There’s hope in Mark Pope.

Big Blue Nation raced through the usual progression of coaching search emotions and finally reached the end stage in feeling optimism in Kentucky’s hire.

Let’s review the steps to arriving at this point.

Step 1: Convince yourself that Kentucky is better off without John Calipari.

Step 2: Believe that this is the time Kentucky lands its white whale, Billy Donovan.

Step 3: OK, so maybe no Donovan, but the fallback plan remains ironclad. Surely Scott Drew can’t prefer Baylor to Kentucky’s blue blood, right? Ha!

Step 4: Drew did what?! He said no?! Forget him. It’s on to the fallback fallback plan. Hire Bruce Pearl.

Step 5: Outrage! Surely Kentucky isn’t hiring BYU’s coach, right? Can’t be. Fire Mitch Barnhart!

Step 6: Excitement. The Cats are back! Never mind yesterday’s disappointment and frustration. Not only is Pope one of BBN, he’s a basketball savant! Calipari couldn’t carry Pope’s chessboard.

Pope won over more believers during an upbeat introduction at Rupp Arena that mirrored a revival.

Let’s go to the mailbag for feedback from Kentucky fans and others on this hire:

Jim writes: Pope is actually an outstanding coach. Kentucky got a great hire. Try to even get BYU to Field of 68, that is NOT an easy task. … Kentucky’s just bettered their chances with this gift of Calipari leaving and the hiring of Pope!

My response: You’re entitled to believe that Pope is an outstanding coach, but the argument of “Try to even get BYU to Field of 68” rings false.

BYU made the NCAA tournament eight times during a nine-year span (2007-15). It wasn’t in the Big 12 then, but that meant it played in a conference that received fewer NCAA bids. In four of the eight years it qualified for March Madness during that span, BYU advanced past the first round.

Comparatively, BYU never advanced past the first round under Pope, although his best team probably was his first, in 2019-20, and the NCAA canceled March Madness that year because of the pandemic.

BYU making the NCAA tournament isn’t some miraculous feat, but I credit Pope for effectively transitioning BYU into the Big 12.

Nolen writes: Wildcat fans demanded change, and got it. Their new hire has gotten BYU into the dance and played at Kentucky, so it’s not a bad hire. That said, ‘humble pie’ it may end up being. Or, perhaps he knocks it out of the park.

I agree, why did they not go after Bruce Pearl? His slightly tainted past doesn’t matter in the new NIL world.

My response: This hire is a bigger gamble than I would have expected for this job. If I could have Pearl or Pope for the next five years, I’d have more faith in Pearl.

Steve writes: Excellent column on UK’s hiring of Mark Pope. I am surrounded by Kentucky, Louisville, and Indiana fans. Both Louisville and Indiana have tried “favorite son” hires recently with not-so-successful results. Now, UK is trying a “favorite son” hire of its own. In the past, basketball programs like Kentucky, Louisville, and Indiana have always assumed that they could get their first (or second) choice of head coaches. That was probably true in the past. It is most definitely not true today.

My response: Good point about “favorite son” hires. Hiring from the family spurs fan optimism, but it doesn’t increase the chance of on-court success. To your point, Kenny Payne fizzled at Louisville and Mike Woodson is spinning his tires at Indiana. The nation’s best coaches — Dan Hurley, Bill Self and Kelvin Sampson come to mind — are not coaching at their alma maters.

GRADING SEC HIRES: Arkansas gets top marks for John Calipari, but how did Kentucky, Vandy score?

TOPPMEYER: Hiring Mark Pope forces Kentucky basketball to swallow some humble pie

Grover writes: Cal was treading water. … Pope will make BBN forget Calipari.

My response: Calipari remaining in the SEC at Arkansas will make him harder to forget, especially if his Razorbacks beat Kentucky.

Wildcat writes: I would rather have four-star players and transfers and hang banners than a whole bench full of five-star one-and-dones that can’t get past the first round of the NCAA Tournament or win an SEC Tournament. UK made John Calipari, not John Calipari made UK.

My response: Calipari didn’t make Kentucky, but he pulled it out of a rut after the forgettable Billy Gillespie era — if you can call two seasons an era. I disagree that UK made Calipari — he already had taken UMass and Memphis to the Final Four — but I do think Calipari and Kentucky were made for each other. The Wildcats won 35 games in his first season, and he won the national championship by Year 3. Although his final few seasons fizzled in March, he set a high bar for Pope.

Mike writes: Kentucky fans were telling us that they could hire anyone they wanted to be their basketball coach because they are Kentucky and everyone dreams of coaching at Kentucky. The hiring of Mark Pope is really hard to believe.

My response: Reminds me of Tennessee football fans thinking the Vols would hire Jon Gruden, and then Butch Jones and Jeremy Pruitt show up at the introductory news conferences.

Blake Toppmeyer is the USA TODAY Network’s SEC Columnist. Email him at BToppmeyer@gannett.com and follow him on Twitter @btoppmeyer.

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