Mark Pope had success with the transfer portal at BYU. Will that translate to Kentucky?
John Calipari was named basketball coach at the University of Kentucky in 2009. Timeline of the 15 seasons in which he took the Cats to four Final Fours and one NCAA title. BY BRIAN SIMMS| CHRISTOPHER LEACH| MARCUS DORSEY
During his five seasons as the head coach at BYU, new Kentucky leader Mark Pope was a frequent player in the NCAA transfer portal. Pope brought in 17 players at BYU that previously played at another college, and success followed on the floor. The Cougars went 110-51 overall with Pope as their head coach, including NCAA Tournament berths in 2021 and 2024.
The former UK national champion was also on track to make the NCAA Tournament in 2020 — his first season as the Cougars’ coach — before that event was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. BYU won at least 20 games in four of Pope’s five seasons in Provo. Now, Pope arrives in Lexington tasked with building a roster basically from scratch: Between players entering the transfer portal, declaring for the NBA draft and decommitting from UK’s 2024 recruiting class, Pope has precious few pieces already in place.
As such, all eyes will turn to the transfer portal. Despite the distinct context of the school Pope was recruiting to — BYU has a religious affiliation with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints — he recruited a wide variety of players to Provo via both traditional high school recruiting and the transfer portal.
Among his best transfer portal additions were Alex Barcello (Arizona), Brandon Averette (Oklahoma State and Utah Valley), Matt Haarms (Purdue) and Jaxson Robinson (Arkansas), who led the Cougars in scoring last season. Here’s a year-by-year look at the players Pope picked up at BYU via the transfer portal, and what they provided to his Cougars teams.
HISTORY OF MARK POPE RECRUITING FROM THE NCAA TRANSFER PORTAL AT BYU This includes BYU’s 2019 transfer portal class. Pope was hired at BYU in April 2019. The Cougars didn’t have any transfer portal commits thus far in the 2024 offseason. ▪ 2019: Alex Barcello (Arizona), Jake Toolson (Utah Valley) and Wyatt Lowell (Utah Valley). Barcello, a guard, was a bench player for two seasons at Arizona before transferring to BYU ahead of Pope’s first season leading the Cougars. He started 94 games at BYU over the next three seasons, while playing more than 30 minutes per game each season.
Read more at: https://www.kentucky.com/sports/college/kentucky-sports/uk-recruiting/article287629400.html#storylink=cpy
