Saint Vincent College graduate Kyle Pope has been named assistant video coordinator for the National Basketball Association's Brooklyn Nets, growing the Bearcats basketball coaching tree to the NBA.

Despite graduating from SVC just three years ago, Pope's journey to achieving his goal of working in professional basketball has been a long one, filled with many steps on the way.
 
While at Saint Vincent, Pope, a native of Martinsburg, W.V., was a two-sport athlete, serving as captain of both the Bearcats' basketball and lacrosse teams. He played four years of lacrosse and three years of basketball, before deciding to be a student assistant coach for the basketball program during his senior year.
 
In 2018-19 on the court, he was one of just three Bearcats to appear in all 27 games. He averaged 12.7 minutes per game, scoring 2.7 points, with 1.3 rebounds and 1.1 assists per game. He followed that up in his final year by appearing in 23 games with seven starts for SVC, averaging ten minutes per game. On the lacrosse field, he played in 43 games over his four-year career, scooping up 44 ground balls and 23 caused turnovers, becoming one of the Bearcats top defensemen in his time on campus.
Just prior to graduating from Saint Vincent, Pope made the decision to not pursue a career in engineering,  which is what he earned his degree in at SVC. Instead, he wanted to continue working in the basketball field, with the ultimate goal of getting to the NBA.

"I knew I was not done with basketball yet, so I wanted to find some way to be involved," Pope said of how his basketball coaching journey began. "That's when I began an internship with Hoop Group and that really kickstarted my career."

Pope's journey with the Hoop Group began immediately after his graduation in the spring of 2021. He worked 12-hour shifts each day as a recruiting coordinator for the Hoop Group, an organization founded in 1963 to help boys and girls gain more exposure and instruction in basketball. Since its establishment, it has produced multiple NBA players, and hundreds of Division-I men's and women's players.
"I was on the phone making cold calls to parents and kids to give them as much information as possible about our camps," Pope explained. "Through that experience, I learned how to communicate better, how to market yourself and market a product as well. I also learned how to recruit and that was very critical, because the majority of college basketball is recruiting."
 
On the very last day of his internship with the Hoop Group, Pope made his next connection, resulting in an opportunity to interview for the graduate assistant coaching position with the East Stroudsburg University men's basketball program, a position that he would soon accept.

Over his two-year tenure at East Stroudsburg, Pope was tasked with running workouts, conducting drills at practice, going on the road to meet recruits, and a multitude of additional duties that assistant coaches perform on a daily basis.

While at East Stroudsburg, he continued to make connections to try to continue to get to the next level. During his time there, had met the previous GA for the basketball program, who had since accepted a position with the Atlanta Hawks. Pope continued to remain in close contact with him,  demonstrating how important that was to get where he is today.
 
That's where he learned about 'sportscode', which is an application through HUDL that most NBA organizations use to cut and break down game and practice film. After purchasing sportscode, he used YouTube videos to learn the software, enabling him to eventually become East Stroudsburg's primary video coordinator.
 
When his time at East Stroudsburg ended, he wanted to stay in the video coordinating field, but he took a slight detour before getting to his current position. After a couple months of the job search, he had the opportunity to take another big step, accepting a position as the Director of Basketball Operations at William and Mary University, a Division I institution in Williamsburg, Virginia.

It was a job that Pope was prepared for, that's for sure. He succeeded at the job and speaks glowingly of his time at William & Mary, while he was regularly regarded by associates as one of the best operations people in the business.

Following the 2023-24 academic year, Pope was offered the opportunity to remain on staff at William & Mary, and accepted the position after not hearing back from the NBA teams with he interviewed. That was until a couple of weeks ago, when the Nets called and offered him the assistant video coordinator position, which he immediately accepted.
 
Pope explained how important his time at Saint Vincent helped him continue to rise to the position he is in today.
 
"Saint Vincent helped me tremendously get to where I am at now," he said. "It's a lot of trying to figure things out and a lot of problem-solving at multiple levels. Playing two sports and being an engineering major, a lot of my time was taken. My time management had to get good very early on, which Saint Vincent helped me with. Playing sports at Saint Vincent gave me the opportunity to learn new skills that I've needed in my career thus far."
 
He also said how important faith is to him and his career and how Saint Vincent helped inspire his faith.

"My faith has meant everything to me," Pope explained. "In the corporate world, a lot of people don't get fired and choose to leave their jobs, it isn't like that in the basketball world. Not knowing what the next step has been in my career has made it easier for me to put my faith in God because he directs every step that I take."

 With the Nets, Pope will assist in day-to-day basketball activities, including film breakdown, scouting, and player development.

"We are very proud of Kyle and everything he has accomplished to this point," Saint Vincent Head Men's Basketball DP Harris said. "Kyle is a hard worker and we look forward to seeing him continue to grow the Saint Vincent basketball coach tree even further. His dedication and hard work to the game of basketball has gotten him to where he is at this point with William and Mary and the Brooklyn Nets."