{"id":529767,"date":"2026-01-11T16:00:17","date_gmt":"2026-01-11T16:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/529767\/"},"modified":"2026-01-11T16:00:17","modified_gmt":"2026-01-11T16:00:17","slug":"cbs-sports-gives-mark-pope-a-d-grade-so-far-this-season-he-calls-that-generous","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/529767\/","title":{"rendered":"CBS Sports gives Mark Pope a D grade so far this season; he calls that ‘generous’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mark Pope<\/a> isn\u2019t pretending that this season has been anything but a near disaster for the Kentucky men\u2019s basketball program. <\/p>\n

Isaac Trotter of CBS Sports \u2014 like most of the Big Blue Nation \u2014 feels the same way. Earlier this week, Trotter handed out mid-year report card grades<\/a> for every high-major coaching change that happened during the 2024 offseason. Pope was one of many new hires by high-major schools that offseason, guys who are now in year two as the head coach at their current schools. <\/p>\n

Pope was the only coach to receive a D grade through the first half of the 2025-26 campaign.<\/p>\n

Mark Pope knows what makes Kentucky basketball tick, so he knows that this isn\u2019t the standard. Kentucky is 17-18 against high-major teams under his leadership. Twenty-four wins and a Sweet 16 appearance a year ago formed a promising start, but Pope said, \u201cWe should be the best at everything.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Right now, Kentucky is just average on the floor despite having hordes of cash.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Wildcats still have enough runway to make the tournament, but the evidence is mounting \u2014 both on the floor and on the recruiting trail \u2014 that this marriage isn\u2019t on a national championship trajectory. How does Kentucky not find a way to land any of these freshman sensations like AJ Dybantsa,\u00a0Cameron Boozer,\u00a0Caleb Wilson\u00a0or\u00a0Darryn Peterson? Kentucky seems to have lost its way.\u00a0Early grade: D<\/p>\n

\u2014 Isaac Trotter, CBS Sports<\/p>\n

Here is how Trotter graded the other 12 head coaches, from highest grade to lowest grade:<\/p>\n

Michigan, Dusty May: A+<\/p>\n

Vanderbilt, Mark Byington: A+<\/p>\n

BYU, Kevin Young: A<\/p>\n

Arkansas, John Calipari: A-<\/p>\n

Louisville, Pat Kelsey: A-<\/p>\n

Stanford, Kyle Smith: B+<\/p>\n

SMU, Andy Enfield: B<\/p>\n

USC, Eric Musselman: B-<\/p>\n

Oklahoma State, Steve Lutz: C+<\/p>\n

DePaul, Chris Holtmann: C<\/p>\n

Washington, Danny Sprinkle: C<\/p>\n

Ohio State, Jake Diebler: C-<\/p>\n

Kentucky currently sits on a 9-6 overall record through 15 games. The \u2018Cats have trailed by 20 or more points against four ranked opponents this season. UK opened SEC play by losing to Alabama on the road and Missouri at home, the first 0-2 start in league play for this program since the 2005-06 season. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s probably generous,\u201d Pope said of receiving a D during his Friday press conference. \u201cLike, we\u2019re not\u00a0winning like we\u2019re supposed to win right now. That\u2019s a fact. It\u2019s not emotional,\u00a0it\u2019s not a character flaw, it\u2019s just like we\u2019re not getting the job done the way\u00a0that we expected to get the job done here at Kentucky. I don\u2019t think that\u2019s subjective. We started the SEC 0-2; there\u2019s nothing\u00a0subjective about that.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just exactly where we are,\u00a0that\u2019s why I love sports, because it\u2019s not subjective. And so if you\u00a0told me that the head coach at the University of Kentucky led them to an\u00a00-2 start in the SEC, I\u2019d say a D is generous. That\u2019s just what it is. And if we run off the next six, then I\u2019d be like,\u00a0you know maybe I\u2019d move up to a D plus, because Kentucky shouldn\u2019t be 6-2. It\u2019s not emotional, it\u2019s like we have a job to do, and you just do\u00a0your job or you don\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

Going into another SEC matchup on Saturday against Mississippi State, Kentucky\u2019s NCAA Tournament status is far from certain. A loss to the Bulldogs likely puts them on the outside looking in. There is still plenty of time left in the regular season to stack wins and build a solid resume, turn this season around, and make a postseason run, but that only starts by winning the next game. <\/p>\n

\u201cMost people want to run from the messy middle of the deal, and I\u2019m not,\u201d Pope said. \u201cLike let\u2019s dig in and let\u2019s go. That\u2019s how special stories happen.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Subscribe to the KSR YouTube Channel for press conferences, interviews, original shows, fan features, and exclusive content.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mark Pope isn\u2019t pretending that this season has been anything but a near disaster for the Kentucky men\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":529768,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3724],"tags":[7,7910],"class_list":{"0":"post-529767","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-basketball","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-mark-pope-91-newport-senior"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115877303188517224","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/529767","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=529767"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/529767\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/529768"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=529767"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=529767"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=529767"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}