Before this past week, Kentucky was known as the $22 million basketball team that could not beat a respectable opponent. It just wasn’t working. However, two identical comeback wins over LSU and Tennessee have Mark Pope breathing a sigh of relief. While Pope is riding high at the moment, things can quickly slip back to early-season form, quickly putting him under fire again.

“You and I agree his job should not be on the line in year two. We don’t believe it’s on the line in year two. You and I saying that is not going to stop a Kentucky fan, like thousands of them, from making Mark Pope’s life difficult,” Gary Parrish said on his recap on CBS Sports.“It can get really ugly there very quickly. Even if you were the captain of a national championship team once upon a time.”

Kentucky basketball has standards few others have. Pope has been immediately met with championship expectations a year into his coaching career at the program. Fans demand results, especially after the immense investment Pope has received. But that is nothing new, as Pope knew what he was getting into and actually relished the standards. 

“The expectation was exactly the same (in 1996),” Pope said in July. “The expectation here has nothing to do with me setting it. It’s what it is at Kentucky. It’s one of the things that sets us apart from every other program in the country. I happen to love it. I love every bit of it. I’m grateful to be here, where only one ending to the season makes it a satisfying season. That’s where I want to be, and that’s where our guys want to be.” 

In reality, as the 2025-26 season has progressed, things have been piling up on Pope. His best players, like Jaland Lowe and Jayden Quaintance, suffered from injuries. Lowe is out for the season while Quaintance continues to come back from his ACL tear. The team struggled to meaningfully connect until the past week. For a Kentucky coach, there is not much rope. Instead of being under the knife all the time, Pope could prefer coaching another program. 

“Multiple men, like a Hall of Famer and a borderline Hall of Famer who were still in possession of the job, said, ‘I am going to take another job because this has gotten bad,” Parrish further said. “That’s the Kentucky job. Nothing better when it’s great, but oh buddy, if it’s not…”

Despite his competitive spirit and love for the program, Pope has accepted the mental toll this job has taken on him. But he continues to endure and tries to improve. “There’s no time for indulging and feeling terrible,” Pope said. “I spend a lot of time feeling like I’d like to curl up in bed and kill myself, but that’s actually not what we do. We rise up, and we get to work, and we find answers.”

Nevertheless, the management should ignore the outside noise regarding Mark Pope. They should give him more rope, at least that is what Matt Norlander and Parrish opine. Strong programs are not built on impatience. Sometimes, programs need to just stick with a plan until it runs its course. Firing Pope too early would essentially waste all the previous investment.

Currently, Kentucky is 12-6 and is outside of the top 25 in the AP Poll. One would prefer to work without all the early criticism and fan ranting, it’s not something Pope can avoid as a Kentucky coach. But Parrish did mention that when it’s good, that is accentuated as well. With the recent two games offering positive signs, things could be heading upwards for Pope.

Mark Pope Finally Sees ‘Heart’ In His Team

Kentucky and Mark Pope have ended LSU and Tennessee games the exact same way. In both, Kentucky erased a 17-point deficit, got a late swing from Colin Chandler, Otega Oweh missed a free-throw in the final minute, and still won because of Malachi Moreno’s clutch instincts in the final play. At halftime, Kentucky was given less than a 10% chance to win both games, but the team persevered and won the endgame situation, which impressed Pope.

“Yeah its been fun to see. It’s actually the last 3 right, it’s been a lot of them,” Pope said after the Tennessee comeback. “We have had so many games like this. The happiest part for me is we are starting to get to see the insides of our guys…getting to see a little bit of their hearts.”

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These wins will give this team immense confidence. Before this game, the Wildcats had won only one game away or on a neutral location this season, the win over St. John’s back in December. They have thrown away games to North Carolina and unranked Missouri. 

These past two games have finally given this team momentum, probably for the first time this season. A 3-game streak is not the longest, but the way Kentucky has won those games is defining. They currently stand at No. 26 on KenPom, a respectable number that shows the season is still salvageable.