Mark Pope explains why Kentucky basketball hasn’t hired a general manager
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Kentucky head coach Mark Pope has been answering fan questions this week regarding a variety of topics concerning the future of the program.
On Friday, Pope tackled one of the biggest criticism of his tenure in Lexington so far — the lack of a formal general manager to make decisions at the top of the program.
Pope explained that while other programs have decided to hire a GM, Kentucky‘s approach has been to split typical responsibilities for that role between 4 people.
“In this ever-changing dynamic college basketball environment, everybody is trying a different solution,” Pope said. “For us, instead of hiring a singular GM, we’ve gone with a more comprehensive general-management team approach. We have 4 members of the team.”
Here’s video of Pope’s response, which includes answers to several other questions as well:
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As for the 4-person team, Pope named Keegan Brown (data analysis and roster construction), Nick Robinson (salary cap strategy), Kevin Sergent (compliance officer) and Kim Shelton (NIL contracts) as committee members.
Kentucky is still hoping to add some talent via the transfer portal this offseason. So far, Pope and his staff have earned commitments from 4 transfers and 1 high school recruit in the class of 2026.
The Wildcats are 20-16 in SEC play over Pope’s first 2 seasons at the helm.
Spenser is a news editor for Saturday Down South and covers college football across all Saturday Football brands.
