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Do we miss Cal yet?

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Cats4321

All-Conference
Nov 18, 2025
365
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Nope.

The problem is that Pope should have been a backup plan. He would have crawled on his hands and knees to coach here at any point in his career. We could have chosen any number of promising coaches or proven coaches. If those didn't work out, you still had Pope as a backup plan. Mitch took the easy route.
 
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Anon1759768907

All-Conference
Oct 6, 2025
1,328
2,000
113
Cats4321 said:
Nope.

The problem is that Pope should have been a backup plan. He would have crawled on his hands and knees to coach here at any point in his career. We could have chosen any number of promising coaches or proven coaches. If those didn't work out, you still had Pope as a backup plan. Mitch took the easy route.
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i think he was a backup plan, drew and hurley and donovan said no
 
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The_Answer1313_rivals

Heisman
May 27, 2007
31,129
23,950
113
I always feel like Cal was a victim of having too much success here too early.

I always wondered if we reversed 11/14 and 17/19.......where the first group made final fours and the second group made elite 8s..........if he'd still be at UK coaching.

That and obviously the early exits at the end was the final nail in the coffin.

But at the end of the day, you win by bringing in ridiculous levels of talent. Cal was able to do that. Pope has yet to proven that. There's no amount of coaching that can fix a lack of talent.

This team just wasn't as good as people made them out to be

A healthy Lowe and JQ definitely helps things......but we are quite there yet. We came into the year relying on Oweh. That was a mistake.
 
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BlueBlood96Cat

BlueBlood96Cat

All-Conference
Jan 5, 2022
2,679
4,708
113
Cats4321 said:
Exactly. Even if he wasn't my first choice, any decent AD would have offered Pearl before handing the program over to a coach with a terrible resume. I know that sounds like I hate Pope, but I really don't. Pope just wasn't in the top 30 in terms of most qualified.
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Wasn’t in top 50. Seriously without being a former champion here he wouldn’t of sniffed this job.
 
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BlueBlood96Cat

BlueBlood96Cat

All-Conference
Jan 5, 2022
2,679
4,708
113
The_Answer1313_rivals said:
I always feel like Cal was a victim of having too much success here too early.

I always wondered if we reversed 11/14 and 17/19.......where the first group made final fours and the second group made elite 8s..........if he'd still be at UK coaching.

That and obviously the early exits at the end was the final nail in the coffin.

But at the end of the day, you win by bringing in ridiculous levels of talent. Cal was able to do that. Pope has yet to proven that. There's no amount of coaching that can fix a lack of talent.

This team just wasn't as good as people made them out to be
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Yea he should have spread the final fours out like one every three years lol. That first five years will not be repeated. If only Cal would have gotten at least one or two more rings to go with all that success. Looking back it really was legendary. Fun time to be a fan. Will we ever experience fun times again is the sad question.
 
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The_Answer1313_rivals

Heisman
May 27, 2007
31,129
23,950
113
BlueBlood96Cat said:
Yea he should have spread the final fours out like one every three years lol. That first five years will not be repeated. If only Cal would have gotten at least one or two more rings to go with all that success. Looking back it really was legendary. Fun time to be a fan. Will we ever experience fun times again is the sad question.
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Yeah this is why although I know people are mad at the guy...........you can't tell me people didn't have fun in 2010........or 2011.........or 2012.......or 2014 or 15 lol. I mean.......even towards the end of the era we had some very good teams that just happened to get upset in March. Those seasons were still very good.
 
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UKWildcats1987

Heisman
Sep 9, 2021
18,751
31,903
113
TortElvisII said:
Pope won twice the tournament games in one season than Cal did over four seasons.
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And Cal went to 4 final fours in 5 seasons as well. He went to a final four n season 2 after an elite 8 in season 1. Hows pope doing by comparison?

Cal should have been allowed to leave n 2019. He is not someone I'd want back.

If Pope stayed here 15 seasons there wouldn't be any fans left because we would all commit Hari Kari to avoid the shame.
 
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UKCowboys

All-Conference
Oct 14, 2019
1,299
2,208
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LMAO at this thread. Cal was crushed on here like Pope is now for 3-4 years straight. We offered the largest contract in college Hoops history to our top target and he said thanks but no thanks(not the first time that has happened...or second). MB transitions from Hurley to Drew, and he says no...He decided to stay at Baylor over UK SMH. Then he went to Pope. I wanted Pearl, MB was never going to hire Pearl, and he isn't hiring Pearl if Pope is let go. Some on here didnt like Pope, but their candidates either told us to piss off or were never considered by MB. Some said "anyone but Cal". Now its "anyone but Pope". So yall really want to see who MB's plan D is already lol?
 
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The_Answer1313_rivals

Heisman
May 27, 2007
31,129
23,950
113
This is where things are tho.

We can accept the fact that things happen in small samples such as the tournament.

It's a result based business. Cal wasn't getting the results so he had to go.

At the same rate, if you ask me who is the better bet to have future success between him and Pope, I don't know how anyone couldn't say Cal at this point.
 
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Seth_C

Seth_C

All-American
Mar 12, 2017
4,107
7,315
96
I’d rather die today than ever see that massive pile of human trash look like an idiot on our sideline. I’d rather lose Eve eu game we play until the day I die than ever have to suffer listening to that vile **** talk.

Am I clear? Do you understand? Calipari is a ******* **** who hated the fans and only ever cared about himself. Period. **** John Calipari.

Was 9-16 “competitive” OP? You ******* dipshit. Go cheer for Arkansas. I guarantee pope never has a SINGLE DIGIT win season at Kentucky. I guarantee it.
 
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bbnkat02

bbnkat02

Heisman
Nov 14, 2017
46,027
68,123
113
The_Answer1313_rivals said:
If Mark Pope stays here for like 10 seasons and has a similar sort of success that Cal had, I'd take that in a heartbeat.

The "just as bad" doesn't make sense when one guy has won a title here and took 4 teams to Final Fours.
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There's a major difference in early Cal and late Cal.

Dude lost ot OAKLAND with two T10 draft picks. That should get you ousted just about anywhere.
 
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KentuckyMildCats

All-Conference
Jun 6, 2018
1,077
2,079
113
WilmoreCat said:
I’ll admit, I wanted him gone, but dang, I think we’re all in real trouble with this guy!

Atleast with Cal we were competitive.

This is all on Barnhart.Popes not ready for this “ assignment”.
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How many of these dumbahhhh posts gotta be made? Cal had to go and Pope shouldn't have been hired, shut up with this dumb crap. Now go lay down with your Calipari body pillow and shut the hell up
 
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The_Answer1313_rivals

Heisman
May 27, 2007
31,129
23,950
113
Its just kinda wild

I mean we made a final four from the 4 seed line. We made a final four from the 8 seed line.

In 2022, we were a 2 seed.
In 2024, we were a 3 seed.

Both times upset in the first round. But you could make the argument that those "seasons" were way better.

In 14, we lost on March 1st to South Carolina and people were questioning whether or not that team would even be in the tournament lol.

It just goes to show that ultimately all this is based on is what you do in a small sample of games in March.
 
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ShakesTheClown564

Redshirt
May 9, 2010
7
21
3
dlh331 said:
As of right now in the past 1+ seasons:

Pope 33-17 overall, 10-9 in the SEC, 1-1 in the SECT, 2-1 in the NCAAT
Rejuvenated Calipari is 32-17 overall, 8-10 in the SEC, 1-1 in the SECT, 2-1 in the NCAAT

Yeah, Cal would be a massive improvement....
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New Cal would never have happened here so it's a pointless comparison. We would have just gotten more Tubby Cal years.
 
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fisherscatfan

fisherscatfan

All-Conference
Jan 17, 2010
544
1,172
93
WilmoreCat said:
I’ll admit, I wanted him gone, but dang, I think we’re all in real trouble with this guy!

Atleast with Cal we were competitive.

This is all on Barnhart.Popes not ready for this “ assignment”.
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This post is so ridiculous and unnecessary. Because Barnhart screwed up, YET AGAIN, by hiring Pope doesn’t mean it wasn’t time for Cal to go. Cal also got a wake-up call and changed things he wasn’t going to do at UK.
 
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