Kentucky men’s basketball coach Mark Pope talks about his roster during a press conference on May 13, 2025, in Lexington.
There is a placard hanging in the Kentucky men’s basketball practice gym at the Joe Craft Center. It is next to the banners that represent each of the eight NCAA Tournament men’s titles UK has won across its regal hoops history.
On top of the additional placard, it says something simple: #9.
Underneath are written two words: “The Assignment.”
Starting with the raucous pep rally last April in which Mark Pope was introduced as Wildcats head coach, the former UK center has not shied away from the expectation that job one for him is to win Kentucky’s ninth national championship.
To bring natty number nine to UK, of course, you first have to make it to the Final Four.
Last spring, when Pope’s first season coaching the Wildcats ended in the NCAA tourney round of 16, Kentucky saw its Final Four drought reach a full 10 years.
Since the NCAA Tournament began in 1939, there has only been one longer stretch in Wildcats basketball history with no Final Four trips. From 1999 through 2010, Kentucky went 12 years without a Final Four appearance.
Mark Pope coached Kentucky men’s basketball to the NCAA Tournament round of 16 last season. It was the first time the Wildcats had advanced that deep into March Madness since reaching the 2019 round of eight.
Mark Pope coached Kentucky men’s basketball to the NCAA Tournament round of 16 last season. It was the first time the Wildcats had advanced that deep into March Madness since reaching the 2019 round of eight. Ryan C. Hermens rhermens@herald-leader.com
As Pope prepares for his second season as the head man at his college alma mater, it seems appropriate to discuss just what is a reasonable window in which the coach should be expected to return UK to the Final Four?
Kentucky men’s hoops history suggests that whether a coach is capable of getting the Wildcats to the Final Four or not tends to be revealed relatively early in a head man’s tenure.
Let’s review:
• Adolph Rupp. The NCAA tourney was launched in 1939. It took Rupp four seasons, till 1942, to have Kentucky among the last four teams standing in the NCAA Tournament.
• Joe B. Hall. In his third season on the UK bench, 1974-75, Hall led the Cats to the Final Four for the first time since 1966.
• Eddie Sutton. Sutton’s four-season tenure as Kentucky head man (1985 through 1989) ended with a recruiting scandal and without a trip to the NCAA tourney’s national semifinals.
• Rick Pitino. Ricky P. got UK to the Final Four for the initial time in his fourth season (1992-93) as top Cat, but it was the coach’s second season leading Kentucky as a NCAA Tournament-eligible program (the Wildcats had previously been banned by the NCAA from postseason competition for two years due to the scandal during the previous coaching administration).
• Tubby Smith. In his first season on the Kentucky bench, Smith coached the Wildcats to the 1997-98 NCAA championship.
• Billy Gillispie. Billy G’s ill-fated, two-season tenure as Kentucky head man (2007 through 2009) ended without a trip to the NCAA tourney’s national semifinals.
• John Calipari. In his second season (2010-11), Calipari took UK to its first Final Four in 12 seasons.
Among the five previous Kentucky men’s hoops coaches who reached at least one Final Four, it took them, on average, 2.8 seasons to get there for the first time.
That’s not particularly an aberration as a Final Four timeline for coaches at blue blood men’s college basketball programs, either.
Among current coaches at UK’s hoops peers, Hubert Davis took North Carolina to the Final Four in his first season (2021-22) as Tar Heels head coach. Jon Scheyer got Duke back to the college basketball promised land in his third season (2024-25) as Mike Krzyzewski’s replacement.
Bill Self needed five seasons to get Kansas to the Final Four for the first time — where the Jayhawks won it all after a frantic comeback against Memphis in the 2008 NCAA tourney finals.
For those three, it took an average of 3.3 years to make the Final Four for the first time.
Among the iconic blue blood coaches of recent vintage, Roy Williams took Kansas to the Final Four for the first time in his third season (1990-91) and North Carolina to the national semifinals for the initial time (2004-05) in his second year.
The laggard on both lists is Krzyzewski, who needed a whopping six seasons to get Duke to the Final Four (1985-86) for the first time.
Krzyzewski, you may recall, recovered from his “slow start” to take the Blue Devils to 13 Final Fours, win five NCAA titles and retire as, arguably, the greatest men’s college hoops coach of all time.
What does this all mean for Mark Pope?
It means that four years is a reasonable window in which Cats fans can expect the coach to get the Wildcats back to the Final Four.
Obviously, UK is not obligated to cut ties with Pope if the coach’s fourth season (which will be 2027-28) ends without a Final Four trip. At that time, there may be every reason to think he’s doing a good overall job and will lead Kentucky to a Final Four in due time.
Still, based on the coaching histories at both the University of Kentucky and at the other elite men’s college hoops programs, the first four seasons have been a fairly reliable gauge of whether a head man is Final Four material or not.