Livescore
Kentucky is set to hire BYU coach Mark Pope to become its next men’s basketball coach, sources told CBS Sports. The two sides quickly engaged on Thursday afternoon, in the hours after Baylor’s Scott Drew and UConn’s Dan Hurley both turned down Kentucky’s overtures. Barring an unforeseen event that changes plans, Kentucky is pacing toward getting an agreement on paper with Pope before the end of Thursday night, a source said.
Pope is a Kentucky alumnus. He played on the famed 1995-96 championship team and has long coveted an opportunity to one day return to his alma mater. He has nine years of head coaching experience: four at Utah Valley, the past five at BYU. His career record is 187-108, with a 110-52 mark at BYU. Pope is 0-2 all time in the NCAA Tournament. He guided the Cougars to a No. 6 seed in this year’s NCAA Tournament but fell in the first round to Duquesne.
Pope won out over other hot names, including Billy Donovan and Rick Pitino. Sources told CBS Sports that, despite those two coaches being attached to Kentucky as potential candidates, neither were pursued by UK athletic director Mitch Barnhart.
This story will update shortly.
Read the full article here
