A minimum of 17 games left…

[KYFOSSIL]

W MSU-afraid Josh Hubbard may make that an L
W @LSU-could be a toss up
L @UT
W Texas
W Ole Miss
L @Vu
L @ARK
W Oklahoma
L UT
L @Florida
W Georgia
L @Auburn
W SC
L VU
L @Tam
L Florida

9-6 now
7-9 to finish up

16-15 regular season

I expect to drop 1 or 2 we shouldn't. Maybe win 1 or 2 we shouldn't.

Lose first round of SECT. 16-15. No Postseason.

Bleak times.

I think we'll split with both UT and Florida but most of these other predictions at this point look pretty accurate

 

[KYFOSSIL]

Even as incredibly ****** as we are playing, we are too miss labs away from him 11 and four. Chandler is against North Carolina and Oweh last night. Don't get me wrong. I still think even then 11 and 4 would be misleading because of two near escapes.

 

[MegaBlue05]

Unless he won a title recently or had extreme circumstances affecting him, a coach shouldn’t be allowed to come back after going under .500. A blowout in the Sweet 16 shouldn’t get you another year. I doubt many major programs would run it back another year. But somehow we’re different from every other program.

I just researched it using Chat GPT and verified via basketballreference.com, and college basketball firings after two years or less are rare, while firings after 3 or 4 years are fairly common.

Since 1990, these coaches have been fired after two years:

2025 - Iona fired Pitino’s replacement after going around .500 both years (33-34)

2024 - Kenny Payne, Louisville (12-52) and Rob Lanier, SMU (30-34)

2018 - Kevin Stallings, Pitt - went 0-18 in conference + NCAA sanctions (24-41)

2015 - Donnie Tyndall, Tennessee, NCAA sanctions (16-16)

2014 - James Johnson, Virginia Tech, (22-41)

2009 - Billy Gillispie, Kentucky, fired for cause (40-27)

1999, Bobby Hussey, Virginia Tech (22-33)

1996, Todd Bozeman, California, fired for paying a recruit $30K, actually coached 2.5 years (35-63 after vacated wins)

The common denominator for all of these coaches but Clyde is a W-L record that’s pretty underwater and zero NCAA tournament wins.

Pope currently sits at 33-16 with 17 to play. If we lose out the worst his record can be is 33-33 with two NCAA wins. Using historical precedent in the sport as a whole and Mitch’s philosophy of not firing his coaches after one bad season, it’s a pretty safe bet to assume Pope will be here next year.

UNC kept Doherty 3 years who ended with a 53-43 record with the first year being the best. I feel like Mark is our Doherty.

 

[NociHTTP]

I’ll be back when we actually have a team. This group was so poorly put together. I don’t even know where to start so I won’t.

You're here now, just itching to repeat the same stuff that's been posted over and over again.

 

[I’m The Village Idiot]

Hard to trust Matt, considering his politics. Matt says this type of stuff, because it’s easy to predict. He has no knowledge of this, simply because the people that would make this type of decision, haven’t even considered it yet.

Most coaches get 3 years minimum, especially if they have a ridiculous buyout like Barnhart gives out like it’s candy.

It would be like me saying that I’ve heard that Zac Taylor will be on the hot seat next season.
That‘s just a general thing that anyone can say, but it doesn’t mean you have some kind of “source”.

I won’t get into politics but I’ll say Matt Jones is one the biggest sack-of-crap liars I’ve ever seen. I can only imagine how many people his “fair-minded” opinions have misled into thinking certain abominable political opinions are reasonable. Can’t stand that gaslighting waste of space… and no, that guy isn’t worthy of a shred of trust.

 

[NociHTTP]

I read your post several times thinking I could find a flaw in your thinking and after all this, I believe your opinion just might be a little generous.
How could JQ only score 1 point last night?
We are so screwed.

Because he's not as good as advertised. Too slow, bad footwork, poor defense except on occasion when he decides to put his hands in the air. Tags alongside his teammate, begging for the ball, instead of helping said teammate or create separate between himself and the guy who's guarding him. When he fights for rebounds he gets them, but he's usually in poor position for one. Tends to hang out on the perimeter too much.

 

[UKWildcats1987]

I honestly dont care what our final record is. We aren't winning anything that matters. Apathy 100% here.

 

[Argonaut]

Matt Jones said that Pope could lose out this year and still get another year. I don’t know if that’s true but I’m not going to games anymore or watching. It’s hard for me to even hope they win if we are gonna have this for another year regardless.

I guess we can expect a full-on revolt from fans and boosters if that happens. Fans are already ticked off. Imagine bringing him back with no recruits coming in and probably a fraction of the NIL money to buy a new team.

 

[TheBlueMist]

I guess we can expect a full-on revolt from fans and boosters if that happens. Fans are already ticked off. Imagine bringing him back with no recruits coming in and probably a fraction of the NIL money to buy a new team.

This is a distinct possibility. Even high-level transfers may think twice about signing with Pope/UK given how JQ has been used/coached. Even a good NIL pitch may not be enough to convince them to jeopardize their draft stock.

 

[sk73]

I don’t get why Barnhart is so untouchable. This team is missing the tournament and losing at least 14 games. Will probably lose the all time wins.

joker, bcg, etc, and Mitch just buttons his top button and moves on. But do you see him on the sidelines during games? He really cares!

if it was up to Barnhart we would of never had the cal years.

Barnhart is heavily, heavily invested in Popes success. When he hired Pope he was surprised by the full throttled backlash. The big celebration of Pope was Barnharts attempt to do damage control. The Pope welcome took many man hours to plan and bucket loads of money to pull off. For the most part, it worked. People that were pulling their hair out because of the Pope hire reluctantly got on board. That event eased Barnharts blood pressure for awhile. Now, he is under Rock, meet Hard place pressure. He may pull for the team more than anyone because he is fearful of how he ends his time here.

 

[KyKevin]

Well, the good news is the SEC ain’t nearly as strong as last year …so that should mean a few extra wins we may eke out.

This team against last year’s SEC would be be facing a bloodbath.

Bad news is, last year a .500 season might have gotten you in the tourney, but this year probably not