Mark Pope made it clear on Friday that Kentucky basketball is headed toward the same front-office evolution fans are watching on the football side. The Wildcats are actively exploring a GM-style role for the program, but if you are expecting a quick hire, pump the brakes.
“It’s somewhere we got to get,” Pope said, noting that he has already had “long discussions” with potential candidates about what a position like that would look like at Kentucky. He has even “teased” people around the program with names who could “at some point maybe in some way fill a position like that.”
At the same time, he drew a hard line on the timeline: this is not something he is going to rush.
Why Kentucky is exploring a GM and why Pope is cautious about it
Pope loves the concept in theory. He talked about the extra “manpower,” the singular “focus” and the value of having someone living in that world “24/7” as roster and NIL chaos accelerate across the sport. A dedicated roster architect could help Kentucky manage the portal calendar, collectives, retention and recruiting in a way traditional college staffs were never built to handle.
But in practice? He has seen it blow up.
“We’ve seen places around the country where it’s been an epic disaster and we’ve seen places where it’s been functional,” Pope said. “When it lands right, we’ll do it. But it’s not something that we want to rush into, because it can be really costly. There’s the do-no-harm vibe.”
A big part of his hesitation comes from what he called the “one degree of separation” schools are trying to buy. The whole point of a GM or third-party structure is to keep coaches technically separated from NIL dealings under NCAA rules. But that same separation can create real problems for the people who actually matter most.
“I think sometimes it can be less beneficial for student-athlete,” Pope said. “I think sometimes it can be a little bit problematic in terms of communication wise. That’s the whole purpose of it, right? … Believe it or not, these student athletes still matter, right? They still matter. Like that’s still the most important thing that’s going on.”
Until Kentucky lands on the right person and the right structure, Pope is leaning heavily on what he called an “incredible partnership” with JMI Sports and the leadership of athletic director Mitch Barnhart.
“I, in a sense, have a whole team of people that are working contracts, working possibilities,” Pope said. He singled out JMI’s Paul Archey and Kim Shelton by name, talking about late nights, tight deadlines and the scramble to “get to winning spots” in a rulebook that changes every day.
“One of the complicated things right now is that there’s not a clear interpretation of exactly what the rules are,” Pope said. “We’ll make sure that we always err on the side of doing this legal, which is a guessing game because nobody knows exactly what’s legal right now.”
That is where his job comes in. The way he framed it, the infrastructure is already strong. Barnhart, JMI and the internal team are giving him what he called “ridiculous” support. The GM question is about one final piece.
“In the dynamic times, landing on exactly the right spot is ultimately my job to guess the right spot,” Pope said. “When it lands right, we’ll do it.”