GYERO
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I just keep thinking back to the look on his face before the Mich St game. That pretty much said it all right there. He knew we were completely f’d then and he doesn’t know how to fix it.
I can't bring myself to be angry with Pope at all. I feel awful for him. I feel awful for all of us watching this garbage too, but I can't imagine failing so publicly at something I desperately wanted and in a place I love like Pope loves UK. He's in over his head, he's smart enough to know it, and doesn't know what to do.
Obligatory F Mitch for putting him in this position when he just wasn't ready. And for being trash at hiring in general.
Maybe he has an embarrassed look when he realizes he got lost in his offense / defense substitution pattern during the last 4-minute meltdown .
the lineups were curious at best.
I would like to publicly recant my “point shaving” apology. I think they are point shaving. And I don’t think mark pope has a clue
The whole thing is sad. I hate seeing the program in this shape but it's clear that he is in over his head. I feel empathy when I see him because I know he loves UK, he's a decent guy and I hate watching him knowing it's not getting better. There is no light at the end of the tunnel for this team. And there's no recruiting you can point to and say there's help on the way, we just have to ride it out.
I will be 0% surprised when a large-scale point shaving scandal in college sports gets exposed. Not just with some of our players, I mean on a much broader scale. The ready availability of sports gambling is exposing an entire generation of (largely, male and young) people to their predisposition/vulnerability to gambling addiction, and it's just a matter of time before it all blows up.
Yeah, but I mean, that’s who he is as a player. That’s who he was last year too. But I thought given his limitations, that’s about as good as you’re going to get from him. He was engaged. He’s just not as good as he and I guess the staff thought he was.
Much bigger problems were that Lowe was pretty bad and made horrible decisions down the stretch, Dioubate gave us zero, Quaintance sucked for the second straight game, and the coaching/in-game management was quite bad.
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Respect to Pope for doing this after a ghastly loss. Shows character.
Yeah, we were talking about it last night. It's been there all season. He knows he screwed the pooch and there's no answers. That's why his sub patterns have been bananas. No clue what the correct answer is, assume he'll get a 3rd chance, because he's not the only one that spent big on a transfer portal class to run into big issues. Pretty common these days, even with elite coaches. Granted, they handle the **** much better than whatever the hell Pope has become(a pathetic little ***** if I'm being honest). Man the f*ck up, dude.
We need some of Pope's teammates, contemporaries, and other alumni to schedule an intervention. DA, Delk, Mills, Mash, Goose, etc. We have reached critical mass. IU and UCLA territory isn't far ahead.
Mitch is holding this place hostage. After his brother in Christ's wife turned him down, he made a half assed attempt at Hurly (did we even call Oats?) and then offered it to a nowhere near ready beloved son of the program hoping the gambit paid off. We haven't been to the final 4 in over a decade, suffered under the malaise of Cal not really caring anymore and now this piss poor team, with no recruiting class to speak of to give us any glimmer of hope.
It's all good with him though as long as volleyball or whatever "who gives a crap" sport does well.
It's all good with him though as long as volleyball or whatever "who gives a crap" sport does well.
There’s a 0% chance Nate Oats would ever work for Mitch Barnhart. And I think it’s 50/50 at best if a new AD could get him.
Theres just no an obvious fix to this. That’s what the most depressing part is. At least with Billy G everybody KNEW cal was the answer and that he would murder his own parents to get the job. That person doesn’t exist in 2026.
Theres just no an obvious fix to this. That’s what the most depressing part is. At least with Billy G everybody KNEW cal was the answer and that he would murder his own parents to get the job. That person doesn’t exist in 2026.
Yep. To those who say history doesn't matter, we have a warehouse of former players from great teams who still care about their legacy and the well-being of this program.
Pope said at the press conference that his teammates would be the first to call him out. Well, it's past time for that.
I may have brought that up here before, but he also referenced the ‘96 group chat in the initial press conference. Are they just busting his balls like it’s old school GYERO?
^Yes, that's what I was talking about. Hopefully they're serious about it.
Like all friend group chats, they have one - including him - that is supportive and another - excluding him - where they absolutely roast his ***.
Pope probably doesn't know this since he behaves and thinks like a life coach for fat women. It is a 100% lock that he is the dickhead texting inspirational quotes and other cuck stuff like Let's manifest our affirmations! every day to his buddies.
I want to welcome all of you to the side of the Blue Blue planet that hates Mitch. Glad to have you all. I’m tired and needed some reinforcements.
Nearly Twenty-Four years. 24!
And despite his track record, he remains.
The athletes that UK recruits were not even born when that squishy little mf started working here.
And despite his track record, he remains.
The athletes that UK recruits were not even born when that squishy little mf started working here.
A few thought on the final play from last night:
-Why didn’t they foul?
-Oweh moving towards the ball instead of staying in the corner screwed up the spacing and he got in the way of Lowe who was supposed to drive and kick out for a 3.
-Why did BG roll after the screen instead of popping out behind the 3 point line? He screwed up the spacing too and even he gets the ball on the roll what good does a 2 do at that point?
Remember when everyone lost their minds when Pope was announced as the new coach for 24 hours? Then Pitino put out his video endorsing him and Mitch went on KSR and everyone bought in? Pope knew all the catch phrases that would hook us “I know the assignment, etc”
Yep, we were all correct in the assessment of the hire in the first 24 hours, but we wanted to believe and were thrilled that Cal was gone and one of us was leading the charge. This absolutely sucks
Well that and the “BYU plays basketball like it’s a video game” video - breaking down an exciting new offense predicated on spacing, amazing 3 point shooting, and high level analytics which we were all craving. Almost like Alabama on steroids. So after seeing glimpses of that last year Pope was able to bring in the likes of Oweh, Diabote, Aberdeen, Garrison, etc as feature players. Players that literally have no where near the skill set to play anything remotely close to that style of play. I mean did he even try and recruit a stretch 4? Like WTF is this roster?
I “think” Mo was supposed to be the stretch 4. Which now appears to have been a stretch. (Laugh track)
You know what I miss? Watching UK basketball without self loathing or hating myself. Last year was fun at least
We are cursed with injuries. The first 10-15 games felt like UK basketball was back. Beating Duke was heaven. Sigh
I think I was too harsh saying that Pope lucked out with Williams last year. At the time, I gave him the staff credit for finding him and seeing his potential. I confess that I did not watch him extensively at Drexel, but I doubt he was the hub of their offense like he was for us. I think it's probably more fair to say that they found someone they liked and developed him...
...but it's stuff like this which makes me start to question whether that's true. What a bad, bad miss.
I see a lot of folks saying not getting another shooter was the biggest problem with roster construction, and while we definitely needed more shooting, I actually think it was not getting Yaxel. We really need a big with vision and awareness to run zoom and we just don't have it. Really think he would've turned some of our bad shooters into good ones just be generating good looks, and generally would've opened things up on offense. Not that he's regretting his decision, of course.
Which brings me to a larger point: we spent way too broadly and didn't focus our capital the way we should. Would you rather have an Aberdeen and a Dioubate, or one Yaxel Lendebourg? Because I'm guessing the money would've been similar (maybe even would have some left over). Maybe there were other factors at play (which is another issue), but the hardline "this is what we are offering you and we're nott budging" doesn't work if your backup plan is to try to make a bunch of 6th or 7th men on good teams your starters.
Couldn't we have pooled the money we spent on Johnson, Jelavic, Noah, and Garrison (all of whom either don't play or shouldn't, and will likely transfer at the end of the year) and gotten 1-2 guys that would have actually helped?
...but it's stuff like this which makes me start to question whether that's true. What a bad, bad miss.
I see a lot of folks saying not getting another shooter was the biggest problem with roster construction, and while we definitely needed more shooting, I actually think it was not getting Yaxel. We really need a big with vision and awareness to run zoom and we just don't have it. Really think he would've turned some of our bad shooters into good ones just be generating good looks, and generally would've opened things up on offense. Not that he's regretting his decision, of course.
Which brings me to a larger point: we spent way too broadly and didn't focus our capital the way we should. Would you rather have an Aberdeen and a Dioubate, or one Yaxel Lendebourg? Because I'm guessing the money would've been similar (maybe even would have some left over). Maybe there were other factors at play (which is another issue), but the hardline "this is what we are offering you and we're nott budging" doesn't work if your backup plan is to try to make a bunch of 6th or 7th men on good teams your starters.
Couldn't we have pooled the money we spent on Johnson, Jelavic, Noah, and Garrison (all of whom either don't play or shouldn't, and will likely transfer at the end of the year) and gotten 1-2 guys that would have actually helped?
Louisville’s “let’s fill our transfer portal with Kentucky players” strategy is a bold move, Cotton.
Incorrect. Oweh was wide open at the 5.9 sec mark. Garrison's man coming up and switching off caused the spacing problem (good D) Aberdeen and Williams were statues for the entire 9.8 sec.
Mo committed on 4/7/25, JQ on 4/8/25, and Jelavic on 4/12/25. On paper, before the year, that looked like a solid rotation of complimentary pieces at the 4 and 5.
I guess that's why you don't play basketball on paper.
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One thing's for sure, there's absolutely no reason to let Mark piss away another 20 million next year. Direct 90% of NIL to football and let Stein bring in the studs.