Kentucky coach Mark Pope’s team won its second-round NCAA Tournament game against Illinois.
The win comes after Pope’s predecessor, John Calipari, led Arkansas to the Sweet 16, a feat Calipari did not achieve in his final five seasons at Kentucky.
Sunday’s second-round NCAA Tournament matchup against Illinois became a must-win for Pope — his Kentucky basketball team came through, by the way, with a near wire-to-wire, 84-75 victory — after the developments of the preceding day.
Arkansas beat St. John’s, and Pope’s mentor, Rick Pitino. Sending his longtime coaching rival packing, John Calipari was back in the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2019.
Later that day, BYU nearly let a 14-point lead slip away in the final 10 minutes before holding on to top Wisconsin. The Cougars advanced to the second weekend of the Big Dance for the first time since 2011 — and only the third time since the NCAA began tracking Sweet 16 berths in 1975.
On one hand, these results had nothing to do with Pope.
But they also had everything to do with him.
For as long as he’s leading his alma mater, he’ll be compared and contrasted with his predecessor, Calipari. Fair or not, that’s the way of the world. And for all the frustrations wrought by the final five seasons of his tenure — failing to reach the Sweet 16 a single time, two one-and-done March Madness losses to double-digit foes and the worst campaign in the program’s modern history (9-16 in 2020-21, its worst showing since going 3-13 in 1926-27 — it’s balanced by the remarkable run of his first 10 campaigns.
When the Wildcats bowed out in the 2019 Elite Eight in an overtime loss to Auburn, it brought a golden decade to a close. In his first 10 seasons in Lexington, Calipari had eight Sweet 16s, seven Elite Eights, four Final Fours, two national title-game appearances and a championship in 2012. All those March Madness accomplishments were joined by SEC accolades, with 12 titles, six each between regular season and conference tournament laurels.
All told, by the time he finally decided to call it quits in Lexington, Calipari had 410 victories, second most in the history of college hoops’ winningest program to Adolph Rupp’s 876. By any statistical measure, Calipari is the best coach the Wildcats have had aside from Rupp.
Those are the shoes Pope stepped into upon his hire last April.
For all the good he’s done since the 2024-25 campaign tipped off, from beating Duke and Gonzaga in neutral-site battles to sweeping Tennessee to tying a single-season Division I record for wins over Associated Press top-15 foes, Calipari’s specter always loomed large.
The former coach walked into his former home arena and walked out with another victory Feb. 1, handing UK a 10-point loss. It came when little was going right for the Razorbacks. Since then, Calipari has done little wrong.
Now, he’s in the Sweet 16 for the 16th time.
For UK supporters who judge the entirety of the team’s merits each season through the prism of NCAA Tournament success — or lack thereof — it would have stuck in their craw to see Calipari, of all people, among the final 16 coaches standing this year. Particularly if Pope wasn’t one of the other 15.
Then there’s the matter of BYU.
The ultra-critical observer might point out the matter of the Cougars’ first-year head man Kevin Young. How he’s already 2-0 in the Big Dance. How that’s two more NCAA wins than Pope ever accumulated in five seasons in Provo, Utah. How their March Madness records are inverses of each other. (Pope was 0-2 in two NCAA appearances at BYU.) How the program is seemingly primed to be every bit as good, if not better, next season, when they bring in their most ballyhooed signee ever: AJ Dybantsa, expected to be the No. 1 pick in the 2026 NBA Draft.
All of this information is a lot for anyone to take in.
It’s easier just to ignore it.
That’s what Travis Perry did.
The only remaining link to the Calipari era — Perry signed with the Wildcats months before the former coach departed, then stood by his commitment after Pope’s hire — Perry knows the fan base as well as anyone. How those who love UK live and die with every win and loss.
While Pope has been a breath of fresh air with his unending optimism and enthusiasm, at the end of the day, that’s nothing if there aren’t requisite stellar results to stand on. No outcomes more important than those in the NCAA Tournament, of course. Even with that firsthand knowledge in mind as someone who grew up cheering for the Wildcats, and is a Bluegrass State legend as the leading high school scorer in the state’s history, Perry had no interest in juxtaposing Calipari’s triumph Saturday with Pope’s win Sunday.
“We’re really just focused on ourselves,” he said. “So, that’s what we want to focus on is just leaning into the team and controlling what we can control. … That’s the thing for us: Our focus is to win every game, to get as far as we can, and ultimately get to play more games together. I think that’s what we’re so motivated by.
“And also our fan base, we want to put on a great show for them, want to go as far as we can as they’re supporting us.”
Perhaps Perry is too close to the situation to feel he can speak freely, torn between his lifelong fandom, his prior relationship with Calipari and the bond he quickly forged with Pope after his arrival
The fifth-year senior forward, ever candid, admitted he and his teammates are cognizant the world exists beyond the bubble of their locker room. A world in which, had the Wildcats’ season ended Sunday, vocal fans would have lit up social media to vent about their ex — Calipari, still in the honeymoon phase of his new gig in Fayetteville, Arkansas — and their jealousy of the blissful state of his current affairs. And their sentiment that should be their reality instead of the Razorbacks’.
“We feel that from the fans, of course,” Carr said. “It’s (not) any added pressure; we put all the pressure on ourselves. … But, it’s obviously human nature to look at the (other NCAA Tournament) results.”
Carr and the rest of the Cats needn’t worry, though. Their result Sunday was a positive one for their coach and their program. They can sleep soundly knowing anything they do, from here on, is a bonus. They’ve returned UK to the Sweet 16 for the 28th time. While Calipari and the Cougars are there, too,those are pages from the program’s past. And Pope’s.
