BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — He hasn’t coached a game in the league yet, but new Kentucky head coach Mark Pope already has several connections in the world of SEC basketball.

The one with Georgia’s Mike White is unique.

Back in 1996, about three months before UK won the national championship, White was a freshman point guard at Ole Miss and Pope was a senior captain for the Wildcats.

Kentucky defeated the Rebels 90-60 that day in Rupp Arena. Nearly 30 years later, White knew the final score off the top of his head.

“I told the story so many times, I probably googled it one day to make sure I wasn’t lying about the score,” he said Tuesday morning at SEC media day in Birmingham.

The Bulldogs coach said he remembered UK star Walter McCarty dunking balls, landing right under the rim and immediately getting into his stance for a full-court press.

“That’s the way they played,” White said. “They were a phenomenal team with a bunch of pros on that team. … That team there was about as talented a college basketball team as I’ve seen.”

The first few months of the Pope era have centered on recapturing the magic that flowed through UK basketball during his playing days, from his nostalgia-tinged introductory press conference in Rupp Arena back in April to the triumphant return of Rick Pitino there last week at Big Blue Madness.

Pope’s new colleagues in the SEC predict a winning future for the Wildcats’ program.

Tennessee coach Rick Barnes called Pope’s predecessor — his longtime friend John Calipari — “one of the great coaches of all time” and said he was sure Calipari would win big at his new home, Arkansas.

He also foresees success for Pope, who played for the Wildcats from 1993 to 1996 and wore a UK letterman jacket to SEC media day.

“Well, I think you’ve got someone that knows what he’s (getting) into at Kentucky — what it’s about,” Barnes said. “I’ve been around Mark on the road, and I can just tell you, wonderful person. You look at his teams, he won where he had been, and I think that he quickly has put his mark on the program. …

“I think he’s very comfortable in who he is, and I think he’s also lived in that system. In terms of the (Big) Blue Nation, he’s been a part of it, he understands it, and I’m sure will do a fine job there.”

Barnes is entering his 10th season at Tennessee. And while Calipari is going into his 16th consecutive season in the league, Auburn’s Bruce Pearl is now the conference’s longest-tenured coach at the same school. This will be his 11th season leading Auburn, which has emerged as one of the league’s perennial powers under his watch.

The Pearl-Calipari rivalry has been one of the SEC’s best over the years. He spoke highly of Kentucky’s new coach Tuesday afternoon.

“I can tell you from watching his BYU teams, he’s got a brilliant offensive mind,” Pearl said. “That doesn’t mean he’s not a good defensive coach. But he is next-step, European, the latest and the greatest offensive schemes that are out there right now. Obviously, he was a great player — loved Kentucky. And from what I’ve experienced so far and what I know about him, he’s a really quality person.

“Like, the foundation of who he is and who he wants to be and how he wants to lead — I think Kentucky got themselves a great coach, a great person, and somebody that understands the history and responsibility of leading that program.”

Coaching rivals from Pope’s past

While at Utah Valley — his first head coaching job — Pope overlapped with New Mexico State coach Chris Jans for two seasons. Jans, now the head coach at Mississippi State, led both of those teams to the WAC regular-season and tournament championships.

Jans was 3-1 against Pope, whose lone victory ended New Mexico State’s perfect start to the WAC schedule and was one of just two defeats suffered by Jans’ team in league play that season.

“Just happy for Mark,” Jans said. “I know him personally. We were in the WAC together for a couple years when he was at Utah Valley and I was at New Mexico State, and I had a ton of respect for him then, and certainly still do now. He’s an excellent coach and even a better person. I was always impressed with how hard he worked at his craft. I would see him on the road recruiting, and he was pretty relentless when it came to that. …

“He’s an excellent coach. I look forward to competing against him as the year unfolds again.”

Florida’s Todd Golden also crossed paths with Pope in the past. Golden spent his first three seasons as a head coach at San Francisco in the West Coast Conference, which — at that time — was BYU’s league.

“Mark was always great to compete against,” Golden said. “I’ve always thought that Mark’s a really, really good coach. You know, from his style of communicating with his players to how they play and how they execute offensively. BYU got a lot better when he got there, and it was always a contested and heated battle. …

“I think he’s going to do an incredible job at Kentucky, to be honest.”

Pope and Golden met seven times over those three years in the WCC together. BYU won four of those games, though Golden’s Dons took the final matchup on their way to an NCAA Tournament at-large bid.

Golden, like Pope, has also been a vocal proponent for the use of analytics in college basketball and spoke highly of Cody Fueger, the longtime Pope assistant and “offensive coordinator” on his Kentucky staff.

“They’re a smart group, for sure, and they’re always very efficient,” Golden said. “I think they do a good job understanding the talent within their program and using that to the best of their abilities. This will be a new challenge for him, obviously … with the roster that’s brand new, getting those pieces on the same page. But I feel confident that he’ll figure it out.”

Pope also coached against two SEC newbies, Oklahoma’s Porter Moser and Texas’ Rodney Terry, in the Big 12 last season. Newcomers to the league, BYU was picked to finish 13th in the 14-team Big 12 last preseason. The Cougars ended up in fifth place and earned a 6 seed in the NCAA Tournament.

UK was picked to finish eighth in the preseason SEC poll this week and placed No. 23 in the first AP rankings Monday afternoon. The consensus in college basketball is that this will be the top league in the country for the 2024-25 season.

Pope’s arrival — and Calipari’s new start in Fayetteville — will be among the SEC’s top storylines. Even their rival coaches are interested to see what happens next.

“I’m sure he’ll do a wonderful job,” White said of Pope. “It’s a big-time program, obviously a proud program. I always enjoy our trips to Rupp Arena. He was a heck of a player. He’s a heck of a coach. …

“We’re all, as coaches — we coach this game, and there’s a business side of it. It’s our career, obviously. But I think, at least, speaking for myself — and I’m assuming there’s others in this league — we’re all still fans of the game, as well. And I’m anxious to see how Coach Cal’s teams play at Arkansas. I’m anxious to watch his first few games, and certainly Coach Pope at Kentucky, as well.”

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