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Aaron Torres on Mitch Barnhart

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Anon1759768907

All-Conference
Oct 6, 2025
1,290
1,953
113
Made a great point about how he thinks Mitch gets a lot of blame when he's not the biggest problem

He mentioned how recruiting was great under Cal when mitch was here, and how football recruiting looks good

He said basically that Mitch isn't the one overpaying for average players
 
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S

SDcatfan13

All-Conference
Sep 26, 2003
50,179
3,964
113
I'm still of the opinion that regardless of whether Pope turns it around or not, it's time for a new voice for athletics. Anytime someone's there for over 20 years, things are likely to go stale.

My hope is that there's some turnover soon and the next AD holds basketball to a higher standard.
 
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C

Cats4321

All-Conference
Nov 18, 2025
352
1,025
93
I have no doubt that someone other than Pope could recruit better with the JMI situation. He definitely overpayed for way too many players. However, JMI only took over NIL recently, so Cal's recruiting is irrelevant. My biggest problem is how it puts more hurdles in the NIL process. Mitch even admitted that it was difficult when guys have established NIL deals. In this era, you need flexibility. Signing a long contract with JMI is the exact opposite of flexibility!
 
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TigerMoving

TigerMoving

Heisman
Jul 13, 2014
7,818
21,572
113
Mitch had a real good run in the 2010s but it is clearly time for a younger leader who understands, and isn't scared of, the new landscape.
 
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dynastydreamuk

dynastydreamuk

All-Conference
Nov 18, 2010
1,714
1,117
113
Anony Moose said:
Joker Phillips, BCG, Kyra Elsy, Cal contract, Stoops contract and buyout, hiring Pope and his stupid buyout, JMI deal, swim coach scandal, and several other things all occured under Mitch Barnhart. That's a lot.
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Exactly this 👆

Sounds like Torres has some connection to mitch and a little birdy asked him to help mitch's PR image... I just don't see how anybody in the know can think Mitch has done a good job overall for the reasons listed above.
 
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L

loublue22_rivals308424

Heisman
Jan 30, 2004
104,820
10,871
78
Football recruiting looks "great"? Says who? We are signing guys but so is everyone else. We had the top basketball portal class and look how that worked out.

Mitch has presided over a complete collapse of our major programs the last 5 years. Meanwhile, all our regional rivals are having great success in one sport, if not both. Mitch is a joke, the worst AD in the country stealing money from taxpayers.
 
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A

Argonaut

Senior
Jan 3, 2026
334
660
93
loublue22_rivals308424 said:
Football recruiting looks "great"? Says who? We are signing guys but so is everyone else. We had the top basketball portal class and look how that worked out.

Mitch has presided over a complete collapse of our major programs the last 5 years. Meanwhile, all our regional rivals are having great success in one sport, if not both. Mitch is a joke, the worst AD in the country stealing money from taxpayers.
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It’s fascinating, isn’t it? Most of the SEC are better than us in both football and basketball now. Who gives a crap if we have good rifling team? Nobody watches that ESPN8 crap.
 
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K_TIME

K_TIME

Heisman
Jan 2, 2003
18,261
25,384
113
Madhuvan said:
Mitch hired the guy who is overpaying for average players.
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And Mitch is the one overpaying average coaches

And Mitch keeps giving these absurd contracts that bind Ky but never the coach as much (after Cal and Stoops way to long contracts…he gves Pope an auto escalator for making sweet 16….)

Snd Mitch ties Ky into a wwy to long NIL
Deal with JMI…

Please…I’m way more bothered by Mitch then any coach
 
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RedwoodHigh

RedwoodHigh

Sophomore
Nov 18, 2025
133
194
43
Mitch is AD of the whole Ky System.
He hired & fired the winningest football coach in history. New FB coach is a true winner.
Volleyball - Baseball- Women BB - Track - Tennis - Soccer - Softball are all battling for conference titles.
Gave Pope $22 million budget. —- Is the whole FUp his fault.? No
Time for him to go. Yes
 
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A

Anony Moose

Senior
Dec 2, 2025
331
503
93
CRZ4UK said:
Only the 5 stars Duke and UCONN didn’t want. He was no longer at the top of the food chain like he once was.
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Lol, you're right Uconn didn't offer and heavily recruit Darius Acuff, the #5 player in the class.

And Uconn and Duke definitely didn't offer and heavily recruit Meleek Thomas.

Dude, why lie to yourself?
 
B

bigblueinsanity (the real)

All-American
Jul 6, 2025
1,993
6,280
113
Anony Moose said:
Joker Phillips, BCG, Kyra Elsy, Cal contract, Stoops contract and buyout, hiring Pope and his stupid buyout, JMI deal, swim coach scandal, and several other things all occured under Mitch Barnhart. That's a lot.
Click to expand...

The swim team thing just going away during the metoo push is truly an amazing feat of teflon. That alone would've ended 99.999% of careers.

Out of the rest, any two of those mistakes would be fatal. Yet Mitch somehow made them all plus the swim team debacle and THRIVED to the point he will be getting a huge neverending salary from the school.

Its truly amazing. For someone so poor at their job, he must be one helluva backroom politician.
 
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S

Snarks

All-American
Jan 31, 2005
8,191
6,037
93
Hush4872 said:
Seriously? Billy G, Joker, Cal's lifetime contract, Stoops insane buyout, swim coach, Pope, JMI? The list goes on. He's a terrible AD who wouldn't last 5 years at another school in the SEC.
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Don’t understand how he has any support at this point.
 
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CRZ4UK

CRZ4UK

All-American
Jun 6, 2008
4,528
9,185
103
Anony Moose said:
Lol, you're right Uconn didn't offer and heavily recruit Darius Acuff, the #5 player in the class.

And Uconn and Duke definitely didn't offer and heavily recruit Meleek Thomas.

Dude, why lie to yourself?
Click to expand...

Anony Moose said:
Lol, you're right Uconn didn't offer and heavily recruit Darius Acuff, the #5 player in the class.

And Uconn and Duke definitely didn't offer and heavily recruit Meleek Thomas.

Dude, why lie to yourself?
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So you think UCONN was going to recruit and start 3 freshmen. UCONN has won their titles on Player retention. Starting only one in their last title.
dude, why lie to yourself.
UCONN and Duke have exactly who they wanted.
Those you mentioned had to go somewhere. Acuff wasn’t going to Duke to be the 3rd PG on that roster. But, they have who they most wanted.
They had a Jr in Foster and bringing in baby Boozer. They CHOSE them over Acuff. If they wanted Acuff, he would be there instead of Foster.
 
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CRZ4UK

CRZ4UK

All-American
Jun 6, 2008
4,528
9,185
103
bigblueinsanity (the real) said:
The swim team thing just going away during the metoo push is truly an amazing feat of teflon. That alone would've ended 99.999% of careers.

Out of the rest, any two of those mistakes would be fatal. Yet Mitch somehow made them all plus the swim team debacle and THRIVED to the point he will be getting a huge neverending salary from the school.

Its truly amazing. For someone so poor at their job, he must be one helluva backroom politician.
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He make the school and people in it money. That’s his main goal as evidenced by the crooked JMI deal. It’s his main goal. People love money.
 
N

NoDef

All-American
Sep 1, 2001
5,112
7,026
113
SDcatfan13 said:
I'm still of the opinion that regardless of whether Pope turns it around or not, it's time for a new voice for athletics. Anytime someone's there for over 20 years, things are likely to go stale.

My hope is that there's some turnover soon and the next AD holds basketball to a higher standard.
Click to expand...
It is. This guy wrote a contract for an average coach in football to make a fortune with mediocrity. Six wins was worth about 10 million dollars. The guy stays for a decade with mediocrity . Indiana is playing for the national championship in two years and we are having to fire a coach after a decade and paying him 30 million on his way out. Didn't even sniff a chance to do win anything significant. Pope wasn't even on anyone's list to hire. Good guy, alumni, but resume wasn't even close to even talk too.
 
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A

Artlaibesghost

All-Conference
Nov 30, 2022
635
1,211
93
Anon1759768907 said:
well he got to a s16 last year and is rolling in year two because his recruiter was better this year
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Didn't sat Pope was killing it this year just tired about all these moronic post about how things were better with Cal, thay hadn't been in a long time.
 
TFCat11

TFCat11

All-American
Mar 25, 2019
5,106
8,725
108
TheBlueMist said:
Torres obviously doesn't read this board. There have been many calls for Mitch to step down, retire, or get fired.
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Here’s a suggestion… Promote Pope to AD, and promote Cody Fueger to replace Pope as HC! Anyone second that idea?
 
D

Devinhuk78!

Redshirt
Mar 23, 2024
5
5
3
Aaron Torres gets a few thousand views, if he is lucky... He desperately wants to be seen as important; he simply isn't... You can tell this by the amount of self deprecating things he says or acts like people are always responding to him... It simply isn't the case.
 
I’m The Village Idiot

I’m The Village Idiot

All-American
Jul 30, 2024
4,387
7,805
113
Devinhuk78! said:
Aaron Torres gets a few thousand views, if he is lucky... He desperately wants to be seen as important; he simply isn't... You can tell this by the amount of self deprecating things he says or acts like people are always responding to him... It simply isn't the case.
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That’s not because Torres did anything wrong. His primary topic is college basketball, which is very much niche. Don’t believe me? Go make a CBB podcast and see how much traction you get. I absolutely disagree with Torres with his disgustingly idiotic take BUT I respect anyone who spend their time and energy on a passion sport like CBB. Anyone doing it — is doing it out of love, coz he could very easily switch to NFL/NBA and reach a lot more people, make a lot more money.
 
A

Anony Moose

Senior
Dec 2, 2025
331
503
93
CRZ4UK said:
So you think UCONN was going to recruit and start 3 freshmen. UCONN has won their titles on Player retention. Starting only one in their last title.
dude, why lie to yourself.
UCONN and Duke have exactly who they wanted.
Those you mentioned had to go somewhere. Acuff wasn’t going to Duke to be the 3rd PG on that roster. But, they have who they most wanted.
They had a Jr in Foster and bringing in baby Boozer. They CHOSE them over Acuff. If they wanted Acuff, he would be there instead of Foster.
Click to expand...
So they recruited offered and had visits from them. Spent resources recruiting them, but had no real interest. Particularly in the #1 ranked pg and #3 ranked sg in the class.

Lulz, some of you mental midgets will tell yourselves anything to avoid reality.

Mothers Day Lol GIF by reactionseditor
 
CRZ4UK

CRZ4UK

All-American
Jun 6, 2008
4,528
9,185
103
Anony Moose said:
So they recruited offered and had visits from them. Spent resources recruiting them, but had no real interest. Particularly in the #1 ranked pg and #3 ranked sg in the class.

Lulz, some of you mental midgets will tell yourselves anything to avoid reality.

Mothers Day Lol GIF by reactionseditor
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You aren’t smarter than everyone. lol. Of course you bring them in. Talk to them, evaluate them and choose which one fits your program.
And YOU call someone a mental midget. Wow.
That should be common sense.
Coaches try to recruit everyone, evaluate, then choose. You don’t even get a laughing GIF for that nonsense.
 
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A

Anony Moose

Senior
Dec 2, 2025
331
503
93
CRZ4UK said:
You aren’t smarter than everyone. lol. Of course you bring them in. Talk to them, evaluate them and choose which one fits your program.
And YOU call someone a mental midget. Wow.
That should be common sense.
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Who said I was smarter than everyone?

confused love & hip hop GIF by VH1


So they recruited them, did all these things, decided to extend offers, but didn't really want them and Cal and Arky just got them by defacto?

Confused Tom Hanks GIF
 
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