Mark Pope or Kenny Brooks? Which new basketball coach in the UK is off to a better start?

You are right to think that the last few weeks were some of the best in UK basketball history.

The UK men’s basketball team put together a tough late-game comeback that beat No. 6 Duke 77–72 in the State Farm Champions Classic in Atlanta last Tuesday night.

In his third game as head coach of Kentucky, Mark Pope ended the Wildcats’ four-game losing streak in the Champions Classic. This was only the third win for UK over the evil Dookies in the last 12 games between the two teams.

As if that wasn’t enough, Pope finished off last week by signing the No. 16 ranked player (Jasper Johnson), the No. 28 ranked player (Malachi Moreno), and the No. 30 ranked player (Acaden Lewis) in the class of 2025 by the 247 Sports Composite Rankings. UK had no proof that Pope could recruit at the level they expected him to work.

Oh well, that was only half of what the Wildcats basketball fans got last week.

Last Saturday night, in front of a sold-out Memorial Coliseum crowd, the UK women’s basketball team put on a tough late-game comeback that beat then-No. 18 Louisville 71–61 in OT. In

In Kenny Brooks’s fourth game as head coach of Kentucky, the Wildcats beat their in-state rivals to end a seven-game losing streak. It was also UK’s first win against a ranked team in the AP Top 25 in more than two seasons, which was a big deal for the fans.

Brooks left a good job at Virginia Tech because he thought he could use the name “Kentucky basketball” to get better access to top recruits. Last week, he added to his success by getting commitments from Kaelyn Carroll, ranked No. 15 by ESPN HoopGurlz in the class of 2025, and Maddie Greenway, ranked No. 18 in the class of 2026.

Things have gone well, so far, in the University of Kentucky basketball coaching tenures of Kenny Brooks, left, and Mark Pope. Brian Simms bsimms@herald-leader.com
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After a week like this, it’s interesting to think about which of Kentucky’s new head basketball coaches is off to the best start.

Just so you know, the results of Pope and Brooks’ teaching are still very early. After reading this, many of you will have seen the Kentucky women play Purdue Fort Wayne on Monday night at Memorial Coliseum. The UK men will soon play Lipscomb on Tuesday night at Rupp Arena.

Obviously, some of the coaching trust that has been built up will be lost if the UK women don’t follow up their win over U of L by beating the Mastodons or if the UK men don’t follow up their win over Duke by beating the Bisons.

When you look at the work that Pope and Brooks have done so far, it’s interesting to see where they’ve had similar problems and where their goals are different.

When Brooks took over at Kentucky, he had two scholarship players left over from the last coaching staff. Two more than Pope got after following John Calipari.

It was smart work by both Pope and Brooks to use the transfer portal to put together groups that let Kentucky start the season strong with what are basically brand-new teams.

“These guys didn’t know each other.” Someone said to Pope after his team beat Duke, “Nobody had ever been with each other.” “They’ve spent a lot of time getting to know each other.” Just three or four weeks into the summer, I saw guys being incredibly kind and polite to their friends.

Because transfer wings Jordan Obi (Pennsylvania) and Dominika Paurová (Oregon State) got hurt, Brooks now has a mix of small guards and tall front court players as the new coach of Kentucky.

This was the team I thought was special, Brooks said after the win over Louisville. “It’s too bad that our two kids are out right now.” I thought those two kids would be stars.

Obi may or may not be able to come back this year, but Paurová is out for the season.

A lot about Pope and Brooks’s first seasons has been the same, but their final jobs, if you will, are different.

Pope takes over the winningest men’s college basketball program of all time. His job is to bring life back to a historically royal operation that had grown dull during the last four seasons of Pope’s predecessor’s rule.

On the other hand, Brooks thinks that the name “Kentucky” will help him bring the generally good (but not great) UK women’s basketball program to the same level of success as the Wildcats’ men’s basketball program.

Those are not at all the same as teaching jobs.

There is an easy answer to the question of whether Brooks or Pope is off to the best start at Kentucky:

There is a tie.

Even though the sample numbers are small, both coaches have done about as well, or even better, than anyone could have expected when they were chosen.

This is why a tie is the best possible result for people who really care about the University of Kentucky and its basketball teams.