Gonzaga has always beaten Mark Pope’s teams as a coach. Will this Kentucky team be the one to change that?

The Gonzaga Bulldogs and the Kentucky Wildcats have only met three times. The teams don’t have a lot of experience together, but Mark Pope, Kentucky’s head coach, has coached against Gonzaga 11 times. Pope has been upset about how those games turned out. In those 11 tries, he has only been able to beat them once. He thinks this Kentucky team can help him beat Gonzaga for the second time.

He has never had or will have the ability that he will be able to bring to Gonzaga. During Pope’s time in the WCC, his BYU team only beat the Bulldogs once. This was the 2019 season, and BYU was ranked 23rd when they played Gonzaga, which was ranked 2nd. The Pope’s Cougars were able to get the win 91–78.

Pope laughed when asked if his knowledge of Gonzaga would help them win this game. “Maybe, or maybe I just have a lot of PTSD,” he said. “Let’s see.” It’s been, to say the least, frustrating for him to teach against Mark Few.

“They are well known to me.” It’s easy for Coach Few to understand who I am and how we play the game. There have been some epic fights between us, and he has won too many of them. It should get a little more even over time, but there is a lot of familiarity between the two teachers.

— Mark Pope

Mark Pope’s first game as a head coach was against Mark Few and Gonzaga. Pope was at Utah Valley and it was only his second year as a head coach. Gonzaga won the first game of the season, which was a big deal. They beat them 92–69. Pope met Few for the first time that day and was impressed by both how well he could teach and how nice he is as a person.

Pope said this about the first meeting: “He’s been a great friend and one of the best people in the business.” I’ll never forget my first job as head coach at Utah Valley because of him. We played a buy game at Gonzaga, and I knew Coach Few as an assistant. We were in the game, but it seemed to get away from us in the end. I’m still new to coaching, so I’m trying to calm down in the locker room afterward.When I finally left the changing room, Coach Few was just standing there. No one is left in the building, and Coach Few is just waiting outside to talk.

As a young teacher, Mark Pope really liked this kind of memory because it showed him how to learn from and be inspired by an older coach. Few is still one of the best coaches in the game, and he respects Few for that. But he wants to beat Few on Saturday with his new Kentucky team. He believes this group can do it.