Mark Story: You are living through a year in Kentucky basketball history like no other

Mark Story, Lexington Herald-Leader on Mar 11, 2025

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LEXINGTON, Ky. — The news over the weekend that Murray State has parted ways with head men’s basketball coach Steve Prohm and the word Monday that Bellarmine head man Scott Davenport is retiring continues an unprecedented time of churn in college hoops coaching in the commonwealth.

The departures of Davenport and Prohm mean that six of the eight NCAA Division I men’s basketball programs in Kentucky have changed head coaches in the last calendar year.

During the current season, four teams in the commonwealth — Kentucky, Louisville, Morehead State and Western Kentucky — all broke in new head coaches.

Each of our state’s four new head coaches have had fascinating 2024-25 seasons.

There has never been a Kentucky Wildcats season quite like the one Mark Pope has presided over in his debut season coaching at his alma mater.

After inheriting a program with no returning scholarship players, the 52-year old Pope put together a UK team that has been mostly terrific in big games — the Wildcats (21-10, 10-8 SEC) are 7-3 against teams ranked in the top 21 of the NET rankings (through Sunday’s games).

Conversely, UK has struggled against middling opposition — the Cats are 4-7 against teams ranked No. 22 through No. 47 in the NET.

Louisville’s Kelsey, 49, inherited a program that had gone a horrid 12-52 over the prior two seasons. Like UK’s Pope, the new U of L head man went to the transfer portal and built an effective team.

As a result, Louisville (25-6, 18-2 ACC) will enter this week’s Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament assured of its first NCAA Tournament berth since 2018-19.

WKU’s Hank Plona was a continuity hire, promoted off of Steve Lutz’s staff after the latter parlayed Western Kentucky’s Conference USA Tournament championship last year into the Oklahoma State head coaching job.

Plona thought he was inheriting a roster deep with talent, only to see injuries decimate the Hilltoppers. Four players, including former Owen County star Teagan Moore and ex-Warren Central standout Kade Unseld, were lost for the year to injuries before the WKU season even started.

In season, standout forward Babacar Faye (15.2 points, 7.8 rebounds) was lost for the year to a knee injury after 10 games. Standout freshman guard Julius Thedford (12.4 points, 3.8 rebounds) went down with a dislocated kneecap on Jan. 18.

As a result, WKU (17-14, 8-10 C-USA) is a long shot to defend its title in this week’s C-USA Tournament.

New Morehead State coach Jonathan Mattox did not inherit a loaded roster. So Mattox and the Eagles created surprise when they began Ohio Valley Conference play winning eight of their first nine league contests.

That hot start then made for additional surprise when the wheels came off Morehead down the stretch, with the Eagles (15-17, 10-10 OVC) losing 10 of their final 12 games, including a 73-65 loss to Lindenwood in the OVC Tournament.

At Murray State, “Prohm 2.0” was unable to recapture the magic of the coach’s initial run with the Racers. From 2011 through 2015, Prohm went 104-29 at Murray State and parlayed his success into the Iowa State head coaching job.

After the Cyclones and Prohm parted, the return engagement at Murray State yielded only a 45-52 mark over three seasons (2022 through 2025). Of course, Prohm’s return coincided with MSU’s move from the OVC to the Missouri Valley Conference, a tougher and deeper league.

For up-and-coming coaches, Murray State will be one of the most coveted jobs on this year’s coaching carousel. Of the last nine coaches at Murray prior to Prohm 2.0, all nine were able to leave MSU for other head coaching jobs — including six who landed power conference head coaching positions.

Bellarmine’s Davenport has produced one of the most notable coaching careers in Kentucky basketball history.

“Scotty D.” won a high school state championship with Ballard in 1988, directed Bellarmine to an NCAA Division II national championship in 2011 and led the Knights to a NCAA Division I conference tournament title in 2021-22.

After Bellarmine won the 2022 ASUN Tournament, someone who looks remarkably like me excitably wrote that the Knights had a chance to become “the next Belmont.”

Instead, over the past two seasons, Bellarmine went a combined 13-49 overall and 6-28 in the ASUN. That is not the ending Davenport’s otherwise stellar tenure (423-192) with the Knights had suggested.

Doug Davenport, a Bellarmine assistant coach and Scott’s son, is expected to replace his dad as the Knights’ head coach.

With all of our state’s coaching flux, Eastern Kentucky head man A.W. Hamilton, who just finished his seventh season, is now the dean of the commonwealth’s men’s hoops head coaches in terms of longest tenure at his current school.

Northern Kentucky’s Darrin Horn, who just wrapped up his sixth year with the Norse, is close behind.

With tournament time revving up, what is clearly a new era in Kentucky men’s college basketball is a blank slate upon which new coaching legacies can be written.

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