"Thought it was a stroke of genius"- When Kentucky's Mark Pope recalled Rick Pitino's unusually "calm" behavior ahead of 1996 natty

Kentucky Wildcats coach Mark Pope has had mixed results after taking over the job when John Calipari departed for the Arkansas Razorbacks last year. Most recently, Pope led his team to the quarterfinals of the Southeastern Conference Tournament semifinals after beating the Oklahoma Sooners 85-84 on Thursday evening.

Pope has ambitions of winning the national championship with the Wildcats and ending the 13-year drought since Kentucky last won it under Calipari. Pope won the national title in 1996 when he was a player under former coach Rick Pitino, who is now the St. John's Red Storm coach.

During a 2024 segment of the "Field of 68: After Dark," Mark Pope reminisced about the charismatic Pitino's behavior ahead of the 1996 national championship game (1:00).

"Coach has been Kentucky for seven-eight years, Kentucky hasn't won a national championship in 20 years," Pope said. "This was our destiny, this is what we were supposed to do. If we don't win this thing, we're absolute failures and it's all come to this massive crescendo.

"And coach P (Rick Pitino) can get relatively animated and so, we go to film the next morning and I kid you not, the most startling thing happened. awas ready for coach to give us one of his famous impassioned speeches about, 'We're here, the finals, whatever...' And all we did, we finished our prep and he just leaned back in his chair and we put on the tape.

"There was no speech, no nothing and everything was status quo going into that championship game. He was the most calm probably he had been all year long and I thought it was a stroke of genius on his part."

Rick Pitino stood up for Mark Pope

Rick Pitino was one of Mark Pope's fiercest defenders when he took over the vacant Kentucky Wildcats job from John Calipari last year. During an event in October, while commemorating the 1998 national championship at the Rupp Arena, Pitino once again lent his support to the embattled Pope while addressing the Big Blue Nation.

“And now we get to root for a gentleman that — there have been a lot of great coaches here, a lot of great ones — but we get to root for someone that that name Kentucky is what he’s all about,” Pitino said.

“It’s not about Pope. You’ll never hear him say (it’s about me). The most selfless, humble young man I’ve ever coached in my lifetime. One of the great, great examples of what Kentucky basketball is all about. Mark Pope is going to lead you to greatness, in every sense of the word.”

Both the Wildcats and the St. John's Red Storm have made the NCAA Tournament. There's a chance that Mark Pope and his mentor, Rick Pitino could face off in the Big Dance for a chance to win the national championship 30 years after they won their first in Kentucky.