Kentucky’s decision to hire Mark Pope as its next basketball coach may have surprised most fans in Lexington. That being said, there’s one fan of the Wildcats who has been expecting this move to happen for well over a year.
Believe it or not, a Kentucky fan predicted in 2023 that Pope would take over as the program’s basketball coach. He also correctly predicted that Kentucky would swing and miss on coaches such as Scott Drew and Billy Donovan.
“I can already predict the headlines: ‘Kentucky pursues Scott Drew. Scott Drew signs lifetime contract with Baylor. Kentucky has reached out to Billy Donovan. Kentucky set to announce Mark Pope as next head coach,'” the fan wrote on X on Jan. 12, 2023.
Unsurprisingly, this post went viral on Thursday night because Kentucky literally hired Pope as its next head coach after missing out on big names like Drew and Donovan.
“This was one of the great predictions of all time,” Matt Jones of Kentucky Sports Radio said.
“College sports are somehow completing shocking and predictable at the same time,” another person replied.
Pope has signed a five-year deal with Kentucky, per multiple reports. He’ll be tasked with replacing John Calipari. That’s not easy to do even though the school has struggled to win in March over the past few seasons.
There’s history between Pope and Kentucky. He played for the school from 1994-1996.
Pope coached five years at BYU before landing this promotion. This past season, he led the Cougars to the NCAA Tournament and owned a 23-11 record.
As of now, Pope doesn’t have a single NCAA Tournament victory under his belt. Perhaps that’ll change next season.