Mark Pope hired to join Dave Rose's staff at BYU
Published on May 18, 2011 04:44PM
BYU basketball coach Dave Rose has found the man who will replace Dave Rice on the Cougar coaching staff, after Rice left last month to take the head job at UNLV.
Rose has hired former Kentucky center Mark Pope, the school announced Wednesday.
Pope was an assistant last season at Wake Forest under Jeff Bzdelik. He was previously Georgia's director of basketball operations in 2009-10 under Mark Fox.
Six-foot-10, Pope was a member of Kentucky's 1996 National Championship team. He played professionally for nine years, including seven in the NBA and two in Turkey.
Pope was a second-round draft pick in 1996 by the Indiana Pacers.
He started his college career at Washington before transferring to Kentucky, and was the freshman of the year at Washington in 1991-92 after averaging 8.1 rebounds per game.
He transferred to Kentucky after his sophomore season.
Pope graduated from Kentucky with a degree in English. He completed two years of medical school at Columbia University in New York while playing in the NBA.
Pope's wife, Lee Anne, worked for ESPN for awhile and was David Letterman's personal assistant for four years.
