“Our staff is going to be 100x better”: Mark Pope sends promising message to Kentucky fans

Mark Pope is setting the tone early ahead of his second season in charge of Kentucky basketball, and his message to fans is to expect major growth. After guiding the Wildcats to a 24-12 record and a Sweet 16 appearance in his first year, Pope now promises even more from the program in 2025-26.

Speaking to the media, as seen in an Instagram video shared by Kentucky Sports Radio on Tuesday, Pope highlighted how both players and staff will take a leap forward.

“I talk about our players being better the second year, our staff is going to be 100 times better than we were last year,” he said.

“Just because we had a chance to function together and learn each other and the guys have had a chance to learn me.

Mark Pope went further, saying:

“We’re excited to see how much better we can be Year 2, how much more efficiently we can do things, how much more smartly and intelligently we can do things, how much higher we can raise the standard that we hold ourselves accountable to as a staff and our players accountable to.

"And how relentless we can be at doing that. I think that Year 2 is fun because you have Year 1 under your belt.”

Pope, who previously turned BYU into a respected program, has already won over much of the Kentucky fanbase with his passion and direction. Now, he is aiming to build on the school's legendary basketball legacy.

The Wildcats boast eight national championships and a long history of dominance in the SEC, but recent years have seen inconsistency, including early exits from the NCAA Tournament before Mark Pope’s arrival.

If Pope’s confidence translates into results, Kentucky could be poised for a deeper tournament run and a return to its championship-contending standards.

Mark Pope backs expansion of college basketball season

During an interview with KSR last week, Mark Pope doubled down on his idea of expanding the league season:

"Expand this season, because what's happening is especially with the revenue share. Now, like, the revenue share should change everything in terms of our opportunity to actually go share revenue. Let's get to, I keep saying 40 (games) and everyone's mad at me. I'm gonna keep pushing 40.

"But can we get to 35? Imagine if we had four extra games that we can put on our schedule where we go play a big-time neutral game and set up a home-and-home and do an in-state game that people here really care about and just give us a little more flexibility in this deal."

A men’s Division 1 team typically plays 35 to 40 games in a normal season if it makes the NCAA Tournament.