When new Kentucky coach Mark Pope walked off a bus inside Rupp Arena last month holding the 1996 national championship trophy he helped win as a player for the Wildcats, an arena filled to the brim with UK fans went nuts celebrating the return of a champion. It was a frenzied moment of both nostalgia and hope that the past and present will collide to bring more triumphs with Pope as the coach at his alma mater.
On the one hand, Pope has yet to win an NCAA Tournament game across nine total seasons as a coach at Utah Valley and BYU. Though his career 187-108 record is solid, his resume pales in comparison to national-title winners such as Billy Donovan, Dan Hurley and Scott Drew, who were each connected to the UK opening at some level.
But on the other hand, Pope knows firsthand what it takes to reach the pinnacle of college basketball while wearing a Wildcats uniform. Kentucky went 62-7 during Pope’s two seasons under Rick Pitino, earned a pair of No. 1 seeds in the NCAA Tournament and won the trophy that Pope toted on his way off the bus.
Pope averaged 7.6 points, 5.2 rebounds and 1.2 blocks in 20.3 minutes per game for the 1995-96 title team, earning him a spot in the lore of a proud program.
“Guys, it is the greatest honor that I will ever have in my professional…career to be able to come back here and do this with you,” Pope said. “The difference between Kentucky and every other program in the country is that this is not my team. It is not even our team. It is our team.”
Time will tell whether the passionate reunion between Kentucky and Pope yields the results UK fans are hoping for. They don’t have to look far for an example of how a joyous reunion can go wrong. Kenny Payne won a national championship as a player at Louisville in 1986, but flopped as a coach, posting a 12-52 mark in two seasons from 2022-24.
Recent history shows that coaches returning to the schools where they once played produce a mixture of results ranging from horrendous to triumphant. Here’s the ranking of big hits, big misses and a look at some of those who fell somewhere in between.
The coaches ranked are either active now or were hired by their former school within the past 15 years.
Big hits
1. Matt Painter, Purdue (2005-present)
Painter spent one season as a college head coach at Southern Illinois before returning to Purdue to be the Boilermakers head coach in waiting in…
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