentucky's choice, when he stood alone at home and grappled with apprehension about a job that offered both spoils he knew well and obstacles, too.

Pope was the head coach at BYU, the second-winningest program in the state of Utah. If he took this job, he would be the head coach of the winningest team in men's college basketball history — following John Calipari, whose run included a national title and four trips to the Final Four in five years.

«You never follow a legend, right?» Pope said he wondered for a few minutes that night. «You never follow a legend.»

Pope decided to anyway, even after Kentucky fans had publicly campaigned for more notable and successful coaches. But in the months since, Pope has converted a lot of the naysayers by being himself. That authenticity — and an accelerated push to build his first team — have turned concern to excitement about his first season.

But on the day of his introductory news conference at Rupp Arena, it was hard not to consider the stakes.

It was the biggest moment of Pope's career, and he was riding on a charter bus carrying him and dozens of former Wildcats players through campus — and then through a loading dock and onto the court.

«The expectations at Kentucky are higher than anywhere else,» Pope said to the crowd. «That's the standard and that's the history of Kentucky. If you don't hang a banner, then you haven't had a successful season. And I love that.»

Arriving on a bus? That kind of flashy statement hadn't been Pope's style. But everything at Kentucky is exaggerated. In that moment, it was another reminder that he was no longer living in the mountains of Provo, Utah, but had