Kentucky fans give electric welcome to new coach Mark Pope in Rupp Arena ceremony
Kentucky gave a hero’s welcome to new head coach Mark Pope on Sunday afternoon.
Pope was officially introduced as the Wildcats’ next head coach in a ceremony at Rupp Arena. While this hire was initially controversial, Big Blue Nation showed up in droves to support their new head coach.
Here’s video of the scene inside Rupp Arena, which appeared to be sold out — or close to it — for this event:
The scene inside Rupp Arena … pic.twitter.com/i1Aw3boFBS
— Ben Roberts (@BenRobertsHL) April 14, 2024
Pope is a former Wildcat himself who played for UK in the mid-1990’s. He was a member of Kentucky’s 1996 national championship team — a squad that knocked off John Calipari and UMass in the Final Four.
Pope made a grand entrance to the event along with several other members of the 1996 national title-winning team:
Possibly the most badass entrance ever into Rupp Arena.
The 1996 Kentucky championship team walks out of the bus, with new coach Mark Pope hoisting the trophy.
Welcome home Coach! pic.twitter.com/uKgxDkHqlm
— Tristan Pharis (@TristanUda) April 14, 2024
That wasn’t the only prop used in this ceremony from the 1996 season. Instead of receiving a ceremonial jersey at his introduction, Pope requested to use a game-worn jersey — one that shows his “blood, sweat, tears and love.”
Here’s video of Pope showing off the jersey to fans in attendance:
Mark Pope didn’t want the ceremonial jersey. He called for his game-worn jersey. “It’s the jersey that has blood, sweat, tears and love.” pic.twitter.com/0yzauQeuAp
— Kyle Tucker (@KyleTucker_ATH) April 14, 2024
Overall, it was an electric atmosphere as Kentucky prepares for its next era of basketball in Lexington.
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Whatever makes you feel better about the hire…
It was, essentially, a “sell out”. THey closed the gates with 5000 additional people still outside.
I think the Pope may have resurrected the dead and awakened a sleeping giant. That was one heck of a ‘press conference.’
BBN can be pretty impressive when it comes to basketball. Dont think I have ever seen or heard of a sellout just to introduce a coach.
Expecting big crowds for the UT v Ky baseball series this week. Should be some great games.
It was free, but the equivalent of a ‘sell out.’
I am looking forward to the baseball game, also. We are doing well this season; however, we have the top teams coming up at the end of the season. I hope we can keep it up against the best teams. Our pitching is significantly improved over last year and our hitting has been improving. Should be a good series vs. the Vols.
Very nice!!
It’s such a weird hire- any Kentucky fan would respect and appreciate Mark Pope the player and captain of the 1996 NC team. It gets a little slippery when you insert that same person to lead the program. Time will tell if this experiment is successful. But the one thing that is not in doubt is that you have a guy who cares about all the same things that fans do. With the early tepid response to the hire, I thought there may be a light turnout Sunday. Keeping in mind it was a beautiful day in Lexington, Keeneland was running and the Masters on tv. And the fans just exceeded expectations. Which was such a cool thing to see. Again, it’s a wait and see as it pertains to results on the court, but fan support, NIL support and administrative support are all there for this guy to make it happen.
My biggest concern, at this point, is whether the student-athletes that are up and coming will be willing to assimilate the traditions of UK basketball into their learning process, or whether they will be too interested in the short-term gains. I think Pope will insist that all up-and-coming ‘stars’ will have to sincerely want to be at UK and will have to demonstrate this by showing appreciation for the stars of years gone by. It is an absolute turnaround from the Calipari years. If he can persuade them that it really is an ‘honor’ to don the uniform then there are good things to come. That seems to be one of the main things I gleaned from the introduction, and I can now see why his hiring makes a lot of sense. I do not doubt his coaching ability at all. He will be swimming upstream from the main currents and if he can bring the players along then there are plenty of good times ahead. I think he will succeed, but we will have to wait and see. He certainly has no illusions about why he is here. He made that very clear. Overall, I think he was probably the best hire for the program at this time.
KY fans seem to be coming around on this hire, after initially being lukewarm on it. I’ll be interested to see what kind of roster Pope assembles for year 1.
There will be a lot of side takes this next season when the Hogs and Cats square off. It will be fun. We know Cal will bring a loaded team with NBA talent to Lexington.
Will the fans boo Calipari? Or will they be more accommodating? We were pretty tough on Pitino when he went to UofL. Both coaches had some admirable accomplishments at UK.
U of L is our bitter rival. Arkansas, well, its just not anywhere close as far and we are concerned. I won’t boo Cal, I’m very glad he’s gone and we have Pope. Pitino could have gone a lot of other places, but he crossed the line with the team to the west. Plus gave us the bird the last time in Rupp. Not the same. The Hogs will do exactly what the Cats have done the last few years and we will get back to being who we are, which is champions.