Kentucky men’s basketball officially added two assistant coaches to Mark Pope’s debut coaching staff in Lexington.
Jason Hart and Cody Fueger both formally made their moves to Lexington official on Monday.
Fueger made the move from BYU after also having followed Pope from Utah Valley as well. The duo has been a pair for around a decade, dating back to when Pope was a BYU assistant coach and Fueger was director of basketball operations.
With Pope accepting the head coaching job in Lexington, his right-hand man has decided to follow to hope to continue the success the pair have had together.
“Cody Fueger and I have been together for 11 years now,” Pope said to UK Athletics. “I’ll never forget taking the job together at Utah Valley and trying to imagine how we were going to build a program that had just recently moved into Division I. If you had told us we were going to get to walk into the Joe Craft Center and coach at Rupp Arena, neither of us would have ever believed it.”
At BYU Fueger’s role formed into more of an “offensive coordinator” role and, per KenPom — an advanced metric site tracking offensive and defensive efficiency — BYU ranked No. 14 in the country in offensive efficiency.
As for Hart, he comes to Lexington after coaching in the NBA G League Ignite.
Playing for Syracuse in college, he was selected by the Milwaukee Bucks in the 2000 NBA Draft, going on to enjoy a lengthy professional career that ended in 2010 with the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Joining the coaching world, he began at Taft High School in his home state of California before he joined the staff at Pepperdine.
He’d then move to USC before joining G League Ignite in 2021. With the announcement of the G League Ignite program ceasing operations following the 2023-24 season, Hart will move to Lexington to join Pope’s staff.
“I couldn’t be more excited to join the Big Blue Nation,” Hart said to UK Athletics. “I’ve played and coached at every level of basketball and there is not a more passionate fan base than this one. I will give every ounce of energy to our players and this program, and I can’t wait to get started. I want to thank Mitch Barnhart and Mark Pope for their confidence in me, and I want to say a special thanks to my family for their continued support.”
Pope is still likely to add more coaches to his team as he continues efforts to build a roster for his first season with the Wildcats.
