Early gripes about Kentucky‘s coaching hire came down to two simple facts: Mark Pope had never recruited a five-star recruit and he’s never won a game in the NCAA Tournament. How could he lead the greatest tradition in the history of college basketball back to greatness with no prior March Madness success or the experience to bring in players good

Mark Pope was asked about a potential Arkansas vs. St. John's second-round NCAA Tournament matchup between John Calipari and Rick Pitino.

His claim to fame as a Wildcat came when he started Kentucky’s 2007 NCAA Tournament round-of-64 contest against Villanova after UK mistakenly turned in Dwight Perry’s name in its starting lineup instead of his cousin and regular starting forward Bobby Perry.