I’m not calling for his firing. But I am extremely concerned. That press conference was a mass brainwashing. We are actually getting exactly what we should have expected based on available data.
BYU is a lot better than us. Let that sink in
- Thread starter buc puppet
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Pope did worse than his predecessor at BYU also.
It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood, a beautiful day for a neighbor, would you be mine? could you be mine? Hello neighbor.
Lady Elaine is up my *** kids.
Lady Elaine is up my *** kids.
Richie Saunders decided to stay at BYU. That decision was pivotal for this season and even the last. He would be in contention for SEC POTY if he were here.
He'd either be hurt or laying bricks. JK........mostly.
Not many people realize this. The truth is Pope didn’t really do anything special at BYU.
Historically, nearly all BYU coaches end up with good won/loss records. Pope’s was just sort of average by their historical standards, and actually worse than his predecessor’s (and so far his successor’s too).
This can't happen any year ever at Kentucky.
Another recruiting blow you say
I get it. But we are this reactive then it really makes it tough to get the next guy. There’s enough pressure here already. You don’t want to start firing that quickly.
When you know you don’t have the right guy, you cut bait as quickly as possible.
I'm not sure what one really has to do with the other since BYU only joined the Big 12 for Pope's last year there. Before NIL and joining the Big 12 BYU was just a mid major school. The BYU of today is a different animal no matter who is their coach.
And Pope even picked him up at the airport when he visited. That's the worst kind of whiff. He couldn't convince an alcoholic to visit his liquor store.
How old are you?
This has happened several years at Kentucky.
Rupp went 13-13 the year after Rupp’s Runts. Joe Hall went 13-13 his second season and missed the tournament in 74, 76 and 79. Eddie Sutton had a losing season his last year. Pitino’s 14-14 is obviously forgiven due to extenuating circumstances. Tubby never missed the tournament but his 2000, 2006 and 2007 teams weren’t nationally competitive. Clyde got an 11 seed and an NIT. Cal went to the NIT in 2013 and had a losing season in 2021 + the mid major upsets and home losses to cupcakes.
Kentucky is great every year is a myth. Kentucky is great in short spurts (48-53; 75-78; 93-98; 2010-2015) and pretty good to mediocre in longer spurts is our actual reality. We also underperformed in even decades since the 1950s.
1960s: One FF, no titles
1980s One FF, no titles
2000s: Zero FFs, zero titles
2020s: Decade is half over and the trend is holding steady
I am not defending this season. It sucks. but it ain’t the first time this has happened and most likely won’t be the last no matter who is sitting in that chair.
Not the whole story. He’s married and wife wanted to stay at BYU. Not a typical recruitment.
Chandler is married too. So what? Most of the players have kids.
Chandler got married at Kentucky. Saunders was already married and entrenched in BYU and his wife played there too. It was just a different situation. Chandler had never actually been at byu
They were way better than uk last year too. Soon as Kevin Young took over there, they took off.
Like I said back then, no matter how this turns out BYU made by far the better hire. Had Pope never played here, hed never been looked at.
Like I said back then, no matter how this turns out BYU made by far the better hire. Had Pope never played here, hed never been looked at.
Yes young got huge backing to get dybantsa and also had player retention that pope didn’t get as lucky with.
Dog, just stop. Literally 1 former player followed Pope, yet multiple transfered out of BYU and were offerend spots here. If Saunders wasn't legitimately interested, he isn't going to fly across country for a day and half and waste his and everyone else's time and resources.
So..wait.. you're saying BYU really started investing and caring about basketball when Pope announced he was leaving?
Wonder why that was?!?!?
I said the same thing while it was happening, and have not changed my stance. Barney and the big blue media machine played most of the fanbase, and I also use BYU as a GLARING example
Yea young is a relative of some big Mormon church person and byu is just now getting into the NIL game. Look at what they just did to Penn state for the byu coach. Laughed at them and said we have unlimited money. Crumbl cookie owner is big donor too. Pope just left too early it seems.So..wait.. you're saying BYU really started investing and caring about basketball when Pope announced he was leaving?
Wonder why that was?!?!?
I mean, if we change the facts a bit...sure. But in reality, we offered most of them. We couldn't even get them to visit. The big man at UL was one of them.
You know who else caused this, sadly? Bill Self and Kansas.. That was an eye opening win 2 years ago, Pope and BYU in an upset over Kansas. And it was a win by Pope that turned a lot of our heads. That win helped bump BYU a seed line and helped make them competitive in a league that BYU (at the time) had no business competing in.
If not for that win (and maybe another win here and there), we probably dont give him the job. But that win at least made me think "oh he might have something here".
Instead it was just thay the Jayhawks choked once again.. frauds.
Because our coach suddenly becoming such a dumb a$$ that he forgot all the elite coaches in history have said its far easier to recruit players that are outstanding offensive players and teach them to play defense than it is to get defensive players and teach them to shoot.
Also I hope everyone is learning a ******** lesson on why you never play schedules like this, you will lose games and it will then destroy the confidence of the team that leads to even more losses.
Also I hope everyone is learning a ******** lesson on why you never play schedules like this, you will lose games and it will then destroy the confidence of the team that leads to even more losses.
Facts mixed with uneducated UK fans doesn’t mesh well, see comments in this thread for reference.
BYU indeed appears much better. They also have an elite talent who is a cut above even the other really good players in college basketball... which helps a lot. UK recruited him pretty damn hard, but many believe that BYU paid an exorbitant amount of money to land him. Was it worth it? Time will tell, I suppose.
Pope missed on every elite portal player, except a high risk JQ. How is that even possible with 20 million?
we had to give 3 mil for aberdeen....
6 mil got dybantsa
Doesn't make the number sound fishy to you?
Recruiting concerns under Pope aside, I gotta believe we land at least one of Yaxel, Wilkerson or Caleb Wilson if we were actually throwing that much money around.
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