Mark Byington and Mark Pope are redefining expectations in year one, will meet Saturday

Nashville–Year one of a college basketball coaching tenure used to be all about patience and in most cases a lot of losing.

Vanderbilt coach Mark Byington and Kentucky coach Mark Pope, who will meet up on Saturday, have defied the perceived challenges of inheriting a college basketball program in year one. 

Pope’s Kentucky team made up of 13 newcomers is out to a 14-4 start and is ranked the No. 9 team in the nation while Byington’s Vanderbilt team with the same amount of newcomers is 15-4. The first-year Kentucky coach didn’t necessarily have to turn his program around like Byington did, but Byington has admired what Pope has built from afar. 

Both he and Pope have done what analytics have shown to be the implausible task in college basketball these days, they’ve won immediately without continuity or any sort of runway. 

“There’s a lot of things outdated in college athletics,” Byington said of the lack of expectations around first-year coaches. “I’m not sure with that being a new coach and what the new expectations are. My mentality is probably the same with Mark Pope, you do the best you can at that time.”

Byington’s team still shows some tells of being a year-one roster, but Pope has noticed other things more. The first-year Kentucky coach has noticed the wins and the way they’ve come for Byington’s first year group that has a rotation made up entirely of transfers and freshman. 

He’s also seen the staples of Byington’s coaching ability within Vanderbilt’s roster.

“Certainly Vandy has done an unbelievable job. You know what an unbelievable job that staff has done on constructing this team and putting together pieces that fit and having guys fully buy in,”Pope said. “They’re playing incredibly hard and and have some real joy and moxie and toughness in their game. As a full reconstruct, that’s really impressive along those lines.”

The key to a quick turnaround for Byington has been similar to his strategy for facing an SEC schedule that includes just four games against non-ranked opponents the rest of the way. The first year coach has made it a point to not look too far ahead. In fact he’s looked right in front of him. 

Byington knows that coaches in year one don’t often win. He also knows that his standard for himself is results, not excuses. 

“You look too far down the road and I think it becomes a habit and you’re continually looking down the road, staying here and now and doing what I can with this team is my goal,” Byington said. “I don’t think anybody looks at it saying ‘give me some time’ I always think that’s kinda just an excuse ‘give me some time, give me some time.’”

For Byington, games like Vanderbilt had in Tuesday’s loss to No. 4 Alabama aren’t good enough. His team’s performance on Saturday against Pope’s team may not be good enough, either. 

That won’t deter the first-year head coach, though. His approach won’t change. That approach has netted Vanderbilt some results that are pretty dang good, even if he doesn’t say so. 

“I would say ‘maybe right now what we’re doing is not good enough, but we’re gonna try as hard as we can.’”