‘It’s great for college basketball’: Mark Pope back in Indianapolis and excited about renewal of IU basketball and Kentucky series

As Kentucky gears up for its Sweet Sixteen game on Friday night, it does so in Indianapolis — a place close to home for new head coach Mark Pope. Not only does he have personal ties to the city and the state of Indiana, but he also appreciates the love and passion the state brings when it comes to basketball

Pope, who played for Kentucky from 1994 to 1996, was selected in the 1996 NBA Draft by the Indiana Pacers where he spent his first two professional seasons. Now, in his first year as the head coach in Lexington, he brings his team back to where his career began.

“It just doesn’t get any better, in epic contests, in a really tremendous era of basketball,” Pope told reporters during his Q&A on Thursday. “To do that here in Indianapolis is special to me. This is where I met my wife and we started our life. It’s a really special city to me.”

Pope spent his first two collegiate seasons at Washington before ultimately transferring to Kentucky where he played under Rick Pitino and was almost immediately engraved into the rivalry that is Kentucky vs IU basketball. In his fourth game in Lexington, the Hoosiers traveled to Freedom Hall to play where it was a three-point win for Kentucky. A year later, it was another win for Kentucky, this time by seven points at the RCA Dome.

Despite playing just two games in the series, Pope got everything and more out of it — and he knows just how important the two teams mean for college basketball. So, despite not being at the university when the series between the two schools was re-scheduled beginning in 2025, he’s incredibly excited about the opportunity to be the head coach for Kentucky when the two programs square off for the first time in the regular season in 14 years — since the infamous ‘Wat Shot’.

“So I have such beautiful memories of Kentucky-Indiana in the RCA Dome and looking up in the arena and seeing the aisleway where it was split, where it was all blue/white all across the arena on one side and all red and white on the other side of the stadium,” Pope said. “And I love everything about it.

“I think these rivalries are really special in college basketball. I think this rivalry has incredible history. I think it’s great for college basketball. There’s nothing about it that’s not great. I’m really excited about it.”

IU basketball and Kentucky agreed to a four-game series under the leadership of John Calipari and Mike Woodson — now, both programs will be led by two different coaches; Pope and Darian DeVries.

The two programs haven’t played since 2016, when it was a 73-67 win for Indiana in the NCAA Tournament.

Next season’s matchup will be at Rupp Arena, followed by a neutral site matchup at Lucas Oil Stadium in 2026, then Rupp again in 2027 before finally heading to Bloomington and Assembly Hall in 2028.

“That was the only way I could get it done,” Former IU head coach Mike Woodson said during Big Ten Media Day two years ago. “We’ll move forward probably after that last year, it being in Bloomington, to having it be in Rupp-Bloomington-Rupp-Bloomington, and just have it that way.”

Kentucky leads the all-time series, 32-25.

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