One family was first in line to see Mark Pope. Their feelings sum up a Kentucky fan base.
Hours before Mark Pope was officially introduced as the new head men’s basketball coach at the University of Kentucky on Sunday, the sidewalks outside Rupp Arena were already awash in blue and white.
On the High Street side of the home of UK basketball, two separate lines snaked the length of the building. The first started at the main entrance to Rupp, wrapped around the arena and all the way down High to its end. There it broke slightly, and then that line of Kentucky fans worked its way back to where it began.
Over on the Vine Street side of Rupp, the scene was more of the same.
These folks — all of them wearing blue, white or, in most cases, both — weren’t here to watch the Wildcats play. They were here simply to see the new leader of their beloved team speak.
Following 15 years of John Calipari, who announced a few days earlier that he was leaving Lexington to become the next coach at Arkansas, the fans who lined up outside Rupp on a sunny Sunday afternoon were there to witness a new beginning.
And a few of them had been there for quite some time.
At the very front of the line, decked out in UK gear, stood Kevin Wynn.
The 35-year-old and his family of five — wife, Krystle, daughters Ashlee, 16, and Lexi, 14, and son Kaden, 11 — were all wearing their Kentucky blue. They’d come from Union County, Tennessee — “a little town called Luttrell,” Wynn said — hoping to be the first ones in the door of Rupp to see the dawning of this new era of Kentucky basketball.
They got there around 8:30 a.m., seven hours before those doors would open. Luttrell is about a three-hour drive from Lexington, they said. When did they get out of bed?
That’s another story.
“We slept in the car,” Wynn said with a laugh.
Rather than risk any mishaps on the road en route to Rupp on Sunday morning, the Wynn family decided to get out of town Saturday night. They arrived in Fayette County a little after midnight. They spent the night in their car in a nearby Wal-Mart parking lot.
Sounds like a long night.
Lexi spoke up with a smile on her face. “It’s worth it,” said the 14-year-old brightly.
Kevin Wynn explained that — while he was born in Tennessee and has lived there his entire life — his parents, and most of the rest of his family, were originally from Harlan. And when the Wynns crossed state lines about four decades ago, their love of the Wildcats came with them, to be passed down to future generations of Big Blue Nation expatriates living in enemy territory.
“They wanna give you a lot of trash talk,” Wynn said of those back home. “But the history of Kentucky shuts ’em down pretty quick.”
Just as he was saying this — as if on cue — a group of Kentucky fans farther back in the line started a “C-A-T-S!” chant that spread like wildfire. Wynn smiled.
That UK basketball history will always be there, of course, but the past few years have been relatively rough, a contributing factor to Calipari’s exit and the ushering in of a new era. Wynn’s father — 62 years old and a Harlan native — was hoping the longtime UK coach would be gone by the start of the next season. When it appeared Calipari would be back for a 16th year, he said he was done. He’d been a fan his entire life, but he wasn’t going to watch anymore. Maybe he would’ve come around by November.
Wynn acknowledged that he was disappointed when UK athletics director Mitch Barnhart announced late last month that Calipari would return. He was ready for a change, but he didn’t want to see the Hall of Fame coach fired, and he vowed to continue watching every game.
“I don’t want to discredit Cal for what he did,” he said. “But I think he should’ve probably quit after the 10th year, like he said when he came to Kentucky. If he could’ve adjusted the way he coaches — and the way he recruits — I think we could’ve still won with Cal. But he didn’t want to change. And I think that’s what hurt us. …
“But whenever he left and went to Arkansas, I kind of actually started getting excited. That there was going to be a change.”
Wynn eagerly awaited news of who the new coach would be. By Thursday morning, his assumption — like most everyone else’s — was that Baylor’s Scott Drew would be the next leader of the Wildcats. But Drew passed on the job, the beginning of a wild day of twists and turns that ranged from pie in the sky to the merely improbable. UConn’s Dan Hurley, the Chicago Bulls’ Billy Donovan and even the return of Rick Pitino were all mentioned as possibilities.
By late Thursday night, it became clear that Pope would be Kentucky’s next coach.
Was Wynn still awake to hear that news?
“I’d been up since Wednesday,” he said with a smile.
Like so many who live in this state, Wynn’s life south of the Kentucky border had practically ground to a halt. All that mattered was who would be the next man in charge of his beloved Wildcats.
And when that news finally came — like so many who had waited on pins and needles for it to arrive — Wynn was left a little confused.
“When they said it was going to be Mark Pope, I had to stop and think for a minute,” he said. “Mark Pope?”
He knew him as a player, of course. He was a captain of The Untouchables — the 1996 team that went 34-2, perhaps the best UK basketball squad of all time and certainly a favorite of anyone in Wynn’s age range. But he hadn’t followed Pope’s coaching career that closely. Four years at Utah Valley, five seasons at BYU, and zero NCAA Tournament victories.
Wynn did his research. He watched YouTube videos. He fell in love with Pope’s offensive approach and saw some parallels to Pitino’s style. He was sold. And then he was excited. And then he and the family decided to hit the road and see Sunday’s show for themselves.
“Because we love Kentucky basketball,” Wynn said. “And Mark Pope was somebody that I watched with my dad as a kid, when I was about 7 years old. And now I get to come back with the next generation — with my kids — watching him coach the team. And we fully support them hiring Mark Pope. We think he’ll do great things.”
For most of the Wynn family, this wasn’t their first trip to Rupp.
Kevin and his father made the drive with Kaden — three generations of fans — for Kentucky’s game against UNC Wilmington back in December, the first time seeing the Cats for all three. (UK lost, of course. Maybe that’s part of the reason “Papaw” didn’t want to watch Calipari anymore.)
Kaden said his favorite player was Antonio Reeves.
Ashlee chimed in with her pick: “Sheppard,” she said.
Which one? Dumb question. “Reed,” she replied, as if a teenager in 2024 really needed to clarify.
Kevin brought all three of his kids to another game this season. “That’s when the girls came,” Lexi said. “And that one they won. We were good luck.”
For Krystle — also a lifelong Kentucky fan despite being a Tennessee native — this was the first trip to Rupp. She said she didn’t need to do any additional research on Pope. Didn’t need to watch videos of his offense or hear about his coaching philosophies. Even though she hadn’t followed his last five seasons at BYU that closely either, Krystle Wynn was sold on the hire as soon as she heard about it. Her husband confirmed that with a smile and a nod.
“I obviously knew that he was the leader of the championship team,” she said. “When it comes to getting the heart back here — somebody that has the heart for Kentucky basketball like that — I think it’s going to make a world of difference.”
A couple of hours later, she and her family waded into that sea of blue inside Rupp Arena and disappeared into a capacity crowd to welcome their new leader back to Lexington. Before she even saw the scene inside, Krystle Wynn said she thought Pope would unite the fan base. And the results on the court would follow.
“Big Blue will be back.”
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