The tie of faith that binds Mark Pope to a Kentucky men’s basketball legend

When fans packed Rupp Arena to the rafters two Sundays ago for Mark Pope’s public introduction as Kentucky Wildcats men’s basketball coach, ex-UK star Vernon Hatton, 88, and his wife Suzanne were among those in the crowd.

“I wouldn’t have missed that, hardly, for anything,” Hatton said Wednesday.

Though Hatton and Pope have never met, they share a link in UK men’s basketball lore: The two are the most prominent members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to have been associated with the Wildcats hoops program.

Hatton was the leading scorer (17.1 points a game) on Adolph Rupp’s 1958 NCAA title team. A former Lafayette High School star, Hatton also hit what, even now, might be the most famous shot in Kentucky’s storied men’s hoops history.

At Memorial Coliseum on Dec. 7, 1957, with UK trailing Temple 71-69 with one second left in overtime, Hatton arced in a 47-foot set shot that sent the game to a second OT. UK eventually prevailed, 85-83, in triple overtime.

For good measure, Hatton also hit the game-winning bucket, a reverse layup with 17 seconds left, as Kentucky beat Temple again, 61-60, in the 1958 Final Four at Louisville’s Freedom Hall. In the following night’s NCAA championship game, Hatton scored a game-high 30 points as UK defeated Seattle, led by the great Elgin Baylor, 84-72.

Pope, of course, was the captain of Kentucky’s 1996 NCAA championship team, averaging 7.6 points and 5.2 rebounds for Rick Pitino’s team in 1995-96. At age 51, Pope has now become the UK head man after successful coaching stints at Utah Valley and BYU.

I asked Hatton if he thought Pope’s having attained the UK coaching job moved the ex-BYU head man ahead of the late-1950s-era star guard for the distinction of “most-prominent Mormon in Wildcats men’s hoops history.”

“Well, he’s a later time,” Hatton said of Pope. “They’ll never beat my one-second shot” vs. Temple.

In Hatton’s journey to becoming a Kentucky Wildcats men’s hoops icon, his religious faith played an interesting role in his story.

When he emerged as a star at Lafayette, Hatton was at an age when many young Mormons receive a call from a General Authority (a church leader) to go on a foreign mission.

In his case, Hatton says the-then Brigham Young University men’s basketball coach, Stan Watts, came to visit him in Lexington.

Watts told the young basketball star, “’It’s not a calling like a missionary calling, but we’d like for you to come to Brigham Young and play basketball for us,’” Hatton recalls.

Unlike UK, however, BYU was not offering Hatton a full-ride scholarship to play hoops.

“They said, ‘We’ll get you a job and you can work your way (through school) a little bit, then we’ll talk about a scholarship a little later on,’” Hatton recalls. “That didn’t suit me too well.”

So, his LDS faith notwithstanding, Hatton cast his lot with his hometown team, Kentucky.

After he had starred while leading UK to the national championship as a college senior, Hatton says he got a phone call from Watts, the BYU coach.

“He just said, ‘I think you made the wise choice,’” Hatton says. “So I felt pretty good about that.”

Hatton’s 89th birthday will fall (Jan. 13) during Pope’s first season as John Calipari’s replacement as Kentucky head coach. Following the Wildcats closely remains a part of Hatton’s daily routine.

“It’s still a lot of fun to listen to the games and watch them on TV,” Hatton says.

In the stands two weeks ago at Rupp Arena for what was essentially a pep rally to welcome Pope as UK head coach, Hatton says he liked what he heard from the new man.

“He is quite a speaker,” Hatton says of Pope. “He just seems like a fine young man. He said, ‘We’re here to work, and we are going to bring some banners in.’”

Noting that Kentucky has been holding at eight NCAA championship banners since 2012, Hatton hopes Pope understands the urgency that well-seasoned UK backers such as himself feel to see the Wildcats hang another national title banner in the rafters of Rupp Arena — and to do it soon.

“Some of us would like to see another one before anything happens to us,” Hatton said.

In a time when some Kentucky backers had grown weary of Calipari’s emphasis on one-and-done freshmen in UK’s roster construction, Hatton believes the fact that Pope is a Mormon may help him address that issue by bringing in some older players returning from mission trips.

The first player to commit to UK after Pope became head coach, class of 2022 guard Collin Chandler, will enter UK in 2024-25 as a freshman after having completed a two-year Mormon mission trip that began in the West African country of Sierra Leone.

“When you go on a two-year mission for the Mormon church, you kind of mature, you develop,” Hatton says. “I think (UK) will bring in some (older) players (coming back from missions) who would not have been available to any other coach except Mark Pope.”

Three reasons to have hope in new UK basketball coach Mark Pope — and two areas for worry

On the day UK introduced Mark Pope, it was Kentucky fans who made a statement

If UK can’t land its top coaching candidates, is it time to bring Rick Pitino back?

OK, Kentucky basketball fans, let’s have a frank talk about Scott Drew

Who should Kentucky target to replace John Calipari? One name should top UK’s list

The one area that most explains the Calipari-era decline in Kentucky men’s basketball

One thing UK men’s basketball acutely needs: A coaching succession plan

You know who deserves an apology? Kentucky basketball’s much-maligned Rupp Arena fans

The U of L men’s hoops coaching search may offer a mirror into college sports’ future