New Kentucky men's basketball head coach Mark Pope is returning to the school where he once captained the 1995-96 national championship winners.

On Sunday, UK introduced him as coach to the public in grand fashion by having the rest of the team return to Rupp Arena and walk out of a bus, with Pope hoisting that squad's trophy.

That legendary Wildcats team went 34-2 (16-0 in SEC) en route to winning its six NCAA tournament games by 21.5 points per outing. Pope, a 6'10" center, averaged 7.6 points and 5.2 rebounds on that squad.

Pope played professional basketball (mainly overseas) from 1996-2005 before joining the coaching ranks in 2009 as an assistant with Georgia. He got his first head coaching gig with Utah Valley in 2015 before leaving for BYU in 2019. His teams have finished 187-108 over nine seasons.

Now he's tasked with leading a UK program that was in search for a new leader following the end of the John Calipari era. Bringing in a champion in Pope certainly generates some goodwill as Kentucky looks for brighter days.