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Kentucky has not gotten off to the start it was hoping for during Mark Pope’s second season as the head coach. The Wildcats have plummeted out of the Top 25, and their skipper spent so much time yelling over the past few weeks that he’s been ordered to keep his voice down for a few days due to the toll his tirades have taken.
Mark Pope won a national championship while playing at Kentucky in 1996, and he headed back to Lexington hoping to earn another title as the coach of the Wildcats when he replaced Jon Calipari prior to the start of last season.
Pope knew he had some massive shoes to fill when he left BYU to succeed the man who led Kentucky to the NCAA Tournament in 12 of his 14 seasons at the helm, which included four runs to the Final Four and one that ended with the Wildcats winning a title in 2012.
He fared pretty well during his first season in charge, and Kentucky ended up going 24-12 and punched its ticket to March Madness before losing to Tennessee in the Sweet Sixteen.
However, things have not gone according to plan during the current campaign, and Pope has apparently given his vocal cords quite the beating while expressing his displeasure with what’s transpired.
Mark Pope has been ordered to speak at a “conversational volume” after wrecking his voice by screaming too much
Kentucky was ranked at #9 heading into the season, but they dropped a few spots after losing to Louisville in their first real test of the year. That marked the first of four losses that have all come at the hands of ranked opponents, and the Wildcats are currently sitting at 7-4 after also falling to Michigan State, North Carolina, and Gonzaga.
“Quiet” and “reserved” are usually not among the list of words you’d use to describe a college basketball coach, and Pope is no exception. He’s had plenty of excuses to yell at his players during what has been a very underwhelming stretch of basketball, but he recently discovered the screaming is not sustainable.
Kentucky was treated to a week off after coming from behind to beat Indiana on Saturday, and based on what Pope said on his radio show on Monday, that is a much-needed reprieve for a man who said he’s been told to avoid speaking over a “conversational level” for at least a few days, saying, ““It’s been a pretty emotional several weeks, and it’s been taxing on my voice.”
He will presumably get back to his loud ways when Kentucky hosts a St. John’s team that has also failed to live up to preseason expectations on December 20th.