Of course, we have no idea how the actual coaching of this roster will go and what the results will be, but I think given the short timeframe, Pope has done one of, if not the greatest, jobs ever of assembling a roster for a coach’s first and abbreviated offseason at a new school in the portal/NIL era. Giving him any grade other than an A+ is just hating. And yes, I was a hater.
Hand Up - I Was Wrong
- Thread starter ABLCommenter
- Start date
He had much less talent at BYU and was ranked 18 and beat Kansas at Kansas etc, again with much less talent. We finna be good.
And this is exactly what it was looking like from the beginning but like some of us were saying, you’ve got to take all of the last two months in context and slow down.
Calipari wanted to gut this program top to bottom because that’s what he does when he leaves an institution. No program has typically “survived” hiring Calipari, he’s not coach K, Rupp, Roy, or Pitino. He doesn’t care about the institution but rather wants everyone to lament his absence. He’s not a legacy guy - which is what I was hoping he would turn into at UK, but instead he just never made that turn when it was time to do so. If you noticed the way UK allowed him to keep some grace without a firing shows they know the only way to salvage his legacy would be to do if for him. He simply won’t have it any other way.
Pope was given the impossible task of rebranding UK back to its original state, recruiting a roster to compete year one, and subjected to everything Calipari left in rubble which is more than most realize. While I’m still not ready to say he’s going to be able to become our modern goat obviously, I don’t think there was a better candidate for UK given the situation. Mitch (I’m no fan) made a call here that I think few saw and will be seen down the road as a brilliant move. It appears from his words to his actions he understood replacing Calipari is like replacing a heart to transplant. I think it also shows, and I’m sure Calipari now realizes this due to the way he was out maneuvered, that UK is too big to fail and too dominant to ever allow one man to tame the beast. I for one love it.
I think Donovan would have probably been able to handle rebranding UK back as well, but given his age and lack of college experience in this era, given the lack of time to recruit, Pope was actually the better candidate. It’s wild to say that but just look at the roster.
Calipari wanted to gut this program top to bottom because that’s what he does when he leaves an institution. No program has typically “survived” hiring Calipari, he’s not coach K, Rupp, Roy, or Pitino. He doesn’t care about the institution but rather wants everyone to lament his absence. He’s not a legacy guy - which is what I was hoping he would turn into at UK, but instead he just never made that turn when it was time to do so. If you noticed the way UK allowed him to keep some grace without a firing shows they know the only way to salvage his legacy would be to do if for him. He simply won’t have it any other way.
Pope was given the impossible task of rebranding UK back to its original state, recruiting a roster to compete year one, and subjected to everything Calipari left in rubble which is more than most realize. While I’m still not ready to say he’s going to be able to become our modern goat obviously, I don’t think there was a better candidate for UK given the situation. Mitch (I’m no fan) made a call here that I think few saw and will be seen down the road as a brilliant move. It appears from his words to his actions he understood replacing Calipari is like replacing a heart to transplant. I think it also shows, and I’m sure Calipari now realizes this due to the way he was out maneuvered, that UK is too big to fail and too dominant to ever allow one man to tame the beast. I for one love it.
I think Donovan would have probably been able to handle rebranding UK back as well, but given his age and lack of college experience in this era, given the lack of time to recruit, Pope was actually the better candidate. It’s wild to say that but just look at the roster.
Have read several articles praising Pope with the roster he has put together. A lot of teams brought in two or three top portal players because they didn't need that many but for Pope to bring in the high quality and numbers he did is crazy. We have no bad players and they ALL look like they are really good. To persuade this many good players to come together on a team is nothing short of impressive.
It will be interesting to compare him to the other 5 teams that were built from scratch this year:
Louisville (12 transfers, 1 freshmen)
Arkansas (5 transfers, 3 freshmen)
USC ~ Musselman (10 transfers, 2 freshmen)
Vandy ~ Byington (10 transfers, 2 freshmen),
West Virginia - DeVries (7 transfers, 3 freshmen)
Sprinkle @ UW, Lutz @ Ok St, Enfield @ SMU, and May @ UM all got some solid players to return.
Louisville (12 transfers, 1 freshmen)
Arkansas (5 transfers, 3 freshmen)
USC ~ Musselman (10 transfers, 2 freshmen)
Vandy ~ Byington (10 transfers, 2 freshmen),
West Virginia - DeVries (7 transfers, 3 freshmen)
Sprinkle @ UW, Lutz @ Ok St, Enfield @ SMU, and May @ UM all got some solid players to return.
Don't forget the staff he assembed. That's his biggest accomplishment so far IMO. Ignore the goofy clowns still pining for Oats, etc. They can't get out of their own way.
Don't take this the wrong way.
You're giving a before and after opinion of yourself, and that's commendable.
But to imply your anything other than a+ makes other fans haters is putting them into your box.
Time will tell how this all will play out.
Have a good day.
BTW. I don't hate Pope.
Very happy he's here and I believe he will do well.
I never thought I’d see a school with 12 transfers in one year, let alone multiple schools with 10+.
The bar has been set pretty low by Cal the last few years. His loyal defenders will say otherwise.
And let’s stop the “ he’s never won a Ncaa tourney game” verbiage.
In reality he was coaching and recruiting at a place that placed restrictions on their program. He had a competitive program.
Keep in mind the same thing was said about Coach K when he went from Army to Duke. Don’t think he even made the tourney. He ended up ok.
In reality he was coaching and recruiting at a place that placed restrictions on their program. He had a competitive program.
Keep in mind the same thing was said about Coach K when he went from Army to Duke. Don’t think he even made the tourney. He ended up ok.
Putting a roster together is one thing but recruiting according to need to assemble a roster according to a style of play is something Cal NEVER did. That said, BBN hasn't seen a legitimate coach in Lexington for some time whose primary intent was to win games for the University and the fanbase. I'm excited to see an intelligent and honest coach prowling the sidelines again at Kentucky.
Last edited:
The ultimate barometer of Pope's first yr, for me at least, will be results on the court. He did a great job assembling what seems to be a very competitive team...but he needs to produce on the court.
I will reserve all judgement until I see what he is capable of from the bench. That's not to say he needs an Elite 8 or FF his first year, but with the roster he has assembled, he probably needs to at least get one tournament win, and in reality, assuming everyone is somewhat healthy going into March, a trip out of the first weekend.
I will reserve all judgement until I see what he is capable of from the bench. That's not to say he needs an Elite 8 or FF his first year, but with the roster he has assembled, he probably needs to at least get one tournament win, and in reality, assuming everyone is somewhat healthy going into March, a trip out of the first weekend.
He lost to 11 seed Duquesne in the tournament last year. I don’t understand the BYU didn’t have enough talent argument. Surely they had more talent than Duquesne!
It’s the most asinine thought process. It’s ok that Pope has never won a tourney game because he was at BYU. Being at BYU doesn’t exclude one from postseason success.
Pope has done very well putting together a staff and roster in a short amount of time. Hoping that translates to success for next season and beyond.
Like Pitino's teams, did BYU just have a game where they could not hit the three like they had a lot of the season? Relying on the three a lot, I remember with Pitino's teams occasionally they just had one of those days not shooting well. JAT
IGNORE feature selected. I should've done it sooner, bye now..
Yeah there is never an upset in the NCAA tourney. You have some seriously stupid takes dude.
What are you on about? It’s BYU. not kentucky, kansas, or duke. They were literally a mid major program up until last season. They’ve won 6 tourney games total in the modern era. SIX. TOTAL. in 40 YEARS lol.
Man some of y’all crack me up with these “got em” attempts that are actually failures of epic proportion.
Not really, just confused by how many posters talk about how amazing if a coach he is. 2 years ago in the WCC he finished 19-15, last year he lost to 11 seed Duquesne.
I’m just not sold on him until he actually proves he can win at a high level.
I don't understand how you can say one of the greatest jobs ever when Calipari moves to Arkansas and ESPN has them ranked 16th in the preseason and Kentucky is unranked. Can you please explain it to me? For the record I'm glad we moved on past Calipari I just don't understand how you can say Pope has done such a great job. I hope he does do a great job and succeeds I just believe it's a bit premature.
www.espn.com
2024-25 men's NCAA basketball rankings: Way-Too-Early Top 25
Can Kansas find the right combo? Can Flagg prove he's the best player in the country? Here are key questions for each top-25 team two months before the season.
www.espn.com
I am probably what some consider a Cal hugger because I didn't want him gone until mid point this year. Cal's special power was in getting the top 17 and 18 year olds to buy into forming a relationship with him. And the effectiveness of that waned as the use of the transfer portal grew, and other teams stacked up 24 year olds. Plus he was never a top x's and o's coach. But some on here think he is Satan incarnate and talk about how he gutted our program, I disagree. He was the guy who opened the door for any alumni and Joe B Hall to attend any practice. BCG is a bonafide A-hole and didn't do that. Cal celebrated NBA players returning, played up in Pikeville for tornado/flood relief. goes to church every sunday and truly seems to believe in doing charity work. When he finally realized the fan base was restless he saved us 33 million dollars and moved. So I think those who are saying he gutted our program are still over the top with their agenda driven world view, that goes against actual reality.
Oh and I am impressed so far with what Pope has done.
Oh and I am impressed so far with what Pope has done.
I don't understand how you can say one of the greatest jobs ever when Calipari moves to Arkansas and ESPN has them ranked 16th in the preseason and Kentucky is unranked. Can you please explain it to me? For the record I'm glad we moved on past Calipari I just don't understand how you can say Pope has done such a great job. I hope he does do a great job and succeeds I just believe it's a bit premature.
2024-25 men's NCAA basketball rankings: Way-Too-Early Top 25
Can Kansas find the right combo? Can Flagg prove he's the best player in the country? Here are key questions for each top-25 team two months before the season.
Okay and here is CBS ranking us 9 spots ahead of Arkansas.
You really still falling for Cal's preseason hype? He had arguably the most talented roster in America last season, 2 certified Top-5 picks and the best 3 point shooting team in America, and we lost to freaking Oakland in the first round.
So next season he will be vastly less talented but somehow produce a better team at a lesser program?
Thank you for showing me this but who is Isaac Trotter that you trust him so much? I hope he is right but I just think it's a bit early. We can come back and discuss it at the end of the season.
He is a columnist for CBS just like Jeff Borzello is a columnist for ESPN that wrote the article you posted. Just 2 guys who work for major outlets who have their opinions on Top-25.
I would take our roster all day long over the one that Cal has at Arkansas.
He has done a great job building a roster from scratch and putting together an outstanding staff, including an ace recruiter in Brooks. How is that beyond your comprehension? As far as fat cow Cal, he already had five stars lined up when he left UK. Pope didn’t have that luxury coming from BYU. Not that Cal’s roster will matter- Arkansas is overrated simply because Cal is a complete moron as a bench coach. A junior high coach would have known to start two lottery picks this year, but Cal didn’t want to hurt Edwards and Wagner’s itty bitty feelings.I don't understand how you can say one of the greatest jobs ever when Calipari moves to Arkansas and ESPN has them ranked 16th in the preseason and Kentucky is unranked. Can you please explain it to me? For the record I'm glad we moved on past Calipari I just don't understand how you can say Pope has done such a great job. I hope he does do a great job and succeeds I just believe it's a bit premature.
2024-25 men's NCAA basketball rankings: Way-Too-Early Top 25
Can Kansas find the right combo? Can Flagg prove he's the best player in the country? Here are key questions for each top-25 team two months before the season.
Because it happens. At this point however, it’s irrelevant to UK under Pope. It won’t have any relevance until and only until he’s unable to get out of the first weekend here. I don’t see why this is so damn hard for you to get. Many coaches who end up champions won few NCAA games at their previous stops. Some didn’t many until way down the road at their current programs. This board is notoriously bad at understanding college basketball and we’ve already seen this by so many failing to see how bad Calipari had become and especially by thinking he was actually going to stay at UK for that contract while the pressure was mounting. That’s a severe lack of understanding not just the sport but this program.
Your takes are just more proof that some of you are pretty clueless to this sport and the way it works.
Pope got a late start coaching and has made up a ton of ground extremely fast because he’s intelligent. I don’t read much into BYU success and won’t until it affects this program down the road.
If Pope wins the SEC this year is a success. The SEC is gonna be a gauntlet and UK hasn't owned the SEC in a solid 5 years.
So you’re saying prior success has no bearing on future success? We’ll have to agree to disagree on that one.
I’m not saying he can’t be successful here. I still think the hire was an unnecessary gamble though. I’ll certainly support him and the team, but I’m not gonna talk about how amazing of a coach he is until he actually produces results.
An we stop the abbreviated season nonsense?
It’s a farce and it’s strictly pedaled to give yourselves a reason to not panic if this is not a good season.
He was hired within a week of the season ending. He didn’t come in a month before tipoff. He had as much of an off season as any new coach. More to do? Sure. But stop with the bs excuses when I guarantee you mark pope isn’t using that nonsense as a way to settle for anything less than his best.
It’s a farce and it’s strictly pedaled to give yourselves a reason to not panic if this is not a good season.
He was hired within a week of the season ending. He didn’t come in a month before tipoff. He had as much of an off season as any new coach. More to do? Sure. But stop with the bs excuses when I guarantee you mark pope isn’t using that nonsense as a way to settle for anything less than his best.
I think he needs to win it routinely. I’m not interested in taking any steps back and quite frankly we shouldn’t have to. UNC and Duke routinely win the ACC and have even when a gauntlet. Kansas never loses their conference and theyre not on over Level as far as blues are concerned. The SEC is as tough as it’s ever been but we’ve seen the league tough and still won it.
Nobody should accept less than winning this conference. We’re Kentucky, if we’re not winning it then everyone must be replaced top to bottom until we do. And I hope Pope is that guy because if he’s not the next hire will have to be a guarantee and that usually comes with baggage. But it’s baggage we’ll have to take on regardless.
Having said that the SEC won’t hold all of these coaches in place. Depending on the landscape at the time, there’s no way Oats is at Bama past this contract. No great coach wants to be at a football school his entire career. He’s either at UK or Michigan State next. I think he wanted UK this time actually but some bad moves were bade and we weren’t buying him out. Pearl I also see no way sits at Auburn when a much better opening takes a shot at him. Muss has already left and Barnes is going to retire within 24 months. I honestly don’t see Calipari coaching past 3 more years either. It’s all in the moment. The constant has always been and will always be UK at the end of the day.
BYU is like trying to win at Vandy in football. If you can be competitive, you might be a heck of a coach. I will reserve my comments on coach Pope until I see the results too. I think there is a lot to be excited about tho. Not winning a tournament game there doesn’t bother me. Just being competitive in that conference with BYU talent says a lot.
Well said. There is no shame in admitting it. On the day Mark Pope was first said to be the likely head coach, I had several negative comments. I was shocked, to be honest. It felt like a failure to me at that time because it seemed Barnhart hadn't pursued more experienced and higher rated head coaches first. It took me a couple days to change my tune. I listened to Barnhart's interview with KSR. I felt better. And then the introductory press conference sealed it for me. I was convinced Pope's passion for UK and BBN was a key to having success.
As for building this roster, I'm truly amazed. These are the kinds of guys I wished Calipari had recruited, especially last season when the portal was so important and the teams that did the best had significant transfers on the roster. 18-19 year-olds (even very talented ones) playing against full grown men always left us on the short end. I love the mix we have here. Adding Jaxson Robinson to finish it was the icing on the cake. I really think the team would have succeeded either way, but Robinson gives you a guy who can get a bucket on his own if the offense can't produce a quality shot early in the clock. But I'm most excited to see if this team can produce some chemistry and camaraderie- score a lot and defend together. We shall see. It's an exciting time for UK. I'm all in.
As for building this roster, I'm truly amazed. These are the kinds of guys I wished Calipari had recruited, especially last season when the portal was so important and the teams that did the best had significant transfers on the roster. 18-19 year-olds (even very talented ones) playing against full grown men always left us on the short end. I love the mix we have here. Adding Jaxson Robinson to finish it was the icing on the cake. I really think the team would have succeeded either way, but Robinson gives you a guy who can get a bucket on his own if the offense can't produce a quality shot early in the clock. But I'm most excited to see if this team can produce some chemistry and camaraderie- score a lot and defend together. We shall see. It's an exciting time for UK. I'm all in.
Your posts on this topic have been just short of an unmitigated disaster as more and more positives have stacked up. As much as I have been critical of MB in the past, few (and I can guarantee NONE of us posting here) were privy to the back channel talks before Pope was hired.
Nobody is privy to what went on behind the scenes, and few in the media even got a partial picture of why the process played out the way it did. But that is the past. Pope has hit the ground running and has worked non-stop to put this team together. He has done a better job than could have been expected considering the circumstances.
I like the potential of this team and the way Pope will prepare them better than the almost certainty of a dumpster fire had Cal stayed.
It seems like you just want to push "Doom" disguised as "realism."
Your act gets old too. Why don't you just go root for Cal and drop the pretense of even being a UK fan at all?
Jmo but that's the danger on shooting so many. You have to be able to overcome the off night in the tournament. An off night is likely in 1 of the 6 games especially with the changing backdrops.