There needs to be a contingency plan in place right now. He doesn’t get fired right now but you’re planning the process of having him replaced, assuming Pope doesn’t turn things around. A committee needs to be formed without public knowledge or even Pope’s to start searching for potential coaches to replace him. You need to know who is interested and who isn’t.
BBN Civil War
- Thread starter bbnkat02
- Start date
Yeah, so fake I've been watching since I was 5. But, hey! Can't say I'm not committed!
Gotta love the people coming out of the wood work!
Case in point.
You know when we got trompped by MSU they weren't and full health. And UNC was missing one of their stronger players too.
What's the next goal post man?
that's why coaches have agents. UK doesn't have to reach out.
Can you post a link to anyone saying these things? I would love to see it.
I haven't seen a single true UK fan say anything like this. Pope doesn’t have the street cred Cal had, so I have a hard time believing there are a lot of true "fans" out there saying it's okay to lose games the way we have lost these 4 games.
Anyone saying these things, is either a troll, an Arkansas fan, or a football only fan.
The fans don't get to make the decision on when a coach gets fired. The fans wanted Cal gone years before he left, same with Stoops. Never seen someone blame the fans for coaches keeping their job before. Weird.
I'm not sure how you can say the fanbase isn’t competitive anymore, they just packed that arena in Nashville and boo'd the team the entire game. Show me another fanbase that has done that.
The problems this team has, are not basketball related. If they fix the cohesiveness of the team, all the on-court stuff will come.
Last years team didn't have more talent, what they had, was a group of guys that liked each other.
Never gonna be an argument for a closet Duke fan. Enjoy every loss we have in your Bobby Hurley underroos
You're such a drama queen . If the cats were doing good, you wouldn't know what to talk about . It's your lil soap opera
You don’t do this crap at the end of the year, look at the Will Stein hire where he was contacted during the early part of the year. When you’re planning a hire, especially one involving a or or elite coach, it involves putting out feelers before hand so you aren’t wriggling around like a headless chicken like we did when we hired Pope because our dim-witted AD had assumed Cal was returning before pulling the rug out from under him.
I'm a Pope fan, I want him to be great, but we can't ignore the eggs Pope laid last year.
Yeah, the team made the sweet 16, but they also got embarrassed a lot.
Ohio State, an NIT team, beat us to a pulp. Aaron Bradshaw embarrassed us. Alabama embarrassed us 3 times, Cal got us good in Rupp.
Truth is, Pope is too soft, he can't motivate teams like a hard nosed coach can. That's why Pope coached teams are so bipolar.
You think Will Stein was surprised to hear that Stoops was on the hot seat?
I'm confident Stein , among others were talking thru other channels. My point is its a two way street. Even if we are currently the doormat of the SEC, UK is still the SEC, they have shown they pay top 10 salary to a coach that just needs to go to a bowl game - any bowl game to stay employed.
UK basketball is even better. I'm certain there are coaches with feelers out thru UK channels realize Pope may be faultering
lol. The jokes are coming out now. Been here through good and bad buster.
I praise and celebrate good play. Rightfully criticize bad. If you can't handle that, get lost.
Fans sure do get to make that decision. It's called not filling seats- that's how Joker got fired.
That being said, a lot of fans were saying "build the statue!" for years so much so it practically became a meme.
And there were STILL some saying "Who ya gonna get?!"
Yeah, I'd say a chunk of this fanbase has gone Charmin soft on wins and losses. So much so we see in permeating even here.
No, that's not being fair at all. You know exactly why we got blown out last night, it wasn't because we were undermanned, it was because this team is broken and our leader is acting like a butthead.
If this team played together, like they did against Purdue, they don't lose by 35. You know this, so I'm not sure why you are being obtuse about it.
Sh*t, Oweh was yawning as he was heading to the bench. The issue is effort and a broken locker room. If this team was tight with each other, that 35 point loss might have been a win.
The only UK fans that are saying Pope is doing fine, or he needs more time, are casual fans that only watch sports on occasion, they aren’t diehard fans, so putting any weight in what they say, is foolish.
So 80% of the fans in Nashville weren't openly booing or completely upset with the outcome? Tell me, where are these fans that are supporting Pope? Where are they being quoted? Where are they posting on forums? Where are they? Read the room. No one is supporting Pope right now except for a very small minority. But you know this. You supported Calipari until the end. That tells me everything I need to know about why you are spinning narratives.
This. He loves drama and if it isn’t there, he will fabricate something. Always has.
There might be one or 2 casual fans that said Pope needs more time, so he ran over here and stsrted this "civil war" thread.
There's no civil war, hell, there isn't even a tiff, any true UK fan knows there is a major issue and this isn’t acceptable.
The Joker situation was much more extreme and it was way overdue. The fans had no choice but to stop coming to games.
The fans are not the problem, in fact, the fans have more than done their part. They support the team no matter what, no other fanbase is as passionate as this one and last night, they showed that. Then they boo'd as loud as an arena can boo. Then, they walked out.
Don't put it on the fans, this is on Mitch.
People heavily exaggerate the success of last year. There were as many bad losses as there were good wins. Getting to a Sweet 16 playing two cupcakes because they had an unusually strong schedule.
But it doesn’t change the fact that we were embarrassed by Alabama in the SEC tournament and then embarrassed again against Tennessee in the Sweet 16. That doesn’t even include the fact that we were 6th in the whole SEC. That’s not impressive. Last year was like “good” in the same way your 6 year old makes touchdown for the opposing team in pee-wee football is “good”. “Good for you little guy, you did great, but you gave the other team points.”
Last year was a wash, imo, and the absolute minimum of what I consider barely average by Kentucky standards
About last years team…..I gotta disagree with you. Last years team was way more talented than this squad. Robinson and Brea would be the best players on this team by a good margin. Williams is better than what we have at the 5. Carr is better than why we have at the 4. Butler is more talented than Lowe or Aberdeen. I believe starters at smaller schools is a better portal choice than backups at bigger schools. Stoops learned this the hard way too. He had a lot of high paid backups on his bench these last couple of years.
last year had some fun wins and a fun style of play. The players played hard and losing Krissa, Jackson and Butler (along with Carr's back) had a lot of what if conversations about how the year could have been with that team beating Duke.
Well he’s not changing. He needs to flip his staff after the season to bring in coaches who can cover his areas of weakness. But he will have to have enough humility to admit his weakness.
Literally every UK fan wanted Pope to succeed. All of us. Some of us can just accept reality a lot quicker than others can. He’s not built for this. He loves UK more than just about anyone, but that doesn’t win the games.
If last years team had the locker room issues this team has, they would suck too.
I've never attacked you bud. And often thought you were a good poster, even when others haven't. And I've been here through good and bad.
And make no mistakes, times are bad. I'm not ready to dump Pope quite yet, but its not looking great either.
So, take that for what you will. But I absolutely think there's a coming divide, especially between the older and younger sections of the fan base.
What locker room issues? This locker room
Issue theory is just that. A theory by people who just can’t fathom that we are this bad. The truth is we have no proof of any locker room issues. There isn’t a shred of actual proof.
we have to react to what we know and what we can see.
I don't care if anyone thinks I'm a "good poster" or not. I'm not going to change who I am to satisfy anybody.
I think there are times where you get bored and you create drama, this thread is an example of that. There is no civil war, but you want it to be true. Fact is, any true UK fan, not casual fans, true UK fans, are saying this is unacceptable and Pope either needs to fix it, or step down.
But I would like to see these comments you were referring to in your first post. I'm sure there are some casual fans that might watch a couple games a year that are saying things are okay, but there are no true UK fans saying that.
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You're kidding. I don't need to know the details for proof, all I need to see is what's happening on the court. It’s very obvious.
Not only that, Pope literally said there was an issue just prior to the UL game.
2+2=4
It's been mentioned here: Reddit, Facebook, even Twitter/X. Hard to say if their casuals or not- again, it does seem to be more younger fans saying it than older. And a lot of them seem to be pining for Cal.....which is just....well....sickening.
Just discussion man. Nothing more, nothing less. Why would I need to create drama? We've got enough of that going on right now as it is with Pope being as quiet as a church mouse. I can forgive the losses almost, but this beating around the bush crap he's done reminds me too much of an ex we just parted ways with.
Lots of people in this world thrive on drama, is what it is.
Truth is, there is no civil war. Anyone taking up for Pope right now, would mourn Pope's termination for about 10 seconds, before they go back to watching NCIS reruns.
This is a slam dunk for true UK fans. I hope he figures it out, because I like him, but it wouldn't hurt my feelings if MP stepped down tomorrow.
And if I was Pope, I would pay Otega a visit and sarcastically thank him for costing me my dream job.
I’m not kidding. I was also told by many people that Mo is out because of a disciplinary issue. But now know he has a high ankle sprain. So no, I’m not buying the story that there’s a locker room issue until I get some proof. I think these guys just suck and they can’t shoot and it’s a poorly constructed roster. Their coach can’t motivate and these guys can’t dig themselves out of a hole because they aren’t tough.
Go through each players stats from last year and compare those stats to what they are doing now. The players don't suck, they are a broken team.
There are videos all over youtube showing OO's poor attitude and laziness.
That's a very broken team, it is very obvious.
If we held a poll before a coach was hired and we said the guy would make a sweet 16, but finish 6th in the SEC. His overall record would be 29-16 so far with only 8 games played so far in his second year everyone on here would say don’t hire whoever it was.
Pretty soon the arena will be empty. Even the old heads won’t show up for Crochet night while we lose by 40.