Kentucky
Kentucky Settling for Mark Pope Proves Basketball Coaching Landscape Has Changed
At least in the coaching carousel, the term “blue blood” has never meant less.
That’s the only logical conclusion one can draw from the Kentucky Wildcats’ rapid-fire search to replace John Calipari, who shocked the college basketball world earlier this week by fleeing Lexington for the Arkansas Razorbacks job. Big, bad Kentucky, one of the most tradition-rich teams and potentially the most financially rich program in big-time college basketball, swung and missed at its big targets and landed on a coach who has never won a men’s NCAA tournament game.
There are many positive things that can be said about reported new Wildcats head coach Mark Pope. He’s without question a sharp basketball mind, building one of the more intricate offenses in the country with the BYU Cougars. He coached the Cougars to three top-20 KenPom finishes in five years, two more than Calipari coached Kentucky to in that period (though that may say more about Calipari than Pope, in this conversation). He has won at a place with as limited a recruiting pool as any in Division I, a feat even more impressive after BYU’s move to the Big 12 in 2023–24, He was an excellent player in Lexington, part of the 1996 national championship team that is royalty in town forever. Pope was likely due for a better job than the one he had at BYU.
But Kentucky? The same Kentucky that, not 12 hours before news of this hire broke, was rumored to be throwing around $100 million to try to sway two-time defending national champion Dan Hurley from the UConn Huskies to Lexington? A program that essentially ran Calipari, a title-winning coach who has taken three schools to Final Fours and produced more pros than anyone in college basketball over the last decade, out of town? Kentucky prides itself on being bigger, better and more serious about basketball than anyone else and wants to hire … BYU’s coach, who has advanced in the NCAA tournament as many times as this writer has?
Scott Drew chose to stay at Baylor instead of making the jump to Kentucky.
Petre Thomas-USA TODAY Sports
Each coach who deflected interest in this job (Hurley, Scott Drew and Nate Oats) may have had his own reasons for doing so. Hurley made clear Monday night after winning title No. 2 that his wife had no desire to leave the Northeast, and Drew’s family and roots in Waco, Texas, were reportedly the reasons he walked away from a potential deal. But if there’s ever an illustration that the gap between the purported elite jobs and the rest of the sport, it’s that coaches from Alabama, Baylor and a Big East program in UConn rebuffed KENTUCKY of all places to stay where they’re at.
Kentucky had long seemed like the last bastion for a “name” hire in an era that has seen huge coaching jobs go to relatively inexperienced choices. The Louisville Cardinals, in three years, have hired one coach with no head coaching experience in Kenny Payne and another from a mid-major with no tournament wins in Pat Kelsey. The Duke Blue Devils and North Carolina Tar Heels were forced into internal hires in Jon Scheyer and Hubert Davis, with the jury still out on both. The Villanova Wildcats hired Kyle Neptune off one season with the Fordham Rams, with results not promising so far. The Florida Gators hired Todd Golden, who went 23–22 in the WCC as the head coach with the San Francisco Dons. Even the flashier names, like the Georgetown Hoyas reeling in Ed Cooley or the Maryland Terrapins landing Kevin Willard, came with the caveat that neither had advanced past the Sweet 16 in their head coaching careers. Eric Musselman and Calipari set off dominos with their lateral-ish moves this cycle, but both seemed to be getting out ahead of disgruntled fan bases.
In the NIL era, where the primary barrier to entry to recruit top talent is “how big a check can you write?”, the advantage of being at a blue blood has dissipated some. Talent is more spread out, football powerhouses across the SEC can find a few bucks to throw at basketball and you can win almost as much as you would at Kentucky without living in the fishbowl that is Lexington.
Does this mean Pope won’t win at Kentucky? Of course not. A good coach can be a “bad” hire. Perhaps the best way of putting this is to call it a risky hire. The “blue blood” label used to offer you a level of security that you’d be able to hire one of the premier candidates on the coaching market. That’s not a guarantee of success, but it’d be a lot easier to bet on Kentucky succeeding at the level its fans expect under a coach like Drew, who has won a title and consistently earned top-three NCAA tournament seeds, than it is with Pope. He may soar, using the strengths of the UK job to his advantage to build the elite teams he never could with the limitations of BYU and the Utah Valley Wolverines. But he also may fail, and there’s little doubt SEC coaches will sleep better tonight knowing the league’s top program is coached by Mark Pope, not Calipari, Drew, Oats or Hurley.
If nothing else, the Pope hire won’t win the news conference for Kentucky. He could win over much of the Kentucky faithful early on by successfully coaxing star guard Reed Sheppard (whose father, Jeff, played with Pope on the 1996 title team) to return for his sophomore season. Even then, there will certainly be skeptics.
Kentucky athletic director Mitch Barnhart is staking his legacy at the school on a largely unproven coach. A program of Kentucky’s stature should have landed a bigger name than Mark Pope, and the fact that it didn’t says everything about the coaching market in 2024.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Louisville celebrated Juneteenth with music, dancing and a parade highlighting Black culture, history and unity.
The Kentucky Black Festival’s Juneteenth Unity Parade brought hundreds of people to west Louisville, with marching bands, dancers, community organizations and families joining together to honor the meaning behind the holiday.
“Seeing the families having a good time seeing everyone dancing, with everything that’s happening in this city and happening in the world, a moment to just take a breath and smile and relax your shoulders is what this is all about,” said Walter Murrah, executive director of the Kentucky Black Foundation.
Juneteenth marks the day in 1865 when enslaved people in Galveston, Texas, learned they were free, more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation was issued.
For organizers, the celebration is about more than a parade. It’s about recognizing the history that paved the way for future generations.
“Celebrating Juneteenth is more than just dancing and singing. It’s also reaching back and looking at the giants that paved the way for us, but also taking a moment to just celebrate our blackness because I think oftentimes it’s looked down upon, left out, overlooked, and those kind of things,” Murrah said. “And so being Black is beautiful. Being Black is, you know, it should be celebrated, and that’s what Juneteenth is about, is, you know, marrying the history but also looking ahead to what’s in the future.”
Attendees said the event created a space to celebrate their heritage and come together.
“We’re not celebrated enough, so with this being Juneteenth for freedom and unity to come together, this is the day for us to do that,” said Tara Britt.
Community members also emphasized the importance of teaching younger generations about the holiday and its history.
“It’s very important because if we don’t tell them, they won’t know. We have to get educated to educate them because it’s not in the schools right now,” said Shannon Gilbert. “So we get all the knowledge and give it back to them and make sure they’re educated because they’re the future.”
Organizers said the goal is to make sure Juneteenth is not only remembered but experienced through community celebrations like the parade.
Juneteenth became a federal holiday in 2021, but communities across the country have recognized and celebrated the day for decades.
Kentucky
Demetrus Liggins disputes Fayette County board’s claim he resigned, attorneys allege misconduct
LEXINGTON, Ky. (LEX NEWS) — The attorneys for Dr. Demetrus Liggins issued a press release Friday alleging the Fayette County Board of Education publicly announced a resignation that never happened, cited the wrong Kentucky statutes to justify placing him on administrative leave, and installed a replacement superintendent without legal authority to do so.
The press release, dated June 19, 2026, gives FCPS a four-day deadline to rescind the administrative leave, withdraw the replacement-superintendent designation, and correct the public record. If the district does not comply, Dr. Liggins’ legal team has reserved the right to pursue contractual, statutory, constitutional, defamation, false-light, civil-rights, and tort claims.
According to the press release, Dr. Liggins proposed discussions toward a possible separation agreement — he did not submit an unconditional resignation. His attorneys allege he expressly corrected the Board’s characterization before the Board acted, yet the Board publicly announced a “resignation notice” anyway.
The press release also notes a striking internal contradiction in the Board’s own June 11 letter: the document’s letterhead continued to identify “Superintendent: Demetrus Liggins, PhD” even while the body of the letter announced an “Acting Superintendent.”
Dr. Liggins’ attorneys argue the Board’s June 11 leave letter cited KRS 160.160 and KRS 160.370 — neither of which, according to counsel, expressly authorizes a board to indefinitely suspend a contracted superintendent, bar him from communicating with district-affiliated persons, exclude him from all school property, and install a substitute officeholder.
Counsel argues the Board deliberately avoided KRS 160.350, the statute that specifically governs superintendent terms, vacancies, acting appointments, and removal for cause, according to the press release.
The press release also invokes Lexington-Fayette’s unique status as Kentucky’s sole urban-county government under KRS Chapter 67A, arguing the Board’s legal framing is further flawed because Fayette County is not governed by the special Chapter 67C school-governance provisions applicable to a consolidated local government such as Louisville–Jefferson County.
Attorney Amos N. Jones issued a direct on-the-record statement in the press release.
“This is not administrative leave in any meaningful sense. They announced a resignation that never happened, displaced the lawful superintendent, installed another superintendent, silenced Dr. Liggins inside his own system, and then hired investigators to determine whether the result already imposed should be imposed. Kentucky law does not allow a school board to manufacture a vacancy, perform a removal first, and search for a justification afterward,” Jones said.
According to the press release, Dr. Liggins’s contract runs through June 30, 2029. His attorneys allege the Board’s actions breach that contract by stripping him of his office, authority, professional standing, and future-career value while continuing to pay his salary. The contract reportedly prohibits reassignment without Dr. Liggins’s express written consent.
The press release notes that any litigation or settlement arising from this dispute could carry significant financial consequences for Fayette County taxpayers.
The press release places individual Board members — not just the institution — on notice of potential personal legal exposure. Attorneys cite what they describe as a false resignation narrative, the alleged creation of a fictitious vacancy, concerted displacement, and a false-light portrayal of Dr. Liggins. The notice also warns Board members that attorneys retained by FCPS may not represent their individual interests and that they should have received Upjohn warnings about privilege and conflicts.
According to the press release, counsel has demanded preservation of all communications, drafts, closed-session materials, media contacts, video records, investigative instructions, succession discussions, and communications with public officials, unions, employees, activists, and outside counsel. The inclusion of “media contacts” and “communications with public officials” in the demand suggests Dr. Liggins’ legal team believes there may be involvement by parties beyond the Board itself.
As of Friday, June 19, 2026, the four-day deadline issued to FCPS is running. If the district does not comply, Dr. Liggins’ legal team has indicated it will pursue legal action.
Summer practice is full underway for the 2026-27 Kentucky men’s basketball squad. And while the on-court teaching is critical to the offseason, what’s happening off the floor is equally as important.
Earlier this week, head coach Mark Pope and the entire team made a trip to the Kentucky Children’s Hospital, where they helped put together Father’s Day goodie bags, built toys, played board games with the kids, and shared laughs all around. Watching Franck Kepnang, Mason Williams, and Jerone Morton smile ear-to-ear while losing in a board game will make your heart full.
This was more than just a quick stop, though. This was about building real relationships and putting smiles on the faces of kids who deserve it. Returning center Malachi Moreno even reconnected with one of his new friends.
“There was a kid I’ve actually kept in touch with for a while. His name’s Jackson,” Moreno said Thursday. “Took some of my teammates in to meet him. I met him at Dance Blue. We’ve been playing Fortnite together. Got his PSN (PlayStation Network) tag and we’re going to play some Fortnite. Me, him, Kam (Williams), and Trent (Noah), we’re gonna play some Fortnite together.
“He’s such a cool kid. I think the guys really took in what it means to be at this brand. We walk in any room, we’re gonna brighten someone’s day. They might not be as fortunate as us but we’re taking time out of our day to go see them, and we’re having fun with it. I just wanted them to realize how much fun these kids are having with us.”
Judging by the video that UK put out on Thursday (which you can watch below) , it sure looks like everyone was having a blast. Some things are bigger than basketball.
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