Mark Pope

Mark Edward Pope (born September 11, 1972) is an American basketball coach and former player who is the nineteenth and current head coach of Brigham Young University's (BYU) men's basketball team. He played college basketball for the Kentucky Wildcats, where he was part of the Wildcats 1996 championship team, and the Washington Huskies, where he was the Pac-10 Freshman of the Year. He later played professionally in the National Basketball Association for the Indiana Pacers, Milwaukee Bucks and Denver Nuggets. Playing career Pope starred at Newport High School in Bellevue, Washington and played two years at the University of Washington (UW). He earned Pac-10 Freshman of the Year honors in 1992 after setting a UW freshman single-season record with 8.1 rebounds per game. He transferred to the University of Kentucky, where he was a captain of the 1996 NCAA Men's Basketball Championship team. Pope was a second round pick of the Indiana Pacers in the 1996 NBA draft. The 2004-05 season was his last, as he was cut in training camp with the Denver Nuggets the following season. Coaching career Pope served the director of basketball operations for Mark Fox at Georgia (2009-10) and an assistant under Jeff Bzdelik at Wake Forest (2010-11). From 2011 to 2015, Pope served as an assistant under Dave Rose. In four years, Pope helped the Cougars to four-straight 20-win seasons and four-straight postseason appearances—including three bids to the NCAA Tournament and trip to the semifinals of the 2013 NIT. Pope then took over the men's basketball program at UVU. In four years at UVU (2015-19), Pope’s teams made improvements each season, going from 12 wins in 2015-16 to 25 victories in 2018-19. He also led the Wolverines to three-straight postseason appearances (2017, 2018, 2019) and back-to-back 20-win seasons (2017-18, 2018-19)—both are Wolverine records.