Mark Pope's Kentucky reportedly close to finalizing an intra-Kentucky matchup next season
Mark Pope is close to finalizing a special intra-Kentucky matchup for the next season. It involves Western Kentucky University playing at the Rupp Arena with the Wildcats.
The news was broken on X by CBS Senior Writer Matt Norlander. Here`s the tweet:
The tweet reads:
"Kentucky is finishing a deal to host Western Kentucky at Rupp Arena next season, per sources. It's notable becayse the schools have only met seven times ever. Mark Pope + UK officials want to have at least one intra-Kentucky matchup for the fans in Pope's first season."
Aside from the WKU Hilltoppers, a few other mid-major teams are also expected to be included in the intra-state matchup for next year's schedule (via WKYT). It's still unknown which schools these are, though. The matchup is also reportedly expected to have at least one HBCU.
Overall, this is part of Mark Pope's plans to further bolster the Wildcats under his watchful eye. He's notably taking over from long-time former Kentucky coach John Calipari, who has moved on to coach the Arkansas Razorbacks. So, as the team is basically starting a new era, the former BYU tactician has big plans for the future (more on this later).
To say that Pope has a monumental task ahead of him would be an understatement, though. He's not just following up on Calipari's 15-year resume but is also looking to bring back Kentucky basketball's glory days.
In the recently concluded March Madness, the 3-seed Wildcats were bounced in the first round by the Oakland Golden Grizzlies to constitute one of the tournament's earliest upsets.
This immense postseason failure eventually turned into Calipari leaving Lexington for a new opportunity with Arkansas. But for now, there's just no way to go but up for Kentucky MBB.
Mark Pope's plans for his first few years with Kentucky
Aside from the aforementioned intra-state matchups with WKU and other schools, Kentucky is also looking to further shore up its rosters alongside playing a few more key matchups.
One of these planned matchups under Pope is one he wants to hold with St. John's with another former Kentucky HC Rick Pitino (via On3). As for the rosters, the team has been quite active in the recruiting space recently, including the recruitment of former San Diego State guard Lamont Butler.