NBA G League Ignite coach is Mark Pope’s second addition to his first UK basketball staff

The second member of Mark Pope’s coaching staff at Kentucky is now an official hire.

Jason Hart, most recently the head coach of the NBA’s G League Ignite team, will join Pope’s first Wildcats staff as an assistant coach for the 2024-25 season. Hart, who turns 46 years old next week, will also hold one of the three positions reserved for coaches who are permitted to engage in off-campus recruiting activities.

With Pope in just his second full week on the job and in search of players for next season — along with the first Nike EYBL session, as well as other major recruiting events, tipping off Friday — Hart will be wading straight into a busy juncture of the UK basketball offseason.

“He has boundless energy. He’s fearless. He is stubborn. But he has endless joy and love for this game and our players,” Pope said, according to a UK news release on Monday. “He has all of the grit that you’d expect from a big-time Syracuse point guard, and he earned everything he got in his decade-long NBA career through pure blood, sweat and tears. Jason is going to win over Kentucky players and Kentucky fans in about 10 seconds.”

“I couldn’t be more excited to join the Big Blue Nation,” Hart said. “I’ve played and coached at every level of basketball and there is not a more passionate fan base than this one. I will give every ounce of energy to our players and this program, and I can’t wait to get started.”

Hart was a standout player at Syracuse and a second-round NBA draft pick in 2000 before a 10-year professional playing career that included stints with nine different NBA teams. He and Pope were teammates with the Milwaukee Bucks in 2000-01, which was Hart’s rookie season in the league. That Bucks team — coached by George Karl — advanced to the Eastern Conference finals, losing to the Philadelphia 76ers in seven games.

After his playing career, Hart spent one season as a high school coach in his native Los Angeles, then a year as an assistant at Pepperdine before joining Andy Enfield’s coaching staff at Southern Cal, where he was an assistant for eight seasons, helping the Trojans advance to three NCAA Tournament appearances, including an Elite Eight run in 2021.

Hart took over the G League Ignite team — the landing spot for elite recruits who bypassed college basketball for an immediate professional career — prior to the 2021-22 season.

While in charge of the Ignite, he coached several future NBA draft picks, including Scoot Henderson (No. 3 overall in 2023), Dyson Daniels (No. 8 in 2022), MarJon Beauchamp (No. 24 in 2022), Leonard Miller (No. 33 in 2023), Jaden Hardy (No. 37 in 2022), Sidy Cissoko (No. 44 in 2023) and Mojave King (No. 47 in 2023).

Current G League Ignite players Matas Buzelis and Ron Holland — former UK recruiting targets — are projected as lottery picks in this year’s draft, and Ignite teammates Tyler Smith and Izan Almansa are also expected to be taken in the 2024 draft.

The NBA announced last month that the G League Ignite program would be shut down following the 2023-24 season, and league officials cited name, image and likeness reforms in college basketball — allowing players to make money while still in school and lessening the need for the professional option — as a primary reason for the decision.

Henderson, now a rookie with the Portland Trail Blazers, told the Rose Garden Report last month that he still keeps in touch with Hart and thanked the Ignite program for his development as a player before reaching the NBA.

“They don’t really get enough credit for how much they have to pour into us,” he said. “The coaches, they don’t get enough credit for having to get guys from high school, to get them up to speed in a few weeks to play some grown men that have children to feed. You don’t see that. You see them getting beat a lot and having a horrible record. You don’t see the things that they go through day-to-day.

“From my viewpoint, they helped me in a huge way to be where I am right now. I can’t thank them enough.”

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