Former Kentucky star warning for Mark Pope’s future: ‘Elephant in the room’

Kevin Skiver, USA TODAYSat, November 14, 2026 at 3:17 PM UTC

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Kentucky basketball barely survived against Northern Arizona on Friday, Nov. 13. But for Big Blue Nation, that isn't enough.

The writing is very much on the wall for Mark Pope after the Wildcats' 78-77 win on a shot by Alex Wilkins in the final moments. Pope, whose Kentucky team took a visible step back last year in his second season succeeding the legendary John Calipari, now has alumni talking about how things just aren't "clicking" right now, which is never a good sign.

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TNT's Jamal Mashburn, who played at Kentucky from 1990-93 (a year before Pope joined in 1994), talked about why things are going wrong for Pope. And he maintained the tone of someone who isn't mad, just disappointed.

"I think most people with Big Blue Nation are very disappointed," Mashburn began. "They take their basketball very seriously. It just seems like this particular team — or, I would say over the last couple of years, with Pope's team — they'll do something well. And then the next game, they won't do it well. There seems to be a lot of inconsistency."

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After throwing out some numbers for the game, including the positive of 21 assists, Mashburn added "this is going to be a long road. And I think a lot of people are going to start asking the bigger question: What does Mark Pope's future look like? That's the elephant in the room. It's sad. I'm a Kentucky fan, I obviously played there. I want to see them do well. It just doesn't seem like it's clicking."

Pope after the game talked about the exciting win when he was asked what he'd say to fans in Rupp Arena, but Mashburn's tone was anything but, including while addressing what he thought was the root cause.

"The reputation of Kentucky, I think that was brought by Rick Pitino, other coaches and also Calipari of recruiting those star players, they embraced the one-and-done," Mashburn said. "And I just don't see it at this particular time. The only person that I've known that's been able to take role players and kind of blend them together, and a lot of people that don't give him the respect that he deserves is Tubby Smith. Tubby Smith was that guy that did that. But Mark Pope is not Tubby Smith."

Kentucky has a long season ahead. But another couple of games like this one — particular if a few of them end in a loss — and Big Blue could well be looking for Pope's successor.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Former Kentucky star warning for Mark Pope’s future: ‘Elephant in the room’

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Source: “AOL Sports”