Who is Cody Fueger? Meet Mark Pope's new assistant coach at Kentucky

Mark Pope, Kentucky coach has made his first move in assembling his coaching staff by bringing in a trusted ally, Cody Fueger.

On Friday, Pope was officially announced as the new head coach of the Wildcats. Matt Jones of Kentucky Sports Radio reported today that Fueger, who has been a part of Pope’s coaching journey at both Utah Valley and BYU, will join the Wildcats for the 2024-25 season.

Who is Kentucky’s new assistant coach Cody Fueger?

Cody Fueger started his coaching career as a student assistant and video coordinator at the University of Utah in 2002, where he graduated. Afterward, he worked as the Director of Basketball Operations at Louisiana Tech until 2011 and then moved to UC Riverside in the same role.

At BYU in 2013, Fueger met Pope, who was the Cougars' Director of Basketball Operations at the time. When Pope became head coach at UVU two years later, he offered Fueger his first assistant coaching job.

Fueger has experience of four seasons at Utah Valley (2015-19) under Pope’s leadership, followed by five successful seasons at BYU (2019-24). His familiarity with Pope’s coaching methods is expected to be a significant asset for Kentucky.

Mark Pope cooking up something for Kentucky

Mark Pope, Kentucky Wildcats head coach.

During a radio interview on Monday night, Pope shared that he's in the process of finalizing a couple of guys.

“I have a couple [of] guys that we’re right at the finish line of trying to finalize,” he said. “Hopefully we’ll get that done here in the next several days.”

It has been reported that two of his former assistants from BYU, Cody Fueger and Keegan Brown, were already being considered to follow Pope to Lexington.

Pope is allowed to have five assistant coaching positions, of which three will be allowed to engage in off-campus recruiting, according to the Lexington Herald-Leader.

Following the departure of former coach John Calipari, who left to become coach at Arkansas, many are optimistic that Pope can lead the UK back to its glory days. Mark Pope has a solid track record as a head coach, with an overall record of 187-108.

Considering Mark Pope's track record as a head coach, are you optimistic about the future of UK basketball? Let us know in the comments section!