For the first time in 16 years, Kentucky will open the season with someone other than John Calipari at the helm.
Kentucky alumnus Mark Pope, a former BYU coach, took over the program in April after Calipari shockingly left his post to take the Arkansas job. The Wildcats open against Wright State on Monday in Lexington, Ky.
Pope directly was referred to the program by Rick Pitino, who coached him as a member of the 1996 Kentucky team that won Pitino’s first national title.
Pope is bringing one of his best players from BYU with him: Jaxson Robinson. The senior shooting guard had a breakout season last year off the bench for the Cougars, averaging a career high 14.2 points per game on his way to earning Big 12 Sixth Man of the Year honors.
Robinson is just one of a handful of highly touted transfers who are set to make up a completely new look Kentucky squad.
He joins Kerr Kriisa, a point guard with extensive experience at Arizona and West Virginia, as well as former Dayton sharpshooter Koby Brea, who led the country in 3-point percentage last season. Brea’s 49.8 percent clip from behind the arc was the highest in the NCAA over the past six seasons.
Perhaps their biggest get of the offseason was Wake Forest transfer Andrew Carr. The 6-foot-11 forward averaged 13.5 points and 6.8 rebounds last season while also contributing an impressive 37.1 percent shooting from 3-point range. Former San Diego State starter Lamont Butler also joins the Wildcats, giving Pope and company some more big game experience as he was a key member of the 2022-23 national runners-up.
“I’m incredibly excited about our guys,” Pope said. “It’s brand new to college basketball to go construct a team in a month, right from scratch, from zero. I think it’s just a new experience.
“I’m really excited about our guys’ talent level. I’m really excited about their experience. I’m really excited about their commitment and desire to be here at the University of Kentucky and represent what this place is.”
The revised Kentucky roster will attempt to improve on the team’s 23-10 record last year, when the Wildcats were bounced in the first round of the NCAA Tournament by 14th-seeded Oakland.
Wright State also is beginning a new era as former assistant Clint Sargent takes over for Scott Nagy, who left to take the Southern Illinois job. The Raiders are looking to earn their second trip to the NCAA Tournament in four years after making an appearance as the Horizon League champions in 2022. Wright State fell in the quarterfinals of the conference tournament last season, ending the year 18-14.
“Coach (Nagy) and I, we’re just different personalities,” Sargent said. “I’m a different person, a different man. In the leadership of the program, it is me. It’s my personality, my moral compass, all of it, my vision, but it is equal to our players.”
The Raiders lost their best player from last year’s squad, first team all-Horizon League guard Trey Calvin, but they return second-teamer Brandon Noel, who averaged 14.5 points and eight rebounds per game last season.
“Now the leadership and the team identity, it’s less about a scheme,” Sargent said. “It’s all those things, but the main thing is just the personality of the heart of the guy leading.”
Kentucky won its previous four meetings with Wright State, most recently prevailing 78-63 on Nov. 20, 2015, in Lexington, Ky.
–Field Level Media
