All in the family

 Jay Wright didn't want the job. Billy Donovan said "Nah, I'm good." Dan Hurley wondered why he'd leave UConn after winning back-to-back titles there; Baylor's Scott Drew said thanks, but no thanks; and Nate Oats said on the whole, he'd rather be at Alabama.

It was starting to look like no one wanted the Kentucky job, which must have left the Big Blue faithful slack-jawed in disbelief.  Baylor over Kentucky? Alabama over the Wildcats? What, did Bear Bryant coach basketball? And if he had, would he have beaten that crusty old racist Adolph Rupp?

I don't think so, BUD!

It was the ultimate snub, the basketball coach at a football school turning down one of the nation's legendary basketball schools.  And so UK did what a lot of folks do when they've been done wrong by strangers.

They turned to family.

In this case, "family" is Mark Pope, a captain on the 1996 Kentucky juggernaut and now the coach at BYU. Everyone thinks the world of the guy, apparently. And he's pure bluegrass from his head to his toes, unlike all those other dirtbags who clearly didn't appreciate the opportunity they were being offered.

Hey, come to Kentucky! Look at those banners! Have yourself a nice soak in all our history! And if you win us a national title every other year, we promise not to run you out like we did that Calipari fella!

Now, I don't know if that's what Oats and Drew and all the others heard when Kentucky came calling. But job security is no small thing in these uncertain times. And that's especially true now that college buckets are the Wild West and kids are changing schools every year the way they change their socks.

Which is to say, it ain't easy being dynastic these days, and dynastic is what the UK fan base expects. So you can halfway understand why marquee names who've built solid programs elsewhere would be reluctant to leave the solid ground those programs provide.

Enter Mark Pope, who at least knows what UK expects and (presumably) thus knows better how to cope with those expectations. Even if his resume isn't the sort of resume a Kentucky coach generally brings to the table.

In five seasons at BYU he's gone 110-52 and taken the Cougars to two NCAA Tournaments, and his season put up 23 wins in BYU's first season in the Big 12. But he's a less-than-overwhelming 187-108 in eight years as a head coach at Utah Valley and BYU, and he's never won a game in the Madness. In 2021 6-seed BYU was knocked out by 11-seed UCLA in the first round, and this year was deja vu all over again: The Cougars were once more a 6-seed, and once more an 11-seed -- Duquesne this time -- upset them.

Calipari's last Kentucky team, meanwhile, lost to 14-seed Oakland in the first round this year. So at least UK fans are used to getting taken down by a lower seed.

Which is most assuredly not why the school is hiring Mark Pope, as Calipari could attest. But you know what?

At least the hometown guy knows that.