Cats record next season

[JonathanW2]

Without knowing half the coaching staff, almost any of the players, or our full schedule & how good/not those teams are.
So this is not just you evaluating the team and Pope's ability to coach it, but also his ability to construct a team too.

 

[The_Answer1313_rivals]

Based on what we already have seen I hesitant to go more than 20-25.

 

[kydmb99]

I'd really like to hear the logic of the 25-30 win crowd. Pope has won 25 games one time in his career and that was at Utah Valley State

 

[philstat]

Given the season now is damn near 40 games, he’ll win 20+ and lose at minimum 12-15 games.

 

[senonesy]

Think we may want to know the roster first? Jeez.

 

[BBNUK4Life]

How about this. How about we wait and see who the staff is and what the roster looks like. Yes Pope sucks but there's no way to know until the roster is finalized and we get an idea of who we rolling with

 

[RoyKent]

This thread is about 2 months too early.

 

[blueblood2767]

19-20 wins - does not matter the roster- He could have a roster of 1st round NBA Picks and will only get 19-20 wins

 

[JonathanW2]

I'd really like to hear the logic of the 25-30 win crowd. Pope has won 25 games one time in his career and that was at Utah Valley State

While I am far from certain he can get to 25-30 wins, but I think the pro-Pope argument goes as follows:
1) Utah Valley St was a bad mid-major with little chance to be successful
2) BYU was a place difficult for anyone to recruit to & thus win at due to the strict student policies that athletes also have to abide by, sure NIL is helping their new coach bring some talented players in there though, but they still have not done much better than Pope's last year there
3) in Pope's 1st year at UK, with 0 returning players, he won 24 games and made S16, despite several significant injuries, costing 50+ games to players expected to play key roles, including the last 1/3 of season to the expected leading scorer, 1/4 of season to the PG, and last 3/4 of season to the backup PG. But still had a record # of big wins for UK, due to the difficult schedule.
4) in Pope's 2nd year at UK, it was a little worse than the first, but the injuries & games missed were also a little worse. Yet was 1 horrendous end of game call (Chandler pushoff vs Auburn) away from a double-bye 4-seed in SEC-T.
5) just have a relatively healthy team, especially at PG, for a season has to be worth 3-5 more wins

 

[The_Answer1313_rivals]

How about this. How about we wait and see who the staff is and what the roster looks like. Yes Pope sucks but there's no way to know until the roster is finalized and we get an idea of who we rolling with

I think that was the purpose of making this so early tho lol.
The OP doesn't want us to just evaluate Pope's ability to coach but also his ability to recruit and put together a decent roster.

 

[JonathanW2]

This thread is about 2 months too early.

That's the whole point, not just evaluating the roster, but also evaluating Pope's ability to build a good roster.

 

[BlueBloodKyFan73]

I couldn’t vote I didn’t see 40-0

 

[moses1uk]

Ask in 2 weeks we will have 90% of the roster by then

 

[cornbreadnmilk]

I think we will be average which has really been who Pope is his whole coaching career.

 

[BlueSince92]

20-25 but why would we give him another year based on that. I hate to say it because I like the guy and even consider him a personal friend to some extent but he is just not going to win at the level he needs to with the talent he has been getting.

If he does just up and start getting that kind of talent then he’ll be worth keeping around. But it won’t have anything to do with record—like if he won ten games next year but magically had the legit best class coming in for 27-28 then he’d obviously be worth keeping. We already know he can coach. He just can’t seem to recruit and it seems he needs a special situation to be able to teach.

 

[JonathanW2]

20-25 but why would we give him another year based on that. I hate to say it because I like the guy and even consider him a personal friend to some extent but he is just not going to win at the level he needs to with the talent he has been getting.

If he does just up and start getting that kind of talent then he’ll be worth keeping around. But it won’t have anything to do with record—like if he won ten games next year but magically had the legit best class coming in for 27-28 then he’d obviously be worth keeping. We already know he can coach. He just can’t seem to recruit and it seems he needs a special situation to be able to teach.

This coming year is the "extra year" he is getting. Wasn't meant to be understood as another 20-25 season gets him a 4th year.

 

[BlueSince92]

This coming year is the "extra year" he is getting. Wasn't meant to be understood as another 20-25 season gets him a 4th year.

If all he does next year is win 20–25 games then that did not make it worth giving him that year to do it.

 

[NociHTTP]

I'd really like to hear the logic of the 25-30 win crowd. Pope has won 25 games one time in his career and that was at Utah Valley State

I'd like to hear the logic constantly complaining.

 

[UKWildcats1987]

I picked 20 to 25 but lower end. And hell no om a year 4 when that happens.

 

[Delk4three]

I think we lose 13 games and are 6th in the SEC. Not as good as year 1 but a little better than year 2.

 

[Henogee1975]

I voted 20/25 based on Popes coaching record, doesn’t matter who is on the roster.

 

[Anon1774630942]

The dropoff in overall quality next year should be pretty steep. All these great freshmen will be heading into the draft and lot of top teams with seniors will be seeing graduation (Purdue, Houston, etc).

Duke will be interesting because Ngongba and Sarr are fringe first round. If those two come back, along with Foster/Boozer, they could come out of the gates with a top team.

 

[JPFisher]

40-0, Baby.

Hope springs eternal in the off season.

 

[CalsPal]

40-0 of course

 

[MegaBlue05]

I voted 20-25. We play 31 regular season games plus at least one in the SECT. Pope’s career winning percentage basically guarantees 20-12.

I would not be onboard with a fourth year of that. However, I wouldn’t be surprised in the slightest if Eli and friends retained Pope for year 4 regardless to save money.

Truth be told, my real opinion is TBD once I know who is on the roster and who is on the staff.

 

[bbnkat02]

Bout the worst thing that could happen next year would be to go 21-13 and get knocked out in the S16

Because that's not bad enough to make a change, but def. not good enough to be here any longer.

 

[JohnRambo82]

Im not sure till I see who he gets on the team. I look for this team to be much better over all in his style of play. I think this season he didn’t find the right guys that fit what he wants to do. I hope he is able to get us back to where we want to be.

 

[MarvinHagler89]

20-25. Anyone that says more than that is really naive

 

[MarvinHagler89]

Im not sure till I see who he gets on the team. I look for this team to be much better over all in his style of play. I think this season he didn’t find the right guys that fit what he wants to do. I hope he is able to get us back to where we want to be.

I have a rock to sell you for $40.

 

[JohnRambo82]

I have a rock to sell you for $40.

No sir. I’m just wishing for the best

 

[Vek96]

Uh, don’t really understand this thread. How can anyone predict a record, when we have zero idea what the roster is going to look like?

 

[KYFOSSIL]

19-20 wins - does not matter the roster- He could have a roster of 1st round NBA Picks and will only get 19-20 wins

Well genius, he won 23 last year in 22 this year

 

[paulcalhoun_rivals397471]

Well genius, he won 23 last year in 22 this year

It was actually 24 his first season here.

 

[TFCat11]

63% or below, however many losses that comes out to, will determine how Pope recruits the portal. If he starts whiffing on top targets again, just go ahead and start a new coaching search for the next grand slam hire.

 

[UKCowboys]

No offense, but you can't predict next year without knowing the team and coaching staff lol. The Stokes decision alone will mean a lot more or less wins, depending on how it goes.

 

[Doc4UK!]

While I am far from certain he can get to 25-30 wins, but I think the pro-Pope argument goes as follows:
1) Utah Valley St was a bad mid-major with little chance to be successful
2) BYU was a place difficult for anyone to recruit to & thus win at due to the strict student policies that athletes also have to abide by, sure NIL is helping their new coach bring some talented players in there though, but they still have not done much better than Pope's last year there
3) in Pope's 1st year at UK, with 0 returning players, he won 24 games and made S16, despite several significant injuries, costing 50+ games to players expected to play key roles, including the last 1/3 of season to the expected leading scorer, 1/4 of season to the PG, and last 3/4 of season to the backup PG. But still had a record # of big wins for UK, due to the difficult schedule.
4) in Pope's 2nd year at UK, it was a little worse than the first, but the injuries & games missed were also a little worse. Yet was 1 horrendous end of game call (Chandler pushoff vs Auburn) away from a double-bye 4-seed in SEC-T.
5) just have a relatively healthy team, especially at PG, for a season has to be worth 3-5 more wins

But then there are the shaky substitution patterns and the blow out losses and the reliance on two players that are no longer here to win most games. Not to mention the dismal record against Power 5 teams and highly ranked teams. Watching the Elite 8 show us how far we have to go and will need to do it with an all new line up once again because of huge mistakes in roster construction in spite of 22 million in cash to work with.

 

[Johnnie Africa]

If all he does next year is win 20–25 games then that did not make it worth giving him that year to do it.

You don’t know that. It all depends on what coach would replace him, and if giving him this year results in a new AD with a goood connection with a slam dunk hire then it will be well worth it. It seems to me with this statement that you think our best chance of hiring a great coach would be with Barnhart making the hire before he leaves?

 

[JonathanW2]

But then there are the shaky substitution patterns and the blow out losses and the reliance on two players that are no longer here to win most games. Not to mention the dismal record against Power 5 teams and highly ranked teams. Watching the Elite 8 show us how far we have to go and will need to do it with an all new line up once again because of huge mistakes in roster construction in spite of 22 million in cash to work with.

True.
I was just answering the question (giving the "pro's"), the "con's" is a different question.

 

[JonathanW2]

No offense, but you can't predict next year without knowing the team and coaching staff lol. The Stokes decision alone will mean a lot more or less wins, depending on how it goes.

No offense taken. This is a more challenging question (no offense), requiring one to not just assess the roster talent and his coaching ability, but to also assess his ability to construct a both talented and well-designed roster.

 

[TheApostleSaulSmith]

Not sure about the wins but it's a Mark Pope team so it'll be in the 10-15 loss range.