Many believe the future is bright for Mark Pope and the Kentucky Wildcats, and for good reason. Pope took an injured Kentucky team to the Sweet 16 and has perfected building a college basketball roster. CBS Sports just put out an article where four different writers picked which coach who hasn’t won a national title will win one first. One of the four coaches on this list was Pope. David Cobb was the CBS Sports writer who predicted Pope to be the first to win one among coaches who haven’t yet, and he laid out a great argument. Cobb had this to say about Pope, “Is he going to land five McDonald’s All-Americans from the high school ranks in a single recruiting cycle like John Calipari? Probably not. And that’s exactly why he’ll be the next coach to win his first national title. Duke had a generationally elite freshman class headlined by three top-10 picks in the 2025 NBA Draft and still choked in the Final Four. Pope has the support, roster-building formula, and tactical mastery required to cut down nets in th
