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What do you want to see (this season) for Pope to prove himself?

C

Catastic5

Senior
Sep 12, 2026
248
614
93
First (exhibition) game of the season is coming up, so I’m curious if there is anything different you want to see from Mark Coach. Whether it’s coaching ability or recruiting or simply demeanor. I think many of us aren’t satisfied with the results so far. So what will it take for Mark Pope to prove he’s changed or improved as a coach?

One of my biggest problems with Mark Pope has always been his knack for his teams to end up down by double digits. His first season I shrugged it off as growing pains, but the second year proved that is was a major flaw in his coaching. I hope that he has solved this issue because that would go far in proving he’s got what it takes to coach here. But it’s too big of a flaw to ignore. It’s inexcusable. It had to be fixed.
 
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Runt#1969

Runt#1969

All-American
Dec 13, 2010
21,508
9,404
113
It's a long list.

Get healthy and stay as healthy as possible. Repeated freak injurioes and injuries in general at this point is systemic, as much as anything.
Better start to games.
Look more prepared.
Do not get blown out. no excuse for that. Against nobody.

Rebounding/defense this year? I hope it's not the weakness we all think it might be.

Better player development. Let's see Moreno become the best center in all of college basketball.


I can go on, but that at least gets it started.
 
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TheGreatGooglyMoogly

TheGreatGooglyMoogly

Sophomore
Feb 19, 2026
50
106
33
This team cannot have more than single digit losses to end the year. Cant be dropping clunkers at home again. The schedule is the easiest Pope has had at his time at UK. I want to be surprised and would really like an EE run and SEC final.
 
K

KYAnywhereEverywhere

Junior
Oct 13, 2025
222
327
43
UK use to dominate in games against lowly opponents. They would look like the much better team right from the start and run off 15-20 point leads before the other team had a chance to catch their breath. I would like to see that again and definitely didn't in the first exhibition game. I don't want to ever feel nervous against a team outside the top 60 (not nervous that they'll lose, nervous about their play in general).
 
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yoshukai

yoshukai

Heisman
Dec 21, 2002
30,411
43,396
102
Top 3 seed with at least a sweet 16
or
Top 4 seed with at least a final 8


Either will be enough to bring him back for another year.
 
*Fox2Monk*

*Fox2Monk*

Heisman
Jun 10, 2009
48,077
88,347
113
Catastic5 said:
First (exhibition) game of the season is coming up, so I’m curious if there is anything different you want to see from Mark Coach. Whether it’s coaching ability or recruiting or simply demeanor. I think many of us aren’t satisfied with the results so far. So what will it take for Mark Pope to prove he’s changed or improved as a coach?

One of my biggest problems with Mark Pope has always been his knack for his teams to end up down by double digits. His first season I shrugged it off as growing pains, but the second year proved that is was a major flaw in his coaching. I hope that he has solved this issue because that would go far in proving he’s got what it takes to coach here. But it’s too big of a flaw to ignore. It’s inexcusable. It had to be fixed.
Click to expand...
I wanted to see his offense look coherent like year one, and for a team to look well coached. He failed miserably in game one. He let his guards just play pickup ball. If that continues we will lose a lot of games. A massive positive was the defense looked much better than expected.
 
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seccats04

seccats04

Heisman
Dec 6, 2004
14,748
24,187
113
- Lose less than 10 games for once
- Finish in the top 4 of the SEC regular season
- Make it to at least Saturday of the SECT
- Quit subbing your starters after the first 4 minutes of the game
- Land some 5 star recruits for once
- Quit getting down by double digits to any team with a pulse
- Look prepared from the get go
- Stop getting beat by the crappy team football schools like Auburn and Georgia
- Stop squinting, clapping your hands and slapping their butts when they come to the bench after loafing. Get in someone's grill and show some emotion.
- Prove you can make at least an E8. It will be hard to do since his teams are so bipolar and inconsistent. Win a game you shouldn't and then lose a game you shouldn't
- Replace Mark Fox with a young, energetic defensive assistant coach

There are many more that I'd like to see but this is a start.
 
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TFCat11

TFCat11

Heisman
Mar 25, 2019
6,353
11,803
108
If Diallo ends up being worse than J. Lowe, and Pope doesn’t put in Williams in his place, and slide Wilkins to his natural position, PG, it’s going to be a painful season.

Add to the fact that Moreno came out looking like an uninspired middling Center, and this could go sideways fast!

Milan looks like Milan, and I’m still not sold on Hawthorne. Remember guys, it was Little Rock… Not Purdue, not Georgetown, Little Rock!

Easily should have hung a 100 and won by 35+, and that’s ALL on Pope working paycheck to paycheck.
 
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