It’s been a disappointing season for Mark Pope and his Kentucky basketball team.
Going into the NCAA Tournament this week, there aren’t many who would argue that point.
Lopsided losses, injuries to key players and questionable roster construction have plagued year two of the Pope era, and it’s all led to plenty of consternation in fan circles.
A vocal segment of the UK fan base took to social media and message boards over the past few months to declare that Pope, who led the Cats to the Sweet 16 under difficult circumstances in Year 1, is not the right coach to lead the program, well before Year 2 is even finished.
Disappointment with the way this Kentucky season has gone is understandable. But a couple of college basketball giants pushed back hard on the narrative that Pope isn’t the right man for the UK job, three days before the Cats were set to play Santa Clara in round one of March Madness.
Longtime CBS broadcaster Clark Kellogg — a star at Ohio State and NBA lottery pick in his own playing days — and former Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl, who’s now an analyst for the network, held a conference call to preview the NCAA Tournament on Tuesday.
Both shook their heads when it was mentioned that some Kentucky fans have already decided that Pope isn’t the guy to lead their program to major success in the future. The question was directed at Pearl, who knows the UK fan base well and has coached against Pope in the past, but Kellogg jumped in first, when it became clear that he also had a strong opinion on the situation.
“I do,” he told the Herald-Leader. “I mean, how can a guy not be the guy in Year 2, when he’s been in the tournament both years? Well, it is this day and age. It is Kentucky. I understand how things can be amplified, even in a maniacal and unreasonable fashion. So I fully understand that. Don’t ever agree with it. Understand it. So it is what it is.”
Pearl spent 17 seasons as an SEC head coach — six at Tennessee and 11 at Auburn — before retiring last summer and handing over the reins of the Tigers’ program to his son and longtime assistant, Steven Pearl.
He said he agreed with Kellogg’s assessment. Pearl, who has always been complimentary of Kentucky fans and the UK program, in general, led with that Tuesday.
“There is something special about Rupp. It’s different,” he said. “I think a lot of it does have to do with the fans. They are knowledgeable. It’s a big part of their DNA and their life. And I always went to Rupp feeling a tremendous responsibility that I owed the fan base good basketball. And they knew good basketball. They watched good basketball. I always felt a different level of responsibility — not just to try to win, but to show some good basketball.”
Pearl, who has also been complimentary of Pope in the past, then launched into a defense of the current Kentucky coach and the unique situation he’s been in during his tenure so far.
“You know, Kentucky has had a lot of injuries,” he said. “They had — as we all did — a lot of revamping to do in the roster and putting the pieces together. The window, especially when you’re a team like Kentucky that is in a position to sort of select what’s out there in the transfer portal, because it’s Kentucky, and because of their ability to invest in their players and their program, it happens so fast.
“And a lot of times, with these other programs, they got time to sort of evaluate the portal much more carefully, much more closely, because they don’t have to make those quick decisions. Kentucky has to make those decisions right off the bat. ‘Do you want me or don’t you want me? If you want me, I’m coming.’ And there’s a crunch there.”
Auburn’s Bruce Pearl, left, and Kentucky head coach Mark Pope greet one another before a game at Rupp Arena on March 1, 2025. Ryan C. Hermens [email protected]
To Pearl’s point, injuries to Jaland Lowe and Kam Williams — and the struggles Jayden Quaintance has faced in his return from knee surgery — have impacted UK’s season. Pope also dealt with major injuries to key players like Lamont Butler, Jaxson Robinson and Kerr Kriisa last season yet still led the Cats beyond the first week of the NCAA Tournament for the first time in six years.
Pope also started with zero scholarship players when he took the job — everyone on John Calipari’s final UK team left the program — and built his first roster largely through veterans in the transfer portal.
When those players moved on from college after last season, he hit the portal hard again, adding six new transfers to a group of four returnees and a handful of high school and international recruits.
It all added up to a 21-13 record heading into NCAA Tournament week and a 7 seed in the 2026 bracket. Pearl sees much brighter seasons ahead for the Pope era.
“You are not going to find a better coach, a better person than Mark Pope. Period,” he said. “You’re not going to find anybody that loves that program more.”
The four-time SEC Coach of the Year also offered up a warning of sorts for those in the UK fan base who are already fed up with Pope, comparing the angst to similar situations he saw with football coaches Phil Fulmer at Tennessee and Gus Malzahn at Auburn.
“When a fan base starts talking about a coach not being their coach, that hurts the program. It hurts the recruiting. It hurts the retention,” Pearl said. “And as Clark said, there’s no place for it after just two years. They’ve got a chance to rebuild and reload and be Kentucky again next year. And don’t forget, the SEC, it’s way harder than it used to be at any other time, (for) any other coach in the history of that program. You take any coach, the SEC is stronger now than it used to be. So some times have changed.”
The SEC leads all leagues with 10 teams in this year’s NCAA Tournament field. The conference had a record 14 teams in last year’s March Madness bracket, including Pearl’s final Auburn team, which went to the Final Four, and the Florida Gators, who won the national title.
No more than five SEC teams made the tournament in any of John Calipari’s first eight seasons as Kentucky’s head coach, when he had the bulk of his success with the program.
As for UK’s short-term outlook, neither of the CBS analysts was particularly optimistic.
“I think they’ve drawn the toughest double-digit seed in the field, in my mind,” Kellogg said. “I love the way Santa Clara plays. The Broncos are really good. They’ve got two or three guys that look like they’re going to be pros at some level, maybe in the NBA. They’re a high-octane offensive team. …
“And if they play their game, I think it’s going to be a hard game for Kentucky to win.”
If UK can defeat Santa Clara — 12:15 p.m. ET Friday on CBS — the Cats would most likely face 2-seeded Iowa State in the round of 32 on Sunday.
“Clark spelled it out as far as the road to the Final Four and Kentucky,” Pearl said. “This is a very tough first-round opponent. And if they get past this one, Iowa State is a tough 2, as well.”
Ben Roberts
Lexington Herald-Leader
Ben Roberts is the University of Kentucky men’s basketball beat writer for the Lexington Herald-Leader. He has previously specialized in UK basketball recruiting coverage and created and maintained the Next Cats blog. He is a Franklin County native and first joined the Herald-Leader in 2006.
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