Kentucky Coaches Nab Random Selfie With Hollywood Icon

It's safe to say University of Kentucky head basketball coach Mark Pope and his staff can count is first season at the Wildcat helm. When you build a team from scratch, pre-season question marks dominate the conversation.

Mark Pope's First Season at UK

Coach Pope literally started with nothing in 2024. When John Calipari left for Arkansas, multiple players went with him. Others exited through the transfer portal until there was no one left. All Pope did was bury his nose in the grindstone and got busy building a team that eventually made it to the Sweet 16 in the 2025 NCAA Tournament. That, by the way, was UK's first appearance in a regional semifinal in six years, an eternity in Lexington.

Along the way, Kentucky secured eight wins over top-15 opponents, the most in program history. It was a wonderful year, one to really grow on. And with the team Mark Pope has coming in for 2025-2026, possibly being named the pre-season number one team in America has entered the discussion.

Mark Pope Meets Kevin Costner

So why not throw a little icing on the cake?

Recently, in what appears to be an airport somewhere, Pope and assistant head coach Mark Fox managed to wrangle a selfie out of who Coach Mark Fox appropriately dubbed a "bodyguard."

Not much is known about this rare and awesome opportunity. At first I thought it had something to do with Kentucky's baseball team, but their season has come to an end. Then, I thought there was some connection to the Murray State baseball team, since they just made a College World Series Super Regional for the first time. The dual-frame image at KSR Today fooled me. I mean, we are talking Kevin Costner here, a man who's made five baseball movies, two of which, Field of Dreams and Bull Durham, were box office smashes.

But no, it was simply what David Letterman used to call a "brush with greatness." Don't ever let an opportunity pass you by.